After googling him and reading some of his other articles, I decided to go ahead with the interview. I had seldom met anyone from Iraq but wanted to do whatever possible to improve inter-religious relations. The resulting article, “Jews and Muslims lived in peace with each other,” surprised me as much as I think it did the author himself. For me what was surprising was that my comments had been at all unique. As an American, I had many Muslim friends, and having fun with them had long eclipsed simply trying to “live in peace.” But to the journalist who interviewed me, the idea that a future rabbi would ever cite a historical period in which Muslims and Jews coexisted -- much less hope for positive interactions in the future -- was astounding.
In spite of our different frames of reference, living in the Middle East gave us both a sense of immediacy in our interaction. The reporter wanted someone to affirm the potential for positive relations between Jews and Muslims, and I wanted to affirm it. Across several countries still technically at war, we found a common space to communicate online. Now Facebook friends, we periodically continue to dialogue -- even as we adhere to different religions and hold entirely different worldviews.
I am just one person who was fortunate enough to have positive inter-religious exchanges online. Though perhaps not “transformed” by it, I certainly was enriched and affirmed. I am not alone in this experience online. But the question remains how to create a sustainable, accessible space and format for these online interactions. Many organizations are working to formulate an answer. The future of inter-religious engagement will in large part take form in the answers that succeed.
Joshua Stanton is a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue and a Schusterman Rabbinical Fellow at Hebrew Union College. He is also a founding co-Director of Lessons of a Lifetime™, a nursing home-based project designed to improve intergenerational relations. A graduate of Amherst College, he is the recipient of numerous leadership awards. He is also a blogger for the Huffington Post and an emerging writer, whose articles have been published in five languages. In addition to his other work and study, Stanton serves on the Board of Directors of World Faith, as well as the Education as Transformation project.
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