Category: Community
If You’re Sad About Charleston, Do Something
Recently someone asked me: “What would your community look like if it loved black people?” A few answers came to me, but the first and last answer was, “I don’t know and I want... Read More
Inclusion in the Orthodox Jewish Community
This article is adapted from the thesis I wrote for my Master’s in Religious Studies from NYU, dealing with how to more fully include gay and lesbian Orthodox Jewish people into Orthodox congreg... Read More
Romantic Distance vs. Vexing Proximity: the difficulty of real up-close interfaith encounters
My research on interreligious dialogue and engagement has reinforced an old cliché: absence makes the heart grow fonder. When two people are distant from each other, it is easy to idealize each other... Read More
Charleston: #BlackLivesMatter This Ramadan
I logged onto Facebook Tuesday night, about to post a “Ramadan Mubarak!” wish for all my Muslim friends. And then, scrolling down my news feed, I saw it—the news that a white man had entered a b... Read More
The First Step is the Hardest: A Review of “But I Don’t See You as Asian: Curating Conversations About Race”
The days after the recent grand jury verdict in Ferguson, Missouri, many preachers were faced with a choice: do I talk about Ferguson or not? For many clergy that choice was complicated by a lingering... Read More
On Irreconcilable Differences: My Interreligious Dialogue with Mormon Missionaries
Since I’m conducting field research on interfaith dialogue in Rome, I thought it would be an important part of my participant-observation to embark upon a dialogue. I met some Mormon sisters conduct... Read More
Pluralismo Vivo: The Interfaith Roads of Rome
It’s not easy to find clear examples of “interreligious violence” in Rome. The closest thing Rome suffers to religious violence are distant shrieks from ISIS across the Mediterranean Sea... Read More
Where No One Is Getting Scooped: Media Neglect of Grassroots Organizations in the Coverage of International Events
I have a challenge for you. Name all of the relief, humanitarian, or justice-oriented NGOs that you can. Could you name a few? Good! How many of you thought of OXFAM, UNICEF, Red Cross, United Way, Am... Read More