Remarks for
Interfaith Forum
Rabbi Douglas Kahn, Executive Director
Jewish Community
Relations Council,
San Francisco, USF
1.Judaism has a very clear perspective on peace among the world's religions
i.e. interfaith relations. Because the highest moral value on which our
tradition is based is the belief that all human beings are created in the image
of God and therefore of equal value and because that idea is given concrete
shape by the rabbinic authorities declaring that any individual who abides by
the 7 basic Noachide laws is entitled to a share in the world-to-come, there is
a strong basis in Judaism for treating followers of other traditions with full
respect. Yet, the agonies of Jewish history which led to persecution and
slaughter because of our faith has led to a deep distrust of other religions
that only began to fade in the last several decades.
January 24, 2002
Yossi Klein Halevi's new book, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A
Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land, was
written by a man who grew up, as the child of a Holocaust survivor, with such a
deep distrust of other religions. Yet, having moved to Israel many years ago
and being increasingly struck by what it means to live on the edge of Jerusalem
where daily he peers out at the minarets soaring from mosques in nearby
villages, he embarked on a journey that he never expected to find the common
language between different religions.
In his introduction he eloquently explains his personal goal as he set out
on a two-year pilgrimage to share intimate religious experiences with Christian
and Muslim neighbors in Israel, the holy land. ⌠My intention wasn't to blur the
differences between the faiths,■ he writes, ⌠but to discover points of
commonality. Nor was I seeking complex theological exchanges, which in any case
were beyond my expertise as a journalist. Instead, I wanted to test whether
faith could be a means of healing rather than intensifying the conflicts in this
land. My hope was to pray and meditate with my Christian and Muslim fellow
believers. That approach was a conscious refutation of the way we religious
people of different faiths have always judged each other by what we believe
about God, rather than how we experience God's presence. Theology distinguishes
between truth and untruth; prayer knows only different measures of depth.■
Conventional wisdom has always held that as long as the Middle East
conflict remained a political conflict rather than religious it was solvable.
Klein Halevi proceeded on this journey because he became convinced that only
true religious encounter could ensure that any political peace would endure.
One succinct phrase that I just read, ⌠to test whether faith could be a
means of healing rather than intensifying conflicts■ is the essence of what
United Religions Initiative was established to do through grass-roots
interfaith efforts in every region of the world. It is making real progress
but we all know how formidable the barriers to breaking down religious walls
are. Now, the Pope's proclamation declaring today as a day of positive
interfaith engagement for the sake of peace gives magnificent impetus to the
goals for which URI was established.
In the past year, our sense of the urgency about the imperatives of
interfaith engagement have been dramatically upgraded by world events that
provide all too powerful a reminder of how destructive a force religious
fanaticism can be. Because of that sense of urgency, I want to talk not in
theological terms or generalities but in specifics about what needs to happen to
change the way in which people of faith view the other. I want to focus on
what I believe are 3 essential steps.
#1) The creation of safe space. The most beautiful scenes to
witness at the URI International Summits are the interactions that would never
take place were it not for the creation of safe space. An Israeli Jew and an
Egyptian Muslim who committed to continuing their discussions long after the
conference ended acknowledging that they would never have spoken were it not
for the creation of safe space. Similarly with religious leaders from India
and Pakistan when Kashmir was previously a volcano waiting to erupt. On day 1
of the last summit, I spent an hour in my personal interview time with a nun
from Pakistan working with the poorest of the poor. Having never spoken with a
Jew, the very first words out of her mouth were, ⌠Is it true all Jews are rich
and powerful?■ One hour later, we knew something real and true about each
others' faiths. Just over a year ago, in December 2000, three months after
the second Palestinian uprising began, I attended an interfaith conference in
Haifa, Israel with Jews, Muslims and Christians all finding a language to
relate to one another that both acknowledged the complexity of the political
issues while maintaining that each tradition was mandated to engage in
religious dialogue. The Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan spent Shabbat engaged in a
friendly dialogue with the Imam of the Ahmadiya Mosque in Haifa, as I watched
convinced that he was more comfortable relating to a religiously devout Muslim
than he would be relating to me as a Reform rabbi. Safe space had been created
at a moment in time. There is not enough safe space for honest religious
interaction and it must become a top priority, particularly between faiths
whose adherents are in tension with each other.
#2) Mutual interfaith education as an automatic response to heightened
tension. We need to create a mechanism whereby the automatic response to
heightened tension between Jews and Muslims; between Hindus and Muslims;
between Catholics and Protestants is to mobilize the churches, synagogues and
mosques to engage in massive education programs to learn about the other those
viewed as antagonists. Today, I believe that every synagogue should be
providing courses about Islam taught by knowledgeable Muslim teachers, and every
mosque courses about Judaism taught by knowledgeable Jewish teachers. There
is abysmal ignorance about what other religious adherents really believe.
Ignorance, let alone gross distortions about the other, can no longer be left
unchallenged. The response to terror must be teaching.
When I was in 9th
grade, every month we were liberated from religious school to visit another
religious institution a Catholic church, a Buddhist Temple, etc. Such
education has been de-emphasized for various reasons - and we must reverse that
trend! Whatever fears exist about exposing children, or adults, to other
religions and thereby diminishing the time devoted to study of their own is, in
my opinion, wholly unwarranted. Any time I have ever spent talking with members
of other faiths about their beliefs and practices, their questions about my own
have made me a much more knowledgeable Jew.
#3) A clarion call to eliminate the teaching of intolerance and hate in
religious institutions anywhere in the world. New York Times correspondent
Tom Friedman has, since September 11th,
written frequently and passionately about one of the root causes of
terror, the hatred absolute hatred that is taught in certain religious schools
in various parts of the world with the intent to indoctrinate young minds with a
fanatical commitment to destroy lives of those who would dare to be different.
While he has focused on extremist schools in particular countries, there must be
an international effort to eliminate school-based hatred no less great than the
effort currently being waged on the battlefield. Today's soldiers were, only a
fleeting moment ago, studying in school.
This is not a question of imposing our standards on another culture; it is
a matter of changing the mindset with regard to what the broader society's duty
is to ensure that religious instruction in the schools stops well short of
breeding hatred with the goal of destroying the other. We must call on every
religious tradition and every nation - to look deeply and honestly into the
question of where extremism is being taught and demand that it cease.
This must, of course, include, an internal look into each of our own
faiths as well as a determination to loudly and consistently demand of others
that they cease the teaching of hatred.
We simply must not stand idly by.
In an ancient Midrash, a rabbi asks his students how they can tell when the
night has ended and the day has begun: ⌠Could it be,■ one asked, ⌠when you see
an animal in the distance and can tell whether it's a sheep or a dog?■ No,
answered the rabbi. Another asked, ⌠Is it when you can look at a tree in the
distance ad tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?■ ⌠No again,■
replied the rabbi. ⌠Then what is it?■ the pupils demanded. The sage answer,
⌠it is when you can look at the face of any man or woman or child and see that
it is your sister or brother. Because if you cannot see this, it is still
night.■ May the whole world be blessed with the arrival of a new day dawning.