Promoting Interreligious Dialogue with Jews

See: in Buber's Between Man and Man – Beacon Press, Boston, 1955, pp. 19-20 and cited in an essay by Adam Seligman, 'Toward a Phenomenology of Religious Experience' – which is chapter four in Professor Seligman's Modest Claims: Dialogues and Essays on Tolerance and Tradition – University of Notre Dame Press, 2004

On Martin Buber see:

http://buber.de/en
&
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buber

For an essay by Martin Bertman that appeared in the journal Judaism (Winter 2000) on Buber's 'Mysticism Without Loss of Identity' – which could be titled 'Dialogue Without Loss of Identity' – http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0411/is_1_49/ai_61887410/?tag=content;col1

And see Buber's Two Types of Faith: A Study of the Interpenetration of Judaism & Christianity (Syracuse University Press, 2003.)

You might try closing dialogue with this work by the American Jewish artist Ben Shahn:

Try sharing ~ entering into dialogue, engaging the question of dialogue ~ with others in these ways:

You might want to read the passage about the bishop and the revolutionary. It's the tenth chapter of what's called Book One, running the length of just over ten pages – in the Penguin Classics edition – pages 49 to the top of 59 ~ so that you'll want to yourself abridge it somewhat. Choose key passages and then make copies for everyone. You might want to look at the shortened chapter in small groups. And you might want to do so reading aloud – which is how all pre-modern reading was engaged – universally, across cultures; even when a person was reading alone. Let people in the small groups know that they should read a part of the tale and then look up from the text and talk about the part they just read - or they should stop if someone in the group finds something in the text that was evocative in some way for him or her. After some discussion of that part, the group proceeds ~ returns to reading the text and then again stops to look up and share thoughts that that passage has brought up for one or more of the group's participants. After a while the small groups can come together again as one and people can share some of what they 'came up with' in their small groups.

And as part of your sharing this passage from Les Miserables ~ invite  and join your colleagues in sharing some of what participants in this dialogue and in past dialogues have experienced.

 

Here's yet another passage, another text, you might want to share with others in a similar way as we just considered Dialogue should strive for a really honest addressing of issues that really matter to the participants, concerning which so much is at stake in really trying to understand one another.

Even if in the end it will not be the view adopted by all or even one day by any ~ to give it its say perhaps reflects a willingness to truly try & understand the other; which in & of itself can make a difference.

From Merold Westphal, 'Thinking about God and God-Talk with Levinas' in The Exorbitant: Emmanuel Levinas Between Jews & Christians  ~ edited by Kevin Hart & Michael Signer (Fordham University Press, New York, 2010), pp. 217-220.

And here's yet one more idea for a text – this time another story – your dialogue group might want to talk about together ~

It's all of four & a half pages – so a great short story to read aloud – again You might want to initially to do so in small groups ~ Then to come together again as one group & hear from each of the small groups "how they found" the story ~ what ideas the story evoked in the participants of your dialogue group.

The story is "Mr. Andrews" by E.M. Forster ~ from his The Eternal Moment and Other Stories (My edition is published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, copyright 1928.) It's about two souls rising up toward heaven – a Christian and a Moslem ~ and how as they converse in their ascent they are at first full of compassion for the other; since each is certain that his newfound fellow will not be admitted when they reach heaven's gates – each being an infidel to the other. A passage from the story's opening:

The two souls floated upward, hand in hand. Mr. Andrews did not speak again, for he was filled with horror at the approaching tragedy. This man, so godless, so lawless, so cruel, so lustful, believed that a he would be admitted into Heaven. And into what a heaven – a place full of the crude pleasures  of a ruffian's life on earth! But Mr. Andrews felt neither disgust nor moral indignation. He was only conscious of an immense pity, and his own virtues confronted him not at all. He longed to save the man whose hand he held more tightly, who, he thought, was now holding tightly onto him. And when he reached the Gate of Heaven, instead of saying, 'Can I enter? as he had intended, he cried out 'Cannot he enter?'

And at the same moment the Turk uttered the same cry. For the same spirit was working in each of them.

The entire story is accessible online athttp://www.amazon.com. Either use this link to the book:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Eternal-Moment-Other-Stories-Harvest/dp/0156291258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268030486&sr=1-1

or access amazon's website and then enter the category 'books' for Search. Once that 'page' is before you, place your mouse's cursor on the picture of the book where it says Look Inside, though without clicking on it. A small window opens. Click on Front Cover. Now on the left hand side there's a menu, on the bottom of which there's a box for Search Inside This Book. Enter the word 'andrews.' Seven 'results' of the search will appear. Skip the first one – which is the name of the story among the book's Table of Contents. The next five results are the pages to 'our' story. (The last of the seven results is mention of this story on the back cover of the book.) Clicking on the arrow on the left of each page or on the box above the arrow that says Next Result brings up the next page till the story's end on page 61. 

Dr. Christopher Leighton's marvelous 'Presentation Before the Performance of Bach's Passion of St. John' ~ which includes the story of the spiritual giant of Lithuanian Jewry and its academies of advanced Talmudic learning, Rabbi Chayim of Volozhin (1749-1821) ~ of how

'when he died there was great excitement in heaven. The host of angels came out to greet him and told him there would be no need of a trial. He would be admitted to heaven immediately, so rich was he in good deeds. But Rabbi Hayim brushed aside the invitation and insisted that there had to be a trial for him, just as there is for everyone else. He cited the passage in the Talmud which says that all must be treated equally by the law. At the trial, he was told that, of course, he should be admitted and given a seat of honor in heaven for having established this mighty academy. But Rabbi Hayim argued, on the basis of a passage in the Talmud that deals with the laws of partnership, that if he were entitled to a reward, then surely the students of the Yeshiva were as well, for he could not have accomplished what he did without them. The court confirmed that he was right, that the students were also entitled to a share of his glory. But Reb Hayim then argued that he would not enter heaven unless and until all the people of Volozhin were admitted too, for they had taken the students in and supported them so that they could study. Without them, he said, the Yeshiva could not have succeeded. Therefore, they, too, deserved a share of the reward. The Heavenly Court conferred, checked all the references that the Rabbi cited on the laws of partnership and came to the conclusion that he was right: the people of Volozhin were entitled to a share of the glory. Then Reb Hayim argued that all Jews should be admitted with him, since all Jewish householders everywhere contribute in some way to the maintenance of the Torah. But even this did not satisfy him. He argued further that gentiles too have provided a home for Jews, and therefore they too have a share in the Torah. This time he was told that he had asked for too much, that there simply was not enough room in heaven for all, and that what he was asking was not possible until the Messiah comes. "In that case," said Rabbi Hayim, "I will stay outside with them and wait." And until this day his great soul waits patiently at the portals of heaven, studying the law with intensity and praying for the ultimate redemption of all humanity.'

Here is Dr. Leighton's complete talk:
http://www.doubleclicked.net/ICJS/bachpass.html

Here are some additional sources addressing key issues that challenge the possibilities & impossibilities of Christian-Jewish dialogue:

To see pages 197-205 of David Hillel Gelernter's new book on Judaism: A Way of Being (Yale University Press, 2009) ~ two appendices – Appendix B on 'What Makes Judaism the Most Important Intellectual Development in Western History?' !? and Appendix C on 'Jewish and Christian Ethics'

~ once again 'go to' amazon's website and proceed as we set out here immediately above except that this time, of course, enter 'gelernter' and the book will appear first in the list. Click on that and then again place your mouse's cursor on the book and then click on Front Cover. In the box for Search Inside This Book enter 'christian.' This will bring up most of 'our' pages. For the skipped page 200 again 'go' to Search Inside this Book ~ this time entering the word 'sukkah.' Page 200 will appear. To see page 202 enter the word 'authenticity.' As for page 205, just click at the bottom of the search results for 'christian' – just click on Show 4 more results.