As fall turns to winter, and we prepare for Hanukkah, Christmas, and other holiday celebrations, let us give thanks for the discovery of light in the darkness. Let us give thanks for the people in our lives who light the way by refusing to give up on the promise of creating a more just and compassionate world. 

In this spirit, I wish to thank my Miller Center colleagues, participants, advisors, and supporters for their steadfast commitment to bridge-building, despite the ongoing challenges of bigotry, hatred, and bloodshed that can feel overwhelming and insurmountable. 

To quote the popular Hanukkah song Banu Hoshekh,

“We have come to banish darkness 

with light and fire in our hands. 

While each of us is but a small light, 

together we are a great and mighty flame.”

Blessings for meaningful winter holidays and a healthy and peaceful new year.

-Rabbi Or Rose, Founding Director, The Miller Center of Hebrew College

Beacons of Hope: Our Interreligious S/Heroes

Each month, we honor an individual or group whose commitments align with the bridge-building efforts of the Miller Center of Hebrew College. This December we share our gratitude for Kyle Desrosiers, who worked as the Miller Center's indefatigable program administrator from August 2022 through October 2024, before embarking on a new professional chapter with the Anti-Defamation League.  

By Rafi Ellenson, Hebrew College Rabbinical Student and Miller Center Intern

Since joining the Miller Center in the summer of 2022, Kyle Desrosiers has made significant contributions to the Center's work and the Greater Boston interfaith community through his commitment to pluralism and thoughtful approach to interreligious learning and leadership. Kyle is a perfect example of what it means to "walk the walk" of interreligious engagement in various aspects of his life, navigating his intersecting identities. He channels his Catholic faith through the prism of his experiences as an interfaith student leader at Baylor University and his graduate training in conflict resolution and mediation at Tel Aviv University, bringing a spirit of inclusivity and innovative problem-solving to his work. 

Kyle Desrosiers

Kyle's unique perspective informed his efforts at building interreligious community initiatives with the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM) in Jerusalem, designing interfaith programming with the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, and organizing Miller Center events for diverse audiences. While he has moved on to another role as a Development Coordinator for the ADL, his impact on the Miller Center will be felt for a long time to come. “Kyle was an invaluable member of the Miller Center team," said Marilyn Stern, Director of Special Projects. "His warmth, dedication, and effectiveness were truly exceptional. His thoughtful approach to the needs of others informed all of his interactions and was a true gift to the Miller Center and to the larger Hebrew College community.”  

We wish Kyle great success at the ADL and in his new life in New York City!

Pictured: Detail from 'Prayer in Blue' by Silvina Mizrahi, on Display at Hebrew College thru December 20

As part of its election day coverage, Interfaith America featured published a Jewish-Muslim dialogue on the subject of prayer and discernment, featuring Interfaith America’s Director of Campus Partnerships, Homayra Ziad, and Miller Center's Rabbi Or Rose (who is serving as a senior consultant to IA):

Dear Homayra,

In a recent conversation, we discussed the anxiety we are each feeling as election day draws closer. That led us into a discussion of the role of prayer in this fractious and uncertain time. When I asked you if you were praying for anything specific, you responded with one word, “discernment.” Can you explain what you meant?

Dear Or,

When I say that I am praying for discernment, I mean the ability to cut through the noise. Let me share a memory that arose as I was thinking about your question: I was nineteen when I went to Morocco with my family. Outside the mosque of al Qarawiyyin in Fes, a man began to follow us. Our guide told us that this man was a majzub (gripped, absorbed). He tried to turn the man away several times, gently, but each time he came back, muttering to himself. Suddenly, he stabbed his finger in the air, pointed directly at my father’s sunglasses, and laughed. Then he took a small piece of wood out of his trousers and placed it mockingly over his eyes, like a pair of shades. I could tell my father was troubled. He asked the guide if he could give the man some money; perhaps he would go away. Upon receiving the money, the majzub disappeared. A minute later he was back with a handful of cakes — he walked straight up to me, placed the cakes in my hands, smiled — and was gone.

The historical mystical figure of the majzub holds a deep fascination for me. The conscience of a community in one human being.

Pictured (L-R): Rabbinical Student Poll Chaplains David Fisher, Leah Weinstein, Julia Spiegel, Rafi Ellenson

Last month, a cohort of Hebrew College rabbinical students traveled to Pennsylvania on election day to serve as interfaith poll chaplains, functioning as a nonpartisan, pro-democracy, spiritual presence. “This is an opportunity to engage in sacred work,” said Miller Center intern Rafi Ellenson. “We will help to ensure that voting is a fair and equitable process by applying the skills we are cultivating in the classroom/beit midrash.”

The students received their poll chaplaincy training through a program operated by Sojourners Action in partnership with Faiths United to Save Democracy, a “nonpartisan, multi-racial, multi-faith, and multi-generation 2022-2024 voter protection campaign”. As covered in the Forward, the poll chaplaincy effort “organized numerous trainings for its poll chaplains on how to deescalate situations, or distract anyone attempting to intimidate or harass voters. Techniques include engaging a harasser in conversation to divert them from the voting line, and making sure not to condescend while noting the negative impact of aggression on the voters.”

Pictured: AbdoulNasser Mika gives Dignity Project Fellows a crash course in taking powerful photographs.

On the Sunday afternoon of their November retreat, the Dignity Project fellows could be found standing on chairs, posing in front of walls, and peering through curtains as their friends took their pictures. Guided by photographer AbdoulNasser Mika, the fellows experimented with angles and light, and ultimately, the stories they want to tell with their images. "The camera is just an extension of who you are as a person," Mika stressed. "Photography is a way to explore your identity."

This year, the fellows will explore their own identities–and learn about each others'–through their Interfaith Photovoice capstone project. Over the course of several sessions, fellows will share photographs from their own lives in response to prompts such as "What do your beliefs and values look like in everyday life?" and "What barriers to belief and belonging do you experience in your community?" For each set of photographs, fellows will engage in dialogue, sharing the stories and ideas behind their pictures. Together, they will identify the stories that represent them as a collective, selecting photographs that articulate their vision for belief and belonging in Greater Boston. The final product will be an exhibition of their photographs that celebrates their experience in the Dignity Project, on display in the Hebrew College lounge. "I'm really excited about this project," says Dignity Project Director Liz Aeschlimann. "The fellows have so much to share about their worlds and their hopes for the future."

Taught by Rabbi Or Rose, Director of the Miller Center & Rev. Dr. Rob Schenck, visiting scholar of Christianity and Religious Leadership.

The time has come for a new conversation among members of the Jewish and Evangelical communities to discuss our relationships to Israel? Turmoil in the Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as in the United States call for an honest and searching discussion of our theological, historical, and political connections to Israel. What, for example, is the role of messianism or eschatology (interpretations of “end-times” prophecies) in this context? Do we share some common values and commitments? Where do we differ? To what extent are these differences present within each of our respective communities?

The course will meet on Thursdays 7:00-8:30 p.m. Eastern on Zoom: January 16, 23, 30

Tuition: $150, financial aid is available

Register here

Learn more about this upcoming course in the latest episode of Hebrew College's Speaking Torah podcast. Together, Rabbi Rose and Rev. Schenck share their journey of friendship and collaboration, and explain the motivation to take Israel as a starting point in dialogue about Evangelical-Jewish relations.