Elijah Interfaith Summer School 2020 - Open Day

Elijah Interfaith Summer School 2020

From: Elijah Interfaith Institute
Dr. Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Director
Peta Jones Pellach, Director of Educational Activities

The Elijah Interfaith Summer School and Interreligious Leadership Seminar, 2020, is drawing to a close. It's been such a wonderful experience that we are eager to share more of it with our broader community. We have therefore decided to make the penultimate day open to our community.

We have heard from scholars and religious leaders from around the globe, including Karma Lekshe Tsomo (USA), Shrivatsa Goswami(India), Rachel Pear (Israel), Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (UK) and Marcia Hermansen (US), on the theme of "Religion in Times of Crisis."

With their help we have explored diverse aspects of how religion functions and how it functions in times of crisis. Now we move to the final step in our process. Those who are charged for speaking and working for religions at times of crisis are religious leaders. This is why the final subject in our curriculum is

"The challenges of religious leadership before, during and after Covid 19"

Beginning at 12.08.12, 9:30 am EDT, you are invited to join us for a series of duo-dialogues with six religious leaders on this theme.
New York time 9:30 am
London time 14:30
Paris time 15:30
Israel time 16:30
India time 19:30

Schedule for the day (EDT):
9:30 am - Swami Rameshwarananda and Muhammad Suheyl Umar
11:00 am - Geshe Tashi Tsering and Patriarch Mashalian
13:00 pm - Rabbi Yuval Cherlow and David Rutstein

Swami Rameshwarananda Giri Maharaj, Spain
Swami Rameshwarananda is the Founder and President of Fundación Phi, dedicated to favouring and strengthening the development of human potential and to harmonizing body, mind, spirit and environment. He is also the founder of the University of Consciousness Project, an area of study and learning where worldwide sages and leaders can meet each other.

Muhammad Suheyl Umar, Pakistan
Muhammad Suheyl Umar is the director of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan, where he has worked since 1984. Umar specializes in Sufism and the intellectual history of the Indian subcontinent. He has also worked as academic director at the Institute of Islamic Culture, chief editor of Al-Ma‘arif, and visiting scholar to International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Umar earned his B.A. and M.A. at Government College (Lahore), M.Phil. at Allama Iqbal Open University, and Ph.D. at Punjab University in Lahore.

Geshe Tashi Tsering, India
Ven. Geshe Tashi is a Tibetan Lama who holds the Lharampa Geshse degree from Seramay Monastic University in South India. In 1991, he began a three year appointment at Nalanda Monastery in France to teach advanced level Tibetan Buddhist philosophy to Western students. Currently he is abbot of Sera Mey Monastic University in India. Ven. Geshe Tashi represents His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders.

Patriarch Sahak Mashalian, Turkey
His Eminence Patriarch Sahak Mashalian was born in Istanbul in 1962, ordained as a priest in 1992 and as a bishop in 2008. He holds academic degrees of a Licence in Philosophy (Istanbul University), BD in Theology (Louvein University) and MA in Sprituality (Dublin Milltown Institute). He worked in Istanbul as a priest and itenary preacher, in Jerusalem as a monk, a religious teacher and a principal of the local Secondary School Tarkmanchats, and in Armenia as a lecturer and a dean of the Theological University of the Holy Etchmiadzin. Patriarch Mashalian became the 85th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople in 2019.

Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, Israel
Rabbi Yuval Cherlow is a graduate of Yeshivat Har Etzion and was ordained as a Rabbi by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He is one of the founders and leaders of the Tzohar Institute, set up after the assasination of Yitzchak Rabin to bridge the secular and religious sectors of Israeli society. He is Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Hesder Amit Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv, Israel. Rabbi Cherlow heads the religion and ethics section of the Center for Ethics in Jerusalem.

Dr. David Rutstein, Israel
Dr. Rutstein is the Secretary-General of the Baha’i International Community. He came to the Baha’i International Community following an international career as a senior health executive and physician. He served as a primary care physician in Micronesia and held multiple administrative positions within the United States government’s Department of Health and Human Services, including as a rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service, and a term as the Deputy Surgeon General of the United States.

FB ZOOM transmision

More Elijah Interfaith transmisions

How has the coronavirus crisis affected me, my life, my faith

Elijah Interfaith Institute Summer School, Jerusalem, 2nd August 2020

As we sum up week 1 of our online summer school, we would like to share a piece written by one of our participants - Gordon Jackson.