Arts & Entertainment

Abraham's Children

The New Clergy

The Three Faiths

PBS looks at the real people behind the robes New York Public Library exhibit examines
— the next generation of religious leaders.
texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Eric Herschthal

miniature pastel paintings of Jesus and
his four canonical apostles are a revelation
unto themselves.
ne approaches "Three Faiths:
But if the bible of each faith, all of
Judaism, Christianity, Islam," a
which praise Abraham, is a common
new exhibit of religious texts at
touchstone, it also is a superficial one. The
the New York Public Library, with cau-
wall texts explain why.
tion. The animating idea might cause you
Moses, for instance, is described by all
to roll your eyes at its surface naivete:
faiths as the first recipient of God's laws.
At a time of heightened tensions among
But Christians and Muslims emphasize
Muslims, Jews and Christians, the cura-
Moses not for his legal significance,
tors suggest we should emphasize what
but as a prototype for either Jesus or
we all share in common.
Muhammad: He was a man unafraid to
Or should we?
rail against his own community's trans-
Whatever each religion shares,
gressions.
what makes Islam Islam, Christianity
The plot thickens with Jesus. To
Christianity and Judaism Judaism is
Christians, the exhibit says, he is a Jewish
what they don't. We'd go further in
preacher who fulfilled the messi-
creating accord if we spent less
anic prophecies laid down in the
time talking about facile
Hebrew Bible, thus reveal-
points of convergence
ing himself as the son
than trying in earnest
of God. The extent of
to understand what
those prophecies is told
makes us different.
in the Four Gospels, the
Which is not to say
backbone of the New
that "Three Faiths"
Testament. But Jews
necessarily falls into
reject Jesus' divinity and,
its own trap. In fact,
as the wall texts explain,
it goes a long way in
"most often [saw him]
avoiding the kind of
as a first-century C.E.
wishful thinking that
Galilean teacher-preach-
An Italian marriage contract,
so often dooms inter-
er" and "dissident inter-
or ketubah, 1782, that features
faith dialogue. Though
preter of Jewish law."
images of Abraham's Binding
the show is organized
Muslims had no
of Isaac
around four major
problem with Jesus,
themes common to each religion —
though, even giving him the name "Isa"
monotheism, divine revelations, Abraham
in their own religious texts. But Jesus
as a founder and holy scriptures — the
was only the penultimate prophet in a
wall texts and artifacts do a commend-
long line that ends with Muhammad.
able job limning what makes each faith
His God was also the one of Moses and
unique.
Jesus and was revealed to him in Mecca
Naturally, the show begins with bibles,
through the archangel Gabriel. What God
which are, after all, a fundamental point
said to Muhammad, for the most part,
of convergence as well as departure. All of makes up the Koran.
the 200 religious texts on view are taken
One of the show's most visually
from the library's own collection, which
impressive portions is its middle section,
is to religious books what the Louvre is to devoted to religious texts from all over
fine art.
the world. Titled "Spreading the Word," it
A magnificent Torah scroll from
shows how a religion that began in the
Germany, finished in 1294, is encased
Middle East — with Abraham's suspected
near a 14th-century Koran, its Arabic
birth in the city of Ur, in modern Iraq —
script in praise of Muhammad bedizened
spread across the globe.
with small golden discs. Not far is a gold-
The dominant aesthetic of this section
plated 18th-century New Testament,
is sepia-toned parchment and desiccated
taken from a Slavic church in Moscow. Its
ink, which has its own charms. But that

New York Jewish Week

0

Rabbinical student Shmuly Yanklowitz prepares for a public debate about kosher meat.

Michael Fox

Special to the Jewish News

D

anny Alpert spent his boyhood
in the northern Chicago suburb
of Highland Park immersed in
Conservative Jewish life. He attended
Hebrew day school, actively participated
in USY and frolicked at Camp Ramah.
"I was all enveloped;'
Alpert recalls on the
phone from his Chicago
office. "I was deep into it.
When I was a teenager, I
seriously considered rab-
binical school. It wasn't
my path. But I was left
Director
with the question: What
ifr ,
Daniel Alpert

Alpert went on to
become a documentary
filmmaker, a job whose perks include
being able to satisfy one's curiosity on just
about any topic (money permitting). So he
spent a large chunk of the last eight years
producing The Calling, an intimate four-
hour portrait of young spiritual leaders
that airs Dec. 20-21 on PBS.
Rather than surveying the role of
religion in American life, as one might
expect from a PBS special, Alpert focused
on the personal inspirations, aspirations
and struggles of seven people — Jews,
Catholics, Muslims and Protestants —
preparing for careers in the clergy.
As the executive producer and series
director, Alpert assembled the team of film-
makers, visited seminaries and yeshivot,
and determined which individuals to follow.

Rabbi Yerachmiel
Yerachmiel Shapiro leads Shabbat
services at his shut in Red Bank, N.J.

"The secret of observational documen-
tary filmmaking is trust and openness. We
asked for almost carte blanche to come in
and do what we do and a leap of faith —
no pun intended — from these people
Alpert says.
The two Jewish subjects are, unexpect-
edly, both from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah,
a Modern Orthodox rabbinical school in
Riverdale, N.Y. Although this simplified the
shooting process a bit, the filmmakers pri-
marily had their audience in mind.
"There are so many characters already,
and to explain the different denominations
and what the difference is between them
was going to take a lot of time and effort;'
Alpert notes. "So we made a decision to
keep denominations and schools to a mini-
mum to make it easier on the viewer."
The risk is that Conservative and
Reform Jews may feel slighted, even
though Yerachmiel Shapiro and Shmuly
Yanklowitz are profoundly likable and
committed individuals — and first-rate
emissaries for Judaism.
"My hope is that if they watch the
film and they are open to it, Jews of all

The New Clergy on page 40

The Three Faiths on page 40

iN

December 16 2010

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