24 | MARCH 12 • 2020 

Jews in the D
continued from page 22

years ago into Palestinian Islam 
and Christianity. 

WHAT LESSONS HAVE YOU 
LEARNED BY BRANCHING OUT 
INTO DIFFERENT FAITHS? The 
first lesson I learned is that we 
have an opportunity in this 
generation to take interfaith 
encounters to a deeper level. 
Much of interfaith remains on 
a superficial level — let’
s all be 
nice to each other, let’
s not hate 
each other, let’
s not kill each 
other — and that, of course, is 
far preferable to the alternative, 
but it’
s still not going deeper. 
What I am proposing in 
my work is a model for how 
Muslims and Jews can take a 
much riskier encounter, with 
the potential payoff of a much 
richer relationship. And so, I 
base my approach on several 
points. One is the need to face 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 
forthrightly and to prepare 
ourselves for a respectful dis-
agreement over irreconcilable 
differences, but where we at 
least begin the process of lis-
tening to each other’
s concerns, 
narratives, hopes and fears.
The second approach is to 
experience something of the 
other’
s relationship with God 
and of the other’
s experience 
with prayer. On the journey 
that I took into Palestinian 
Islam and Christianity, I joined 
the Muslim prayer line. I went 
into mosques; I went into 
monasteries and I participated 
actively in the prayer life of the 
communities that had invited 
me in. While shared social 
action or sharing holiday meals 
together is an important way to 
experience interfaith relations, 
I’
m trying to push our commu-
nities to go a little deeper.

WHY DO YOU THINK IT IS SO 
IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND 
AND DIVE INTO EACH OTHER’
S 
FAITHS? We’
re living at a time 

where we can no longer barri-
cade ourselves in our separate 
religious traditions for a very 
simple reason. The emergence 
of secularism has turned all 
religious people, regardless of 
what religion we belong to, 
essentially into one cap, the cap 
of religion. 
Now, there’
s a certain irony 
or complexity here for me as a 
Jew, because on the one hand, 
as a member of the Jewish peo-
ple, I have something in com-
mon with fellow Jews whether 
or not they believe in God. A 
Jewish atheist is as much my 
brother or sister as a Jewish 
believer, even though I’
m a 
religious Jew. And yet because 
I’
m religious, I also function 
in a kind of parallel identity, 
which connects me to believers 
of all other faiths. And that’
s 
something that didn’
t exist in 
the pre-secular era. 

WHAT ARE THE TOPICS THAT 
YOU WILL BE DISCUSSING AT 
YOUR LECTURE? I am going 
to be speaking about my jour-
neys into other faiths — into 
Islam, into Christianity, into 
the Palestinian narrative and 
my experiences with American 
Muslims. All these different 
facets of my outreach work 
over the last 20 years will be 
discussed with the audience.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE’
S 
TAKEAWAYS WILL BE FROM 
YOUR LECTURE? Do not be 
afraid of the deeper interfaith 
encounter. That means taking 
risks, making oneself vulner-
able and listening to opinions 
that may be difficult or hurt-
ful on all sides. This may be 
hard for some people, but the 
reward is worth it. 

This free event is presented by the 

JCRC/AJC, Temple Beth-El, Interfaith 

Leadership Council, Jewish Federation 

of Metropolitan Detroit and the ADL.

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