Voices of Religious Leadership

Source: Elijah Interfaith Institute, Jerusalm

The Future of Religious Leadership

Over the past years Elijah has provided a voice for religious leadership worldwide through its media projects. First we presented the Make Friends Across Religions and more recently the Coronaspection project. Elijah’s work with religious leadership also has a more theoretical/reflective side. Recently, Contemporary Jewry, a Springer academic journal, featured a special issue, guest edited by Alon Goshen-Gottstein, in which scholars reviewed and further reflected on the volumes published by Elijah. One of these is titled The Future of Religious Leadership. Prof. Hanoch Ben Pazi of Bar Ilan University reflects on this collection of essays and on the role of religious leadership.

Abstract

This essay ofers a critical reading in The Future of Religious Leadership: World Religions in Conversation, a collection of articles edited by Alon Goshen-Gottstein. The essay suggests a few ways of reading this book. In one way, it should be appreciated as a history of ideas, allowing us to trace the development of the concept of leadership in various religions, allowing us to understand how leadership came to be what it is today. The question posed to all the authors who wrote texts for this book pertained not only to the signifcance of leadership in their respective religions, but to the future of religious leadership. They were asked to address the challenges they have faced, the ways in which they have contended with them, and, equally important, the manner in which they have dealt with the cumulative signifcance of the many challenges to a new formulation of leadership in the future. Therefore, before readers embark on their encounter with each of the diferent accounts contained in the book, it is important to start by frst considering the signifcance of the project as a whole. To this end, this review begins by presenting the book’s potential readers with its major challenge, which also appears to have been the goal of compiling all of its essays into one text: identifcation of the shared elements of the challenges facing the diferent religious leaderships. Phrased more precisely, it is the argument that the future of religious leadership depends entirely on interreligious discourse. It is the divergence into interreligious study and interreligious theology—which the book’s authors and editors regard as necessary at this point in time—that constitutes the primary motive for the anthology’s compilation into a single major project.

Read Prof. Ben Pazi’s work in full here

Solidarity and Interconnectivity – Messages of Elijah Leaders

The Coronaspection project is a rich store-house of religious reflection. We have prepared several compilations of teachings that profile the wisdom religious have for us today, wisdom that transcends the circumstances of the pandemic. One of the collections focuses on the themes of solidarity and interconnectivity. How and why are we connected to one another? What are the moral consequences of such interconnectivity. We share this collection with our readers for the first time. This sharing is particularly timely. The topic of our upcoming summer institute programsome of the ideas we will be exploring together with an all-star cast of teachers and leaders.

The Religious Mandate to do Good – Monthly Learning and Prayer session

Our upcoming monthly learning and prayer session, in conjunction with Praying Together in Jerusalem, will similarly serve as an appetizer for our upcoming summer program. What is the religious mandate to do good? How do different religions provide a rationale and inspiration for doing good for the other, and consequently – how wide is the concept of “the other” conceived.

We will hear Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist voices on this question. All three speakers are part of our faculty for the summer school program. We know you will like them, and we are sure you will similarly love our summer program.

Rabbi Arthur Green
Rabbi Arthur Green, is one of the preeminent authorities on Jewish spirituality, mysticism and Hasidism. After earning his Ph.D., Green became Philip W. Lown professor (now emeritus) of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. In 1967, he was ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1968, Green was one of the founders of the non-affiliated Havurat Shalom community which became a national movement.

Prof. Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Karma Lekshe Tsomo is an Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. She is president of Sakyadhita: International Association of Buddhist Women and director of Jamyang Foundation, an initiative to provide educational opportunities for women in developing countries, especially in the Indian Himalayas and Bangladesh.

Imam Yahya Pallavicini
Imam Pallavicini is president of COREIS, the Islamic Religious Community of Italy. Yahya has been a member a member of the Italian Minister of the Interior's Council on Islam in Italy since 2005. Moreover, he is member of the ECRL European Council of Religious Leaders and ISESCO Ambassador for Dialogue among Civilizations. Since 2018 he has been coordinating the MJLC Muslim Jewish Leaders Council.

Join us on Thursday July 1 at 11 am EDT time, for a study session (about one hour), followed by our monthly Praying Together in Jerusalem Program

• 4 pm UK time
• 5 pm Central European time
• 6 pm Israel time
• 8:30 pm India time

Save your spot by signing up here.

Interreligious Perspectives on Global Solidarity and Caring for the Other

• If you are seeking to deepen your involvement and knowledge in the interfaith world;
• if you have always wanted to join Elijah's Jerusalem Summer School program, but could never afford the trip;
• if you are looking for an exciting way to broaden your horizons and enrich your spirit with the wisdom of religions,

We have an offer that is just right for you.

Without having to travel, you can spend a week of intense study and dialogue with world religious leaders, scholars and fellow students in the internationally acclaimed Elijah Summer School and Interreligious Training Seminar.

August 1-5, 2021 on Zoom; (optional) August 9th-12th, live touring in Jerusalem.

Interreligious Perspectives on Global Solidarity and Caring for the Other.

Using diverse methodologies including text study (“chevruta”), lectures, open discussions and Bibliodrama, we will explore the imperative to care for each other and the environment, and the role of religions in dealing with global issues.

Teachers include

• Prof. Karma Lekshe Tsomo (USA)
• Patriarch Sahak II Mashalian (Turkey)
• Imam Faisal Rauf (USA)
• Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (UK)
• Prof. David Ford (UK)
• Rabbi Art Green (Israel)
• Imam Plemon al-Amin (USA)
• Prof. Katherine Marshall (USA)
• Imam Yahya Pallavicini (Italy)
• Prof. Anantand Rambachan, Hindu (USA)
• • and many more

Facilitated by Alon Goshen-Gottstein and Peta Jones Pellach

For full summer school program and for registration, click here.