Temple Emanu-El’s Interfaith Triangle
The synagogue participated in a celebration for Ramadan at St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church.
This past month, Temple Emanu-El took part in an Iftar celebration for Ramadan, taking place at St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church. This fascinating confluence is only one small part of the broader interfaith relationships Temple Emanu-El has built up, and which has become more and more relevant recently.
“For years, we’ve had what I call the ‘interfaith triangle,’ these three groups.” said Rabbi Spike Anderson of Temple Emanu-El, who also described some of the relationships he’s seen developed out of these events. “At the last Ramadan breakfast that we went to, one of our congregants was seated with a gentleman from the ICC, the Istanbul Cultural Center. They got along so well that this gentleman and his wife from Temple Emanu-El were invited to their home for their personal Iftar breakfast, which is a really big deal.”
Few seem to remember exactly how the interfaith relationships began, but all sides of the relationship do agree on one thing.
“What I do know is that it has evolved into a deeply meaningful ‘interfaith triangle’ for everyone I’ve spoken to about it,” said Beyza Delen, from the Atlantic Institute – a nonprofit organization that focuses primarily on interfaith and intercultural dialogue, and helped bring Muslim perspectives into the relationship, shortly before the pandemic “This tradition has become a year-round celebration. We begin the year with an Advent celebration at St. Luke’s, followed by a Ramadan Iftar dinner at the Atlantic Institute, and we close the year with a Sukkot dinner at Temple Emanu-El. Each time we come together for these significant holidays, we’ve not only learned so much about each other’s traditions, but we’ve also gained a rare, intimate understanding of these events that we wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.”
“[The relationship] predates my participation in it. I’ve been at the church now for nine years, but the relationship between the congregations has been going on for at least 25 or 30 years,” said St. Luke’s Pastor David Lower. “Rabbi Spike at Temple Emanu-El and I started our offices at about the same time, and we were, as a result of the preexisting friendship, we were each encouraged to get to know the other by our congregations. That relationship between us, I think, got accelerated for lamentable reasons, after the Tree of Life Synagogue was attacked in Pittsburgh. I, on behalf of the church, reached out to Spike and shared our condolences and our solidarity with our Jewish siblings, and our deep lament over the tragedy.”
More recent tragedies, too, have inspired a sense of solidarity.
“Since Oct. 7, it wasn’t clear that the relationship was going to continue. There was certainly some hesitation, I think, from all sides,” said Rabbi Anderson. “But because there had been a relationship before, we happily continued it, and I’m really glad we did, because I think those relationships are very, very important. It turns out that they are really good friends. Even if things are tense in Israel between Jews and Muslims around, this relationship has held fast. And I think that, because it’s made it through the last 18 months and actually, we’re in better shape than we’ve ever been, in terms of the relationship – I suspect it will continue very strongly.”
“I think it’s been wonderful for a lot of people, because some people don’t leave their own backyards. In this kind of situation, we kind of took the backyard to them,” said Harriet Zoller, a Temple Emanu-El congregant who has long been involved in interfaith activities. “It’s important, and we could really do a lot of good for the tensions that exist, particularly currently, if we had more opportunities to interact as we have done at Temple Emanu-El.”
“I think the idea of this interfaith triangle was really born at Temple Emanu-El,” said Paster Lower, who also noted in particular the first Sukkot event, and how the inviting of neighbors of different backgrounds and beliefs inspired others to do the same. “I think, for reasons that have become more clear since, it has grown and blossomed into something that we participate in reciprocally, all three of our congregations.”
“No matter what challenges we face, faith serves as the foundation that helps us persevere. I’ve seen this in everyone I’ve encountered through interfaith dialogue,” said Delen. “And I truly believe that the dialogue we get to create is helping us do just that and I pray that more people around the world will adopt this approach as well.”
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