Rabbi Jeremy Winaker, Hillel
The future of interfaith relations is already here. What I mean is that a distinct shift has taken place from the kind of work where faith leaders would join together to demonstrate common ground. Faith leaders do still join together but now with different purposes: to show support when external forces compel them or to be in multifaith relationships.
Many people are actively engaged in interfaith work. They are building relationships that serve as the grassroots foundation for bridges between communities. These relationships make possible those moments of public display of togetherness: political inaugurations with their opening and closing benedictions, responses to crises or loss by one community where others offer support, and attendance at each other’s ritual observances when invited. Such displays are symbolic reminders in our age of extremism that we share something.
That something, though, is less about shared faith or values and more about commitment to religious traditions. With multiple faith representatives sharing their commitment to their traditions, interfaith relations have become multifaith gatherings. In these multifaith gatherings, the sharing is about witnessing, not joining. The interaction stops at the boundaries of my faith and their faith. If we take turns demonstrating or discussing our ideas and practices, are we sharing or trading?
Interfaith relations have also shifted around antisemitism. Faith partners who are Zionist are showing up. Other faith partners have withdrawn. Showing up is not necessarily about us. Withdrawal is not necessarily disappearance. Interfaith relations in the future will depend on where we go from here. Do we stand tall regardless of who joins us? Can we take our turn in multifaith efforts to demonstrate our value and our openness to others?
We can embrace this moment in so many different ways. We can accept open arms and share in what others want to share, and I think we will. We can work quietly with those who have questions that cannot be asked on social media, and I think we will. We can also answer in affirmation: we are a people with faith in our values and in our value. We can invite others to come and learn and to have our respect even as welcomed strangers. If we do this work well, we will have more than interfaith or multifaith relations; we will have community.
Rabbi Peter H. Grumbacher
As one who spent a great deal of time working on interfaith activities, I can say that in those days—with the presence and, may I add, strength, of the Delaware Region, National Conference of Christians and Jews—the projects with which we cooperated were numerous and often very successful. In particular, along with Wilmington Mayor Bill McCloughlin, who spearheaded the process, the desegregation of the schools in New Castle County occurred with barely a glitch. The clergy of the county—all denominations, if I recall correctly—participated not only in the planning but also the implementation. We were at the various schools, especially the high schools, on the first day as well as subsequent days.
But the NCCJ collapsed and along with its demise most of the means of communication between us dwindled and disappeared. What that is like today perhaps with other faith communities and their organizations, I do not know. What I do know is that while the Jewish community for the past 50 plus years has supported the efforts of people of every race, religion, and you fill out the rest, the Jewish community itself has not always been supported.
A few weeks after the 1967 Six-Day War between seven Arab nations and Israel, Rabbi Balfour Brickner, a pillar of interreligious efforts in the Reform movement, gave an address to our convention. To say he was critical of the silence of the major Christian faith communities in Israel’s “hour of greatest need,” is an understatement. It seems to me that while there was sympathy after the October 7 attack against innocent Israelis by Hamas, that was a short-lived connection. So many religious bodies were overly critical of Israel’s response. Don’t they realize that the Arab nations can lose and lose and lose, but Israel can lose only once before it disappears? Sure, the loss of lives in Gaza was over the top, as it were, but without eradicating the devil, the devil will strike over and over.
We will still support those causes that promote justice and peace, here and elsewhere, but I think we must seriously evaluate if our efforts are, and will continue to be, a one-way street with little concern over our existential angst, and if so, should we divorce ourselves from serious interfaith dialogue and work.
