Say this about Rabbi Eric Yoffie: He goes where others have not. In 2006, he went to that bastion of Christian fundamentalism, the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, and reminded the students of the religious values he shares with them, and the ones (reproductive rights, gay rights) that he does not. Then, in 2007, he…
Abraham and Isaac — or, as some would have it, Ibrahim and Ishmael — took center stage when a panel including Muslim imams and some of America’s most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis discussed their respective legal systems and foundational texts, and their implications for Jewish-Muslim relations today. The October 30 seminar “Ancient Texting” brought together…
The Vatican’s new chief liaison to world Jewry met mixed reviews during his debut visit to the United States, thanks in part to statements on the pending canonization of Catholicism’s World War II-era pope. In what turned out to be a bumpy start, Cardinal Kurt Koch angered some Jewish and Christian leaders when he told…
When American Muslim religious leaders looked for Christian and Jewish counterparts to stand with them against Islamophobia at a high-profile gathering tied to the 10th anniversary of 9/11, several major Jewish spiritual leaders readily answered their call. “Ten years after 9/11 it has somehow become respectable to verbally attack Muslims and Islam in America,” said…
As the first woman to be ordained a Conservative rabbi, Amy Eilberg occupies a major place in the annals of Jewish women’s history. She has recently been squeezing her self into a very small space in the hopes of making another kind of history. Since September 11, she and seven other interfaith clergy have been…
Just before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I noticed that a new blog called “SheAnswersAbraham” went live on the Web. The timing was not coincidental, as it is a deliberate effort by a group of three women – a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim – to put an interfaith conversation about sacred texts out…
In June, after a year of internal discussion, Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, a Conservative synagogue just outside Philadelphia, made a tiny amendment to its constitution: It redefined household membership to apply to families with one Jewish parent as well as those with two. Though the amendment impacted a small number of intermarried congregants —some 10…
Deep in America’s heartland, a Reform synagogue, a nondenominational mosque and an Episcopalian church are all putting down roots on a 37-acre tract of land that once belonged to a Jewish country club. A body of water called Hell Creek runs through the development, over which the faith groups plan to build “Heaven’s Bridge.” Fantastical…
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