Japanese Film Asks Important Questions

After Life, a 1998  film by  Japanese director Koreeda, is set in a large, shabby building,  perhaps a social services institution,  where the souls of people who died that week are processed before moving on to the hereafter. A group of the newly dead of various ages checks in each Monday.  The employees of the [...]

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18th Century German Drama Performed for a 21st Century Audience

My friend Renate recalls having to study “Nathan der Weise,” in her  high school in Germany. Gotthold Lessing’s drama, set in 12th century Jerusalem, was considered part of the canon, what every well educated German in the late 20th century would know of their literary tradition. When she heard that the People’s Light and Theater [...]

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Good News from the Battlefield

Are you as tired as I am of the  war of words  between the “crusading atheists” and the “defenders of the faith” or, at least, of the idea of faith? At first, I found it engaging to read Richard Dawkins,  Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and their ilk, but I  soon grew tired of their arrogance. [...]

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Last Two Weekends to see “The Domestic Crusaders” in New York City

On September 13, the Sunday of opening weekend, I had the privilege of seeing “The Domestic Crusaders,”  a play by a 28 year old Muslim playwright, Wajahat Ali, at the Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe in Manhattan. Newsweek just published a wonderful review of the play. If you cannot get to New York to see the play [...]

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So Many Stories, So Many Versions….

During the week this summer in which both Elul and Ramadan began, as the moon grew thinner and the temperature in the Hudson Valley grew warmer, 18 invited emerging leaders — Jewish and Muslim — gathered at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, New York, convened by the Multifaith Studies Department of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College [...]

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New books explore multifaith America

Three new books recently crossed my desk that cover much the same topic,  the emerging interfaith reality in America in our century. All three of the authors take a fundamentally positive view of the developments they are exploring, although important questions need to be asked. All three books are helpful, but  the best, in my [...]

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Arabic Graffitti near the Damascus Gate

By Amy Loewenthal, RRC student and Multifaith Studies Intern in Israel 13 July 2009 Walking with a friend from the Damascus Gate to the Western Wall, I stopped to photograph sights in the Muslim Quarter, including archways and a beautiful display of pastries. I photographed some graffiti on a wall because its colors and nice [...]

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LEARNING ABOUT “BLOGISTAN”

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the 46th Annual Convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Washington, D.C.’s Convention Center. This is a huge community gathering, part conference/part celebration that attracts tens of thousands of Muslim Americans from illustrious scholars of Islam to national and local communal leaders, from singles [...]

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RRC MultiFaith Tour Succeeds after Pope Reschedules

By Amy Loewenthal, RRC Student and Slifka Intern additional photos by Karen Greene 20 May, 2009 It seemed that the Pope wanted to go exactly where I had planned to take a group of Reconstructionist rabbinical students and rabbis on a multifaith tour on the Israel side the Green Line. Since the streets were blocked [...]

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RRC Student Joins Tent of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah

RRC Student Leslie Hilgeman spent last weekend attending a retreat organized by the “Tent of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah.” Here is her report…. Transforming Interfaith Activism By Leslie Hilgeman Each year we are still at war in the Middle East, Memorial Day feels less and less like a holiday I want to celebrate at the [...]

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