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 HUC-JIR/NY Rabbinical Students Meet with Islamic Cultural Center Students for Two-Day Program  Jewish and Muslim Students Meet at HUC-JIR/NY  The Group of Interfaith Students and Faculty HUC-JIR/NY rabbinical students met with students from the Islamic Cultural Center in New York to participate in "Putting the Theology of Peace into Practice," a program of dialogue, religious community, and interfaith learning between Muslims and Jews. The students' two days together included text study from both traditions, sharing of prayer and worship opportunities, and open dialogue about the opportunities and challenges inherent in the relationship between Judaism and Islam. Participants also spoke with peacemakers from Israel and Syria – individuals who work across religious boundaries to make peace between parties that usually do not communicate. They spent one day at the campus of HUC-JIR/NY and one day at the 96th Street Mosque, also in New York City. The program was sponsored by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding and participants included Joyce Dubensky, Executive Director of the Tanenbaum Center, Imam Shamsi Ali, and Rabbi Aaron Panken, Ph.D., Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at HUC-JIR. HUC-JIR Board of Governors member Bob Heller and his wife Amy sponsored dinner for the participants, and shared with them in an evening of discussion. Program participants plan to gather together for future conversation and hope to build their commitment to peacemaking across religious borders. Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the nation's oldest institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional leadership development center of Reform Judaism. HUC-JIR educates men and women for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, educators, and communal service professionals, and offers graduate and post-graduate programs to scholars of all faiths. With centers of learning in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, HUC-JIR's scholarly resources comprise renowned library and museum collections, the American Jewish Archives, biblical archaeology excavations, research institutes and centers, and academic publications. HUC-JIR invites the community to an array of cultural and educational programs which illuminate Jewish history, identity, and contemporary creativity and which foster interfaith and multiethnic understanding. Visit us at www.huc.edu |
