2023-24 Dignity Project Fellows at closing retreat

Rabbi Or Rose, founding Director of the Miller Center, recently (April 1-6) traveled to Naropa University–the first accredited Buddhist-inspired academic institution in the United States–as a visiting scholar. He did so as part of an emerging institutional relationship between Hebrew College and Naropa. We invited members of the Naropa community to share about his visit. 

"The student body was deeply enriched by Rabbi Or's visit during the first week of April. He offered eight different learning opportunities in the five day period, including havrutah (peer) learning, interfaith discussions, and even leading Kabbalat Shabbat and joining students for April’s Shabbat dinner, which I co-host on a monthly basis with a good friend. In accordance with Naropa’s values, he was able to teach from the heart and encouraged students to apply teachings to their lives as a form of personal and spiritual development. His presence met a need that we didn’t know we needed; someone who can act as a pillar for Jewish spiritual life. We look forward to continuing to interact with Rabbi Or and Hebrew College!"

— Leah Miller, Naropa student, Co-Chair of Neshama Hevera–Contemplative Judaism Club

"It was a delight to have Rabbi Or Rose at Naropa for a week, and a great benefit to our students. We were able to host a 'Torah and Dharma' dialogue (featuring Rabbi Rose, myself, Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown, and Dr. Amelia Hall), to have Rabbi Rose lead classes for our students on the Psalms and Jewish mysticism, introduce them to the practice of hevruta learning, Hasidut, and facilitate contemplative prayer services. Both our Jewish and non-Jewish students felt truly enriched by their learning with Rabbi Rose."

— Netanel Miles-Yépez. co-Chair of the Department of Wisdom Traditions at Naropa University 

"Rabbi Or Rose was Naropa University’s World Wisdom Teacher-in-Residence from April 1-5, 2024. Naropa University was founded on principles of interreligious dialogue, understanding that learning flourishes in an environment of intimate spiritual exchange and openness, and dialogue training has long been foundational in the Wisdom Traditions department. For Naropa’s Keating-Schachter Center for Interspirituality, it is a priority to develop a close relationship with the Miller Center, promoting faculty exchanges and student co-learning environments. After Dr. Hall and I taught an introductory Buddhism course at Hebrew College in January, it was a delight for Wisdom Traditions and the Center to host Rabbi Rose in what we imagine to be an annual exchange. This year is only the beginning."

— Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown,  Distinguished Professor Emeritx of Contemplative and Religious Studies

By Marilyn Stern

It was an honor to take part in the holy task of bringing the teachings of Rabbi Ellen Bernstein z”l, a matriarch of the Jewish environmental movement, to more than 75 of her beloved friends, family members, colleagues, students, and teachers, during a Zoom gathering on April 28 (coinciding with Passover). Over the past two decades, through her writing, teaching, and community organizing, Ellen illuminated the significance of land and ecology in Jewish sacred texts and praxis. Among her favorite sources was the Song of Songs, with its exuberant, nature-inspired, love poetry. In her recent book, Toward a Holy Ecology: Reading the Song of Songs in the Age of Climate Crisiss–published a week before her passing–Ellen delved in to the ancient verses of this biblical text – with its nature-filled love poetry - to illuminate its ecological wisdom. 

“One particularly powerful experience of constructive engagement and bridge-building over the past months was a Zoom call hosted by Rabbi Or Rose and Muslim educator and scholar Dr. Celene Ibrahim. Rabbi Or and Dr. Ibrahiim discussed their experience as Jewish and Muslim leaders during the war, how they maintained their long standing friendship, how they continued to communicate with each other with honesty and care. The discussion was opened up to include the mentors and fellows in the program. What was so refreshing and inspiring about this meeting was the respect, vulnerability, and willingness to learn…especially now, witnessing such an explosion of anger, hate and closemindedness…It was amazing to see young people willingly come together in this space to listen to each other, learn, and grapple with complexity.” -Gavi Berkman, Dignity Project alum 

Applications for the 2024-2025 Dignity Project cohort are now open! Please encourage outstanding high school students to apply here, or send your nominations to Liz at laeschlimann@hebrewcollege.edu

Beacons of Hope: Our Interreligious S/Heroes

Each month, we honor an individual whose commitment aligns with the bridge-building efforts of the Miller Center. For May, we shine a light on two Hebrew College Rabbinical School alum who spoke at the Hebrew College Spring Gala, sharing how their roles have shifted since the October 7 Hamas attacks and the ensuing war: Rabbi Getzel Davis of the Harvard Hillel and Rabbi Jessica Lowenthal of Temple Shalom in Melrose, MA. 

Rabbi Getzel: Since the middle of November, I have been meeting weekly for lunch with Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid, the Muslim chaplain on our campus. We started meeting because he wanted to gather Muslim and Jewish student leaders after a public statement from the student association following the October 7th Hamas attacks caused great consternation and tension at Harvard and far beyond. Khalil's hope was to create a space in which students could acknowledge their pain and loss, prevent further division and animosity, and initiate broader campus efforts at dignified discussion and action. 

Rabbi Getzel Davis

Rabbi Lowenthal: "October 15th Temple Beth Shalom in Melrose held a town-wide communal mourning service. The synagogue community had come together earlier in the week for a Jewish ritual event, but this was open to all. As someone who has been deeply involved in Israel and a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians, I knew how divisive this moment could be. Nevertheless, our community managed to hold the complexity, horror, and anguish together regardless of people’s particular political leanings. 

The first non-Jewish person who called me after the October 7 Hamas attacks was a friend of the synagogue, Maya. She is Lebanese Muslim and a city councilor in Melrose. We cried together. I asked her if she wanted to come to the service. After talking more, she decided to come and speak. So on that Sunday we all spoke from our hearts, cried at the bimah (lectern), and mourned. It meant the world that she shared this moment with us, and I reciprocated a few months later at a Palestinian gathering. 

Rabbi Jessica Lowenthal

June 24, 2024  |  11 a.m.-6 p.m. EDT

These are trying times for religious leaders, who are charged with supporting, challenging, and inspiring their constituents. International and domestic events have created heightened tension and polarization, both within and across our communities. Yet, religious leaders can serve a vital role in fostering an ethos of civility and decency, breaking the current gridlock of vitriol and debasement. Together, we intend to create a sacred space for honest and empathic exploration of how we might engage authentically—individually and collectively—in the shared labor of mending our beloved nation.

We hope you will join us for this online one-day seminar.

Pictured above left to right: Rev. Dr. Suzan D. Johnson-Cook; Miller Center Visiting Scholar of Religious Leadership & Christianity Reverend Rob Schenck; Muslim Chaplain and Professor Dr. Celene Ibrahim

On May 7, Miller Center Founding Director, Rabbi Or Rose, taught an online seminar about Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's (z”l) pioneering contributions to spiritual aging for Sage-ing International, an organization inspired by Reb Zalman's seminal text, From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Revolutionary Approach to Growing Older. Rabbi Rose discussed how this modern mystical master dedicated significant time in older age to sharing the wisdom of his beloved Eastern European Hasidic forebears. This event was part of Sage-ing's "World Wisdom" series, marking the centennial of Reb Zalman’s birth in 1924. 

As the spring semester draws to a close, this has been an extremely challenging year to be on college campuses across the country, both as a student and as a faculty or staff member. Interreligious work has proven to be more difficult and more important than ever for our country, our world, and for democracy in a pluralist and increasingly polarized society. 

Our BILI undergraduate fellows and campus mentors have found themselves caught in the middle of all that is going on. And they have risen to the occasion with skill, grace, and creativity. The final component of our national undergraduate fellowship program was for the fellows to complete a project of their choosing on their campuses with the support of their campus mentors. Some of the projects are still in progress, but we had the chance to hear about them from our student fellows at our closing session, which took place at the end of April.  

The fellows have created a wonderful variety of projects that reflect the unique interests of the student leaders and the needs of their local contexts. Projects included: 

• A series of events to encourage student engagement with a new campus interfaith space to foster engagement and dialogue among students,  

• A 2,000-person interfaith shabbat dinner,  

• An interview project to collect and preserve the experience and religious diversity of Black students on campus,  

• A largescale picnic style meal with space to hold the many challenges students are experiencing,  

• Listening workshops and listening table events to explore the experience of radical welcome and deep listening as a spiritual and community practice,  

• An on-campus screening of Three Chaplains—a documentary about Muslim chaplaincy in the US military—and a conversation with currently and former military chaplains, including one featured in the documentary. 

• An interfaith labyrinth walk  that provided students with resources and the chance to engage with this ancient mindfulness practice that stretches across a variety of faith traditions 

• The Well-being Dinner Series—a recurring contemplative multifaith community gathering of students from across campus aimed at increasing student belonging, facilitating conversations across difference, and engaging students in the sacred act of bearing witness. 

• An interview project that explores how interreligious engagement is viewed across the Black diaspora and the role it plays specifically in the lives of Muslim and Christian students in their families, communities, and collegiate life.