Dear Parents,

I’m energized from presenting the model of interfaith education, Teaching Responsible Religion for an Interfaith World, that I developed while teaching your children! 🙂, to a welcoming audience at NAIN (North American Interfaith Network) hosted at The University of Toronto, August 11-14, 2013.  If I had any doubts about my devotion to developing a Jewish-Interfaith program, i.e., the Hebrew Play Group through ZinnHouse, they quickly evaporated among interfaith enthusiasts!

For years, those chose to recognize more than one tradition with their children confronted doubts from others on the grounds that it would confuse them.  “Better you should pick one religion and even better Judaism” was the refrain from the Jewish establishment. But others dared to wonder: Wouldn’t it be confusing to children of intermarriage if you didn’t share both parents’ religions? For Interfaith communities in Chicago, NY, and DC who teach two faiths, recent research on their now-grown children shows positive results in terms of religious identity.

My approach is different. Rather than teach two religions like the communities mentioned above, or one religion as most private religious schools do, I teach Judaism as a Home-base Religion with an Interfaith Orientation that allows learning from multiple wisdom traditions while enriching one’s home/own; it’s not comparative religion but conversational religion. The most philosophical discussions of my week are with these enthusiastic young people. Combined with a pedagogy that employs critical thinking skills and what I call Principles of Responsible Religion, I won’t be surprised if my students become tomorrow’s leaders.

What I learned at the conference was that my approach to interfaith education, and the exploding models of others like it, not only grounds youth in a spiritual practice but develops leadership skills for success in an increasingly multi-faith world. It was gratifying to realize that my passion/work over the last 20 years is part of a trend the full extent of which I am still discovering.  So I feel blessed by the opportunity to teach students through a Jewish-Interfaith lens, validated in my Responsible Religion approach, emboldened to share it in a forthcoming book, and honored by a request to train teachers of another religion in adapting it for their curriculum.

After all, what do we really want for the future? 

Silos of religiously over-identified communities suspicious and ignorant of each other?  Or, interfaith communities where members are enriched and strengthened in faith by learning from and cooperating with each other?  Perhaps we are finally realizing that it is not by building a tower to God (resulting in Babel/confusion) but by building bridges to each other (resulting in harmony) that will benefit of us all.

Thanks to Andrew Skinner who shared this photo!

Explore my Resources for programs and ideas for an evolutionary religious education.