With Christians being persecuted and threatened across much of the Middle East, guess which country the leaders of several major U.S. Christian denominations have decided to pick on?
The general conference of the United Methodist Church voted not to divest from three companies that trade with Israel.
The Claremont School of Theology, a Christian divinity school in Los Angeles, will use a $40 million gift to begin training Jewish and Muslim clergy. The gift from David and Joan Lincoln of Arizona, which was announced Monday, will help Claremont transform itself into a multifaith institution offering interfaith degree programs as well as training for rabbis, imams and ministers, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Institutions change. Change is not spontaneous, easy or automatic. It requires face-to-face encounters and a determination to dialogue. As Martin Buber famously put it, \”All real life is meeting.\” Absent dialogue, the vacuum creates disinformation and resentment.
Wayne Hinton is a Methodist, and he understands what Jewish audiences will feel when they hear a performance by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony.
\”It\’s like when you hear a Frenchman conducting French music,\” said Hinton, the symphony\’s executive director. \”It\’s akin to their soul.\”
The soul, or more specifically the soul aflame, will anchor the symphony\’s Dec. 19 performance at Temple Israel of Hollywood, where the shul\’s Nimoy Concert Series will host the West Coast premiere of \”Souls on Fire,\” an oratorio based on Elie Wiesel\’s book on centuries of Chasidic leaders.
On Jan. 14, you could hear the wake-up call sounding for Jews all across America. Perhaps you noticed the article by reporter Elizabeth Bernstein in that morning\’s Wall Street Journal. Perhaps someone e-mailed it to you. Perhaps numerous someones emailed it to you.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.