Well, it turns out that the world-infamous Muslim Community Center which has been proposed for Lower Manhattan is already active -- in fact, several queer Jews entered the site, discussed Torah with Muslims and Christians, and left with smiles on their faces!
I had the honor of representing CBST as a teacher at an interfaith text study organized by our partners at Religious Freedom USA . About thirty people--including lay leaders of the Muslim congregation that has prayed in the Park51 building for years--gathered in small groups studying texts from Torah and midrash, the Koran, and the ...
D'var Torah by Guy Izhak Austrian, Social Justice Rabbinical Intern, and Ari Lev Fornari, Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern
In the past few years, we have both taken the opportunity to spend some time in Hebron – a city located south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. It was a priority for us to personally witness the occupation, to talk with Palestinians and Jewish settlers who live there, and to support struggles for peace and justice.
Walking through the streets of Hebron today feels a bit like an archaeological dig. The Old City of Hebron has become a ghost town—virtually a ...
I am heartened to share with all of you a beautiful letter of thanks we received from the Cordoba Initiative in response to our community's poster size card wishing them an Eid Mubarak.
As you will recall, over Rosh Hashanah, hundreds of you signed this card and we were later able to get it to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. These folks are working ...
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” –Psalms 118:22
The most recent cover of Time magazine asks the question, “Is America Islamophobic?” I find it jarring that this is even a question. Islamophobia, particularly following 9/11 in our country, is alive and being actively overfed by hate-mongers to the point that a man recently stabbed a New York City cab driver after asking if he were Muslim, and shouted “‘Assalamu alaikum — consider this a checkpoint!’” This parody of state-sponsored violence is abominable. I wish I could rinse my hands of it and claim that Jewish ...
