AJC’s Jerusalem-based department of International Interreligious Affairs seeks to advance mutual understanding between religious communities and build coalitions of conscience around the world. Led by Rabbi David Rosen, the department maintains ongoing relations with the leadership bodies of world faiths, as well as with the major international interfaith organizations. At the same time, AJC continues to advance its historic role in promoting interfaith relations in the State of Israel.
The Elijah Interfaith Institute seeks to create a community of religious leaders, scholars and practitioners from all faiths, who are inspired to find novel ways of sharing the wisdom of their traditions with each other and to create bridges between faith and society. Elijah recognises the power of sharing wisdom, revealed in its many forms, to foster mutual appreciation, respect, deep friendship and peace between religious communities. The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) works to catalyze a transition to a sustainable, thriving, and spiritually-aware society through the leadership of faith communities. Based in Jerusalem, ICSD unites faith communities, teachers and leaders to promote co-existence, peace, and sustainability through advocacy, education and action-oriented projects. The Interfaith Encounter Association is dedicated to promoting real coexistence and human peace in the Holy Land and the Middle East through cross-cultural study and inter-religious dialogue. We believe that, rather than being the cause of the problem; religion can and should be a source of solution for conflicts that exist in the region and beyond. We do not believe in the blending of all traditions into one undifferentiated group, but in providing a table where all can come and sit in safety and ease, while being fully who they are in their respective religions.
The ICCJ (International Council of Christians and Jews) serves as the umbrella organization of more than 40 national Jewish-Christian dialogue organizations world-wide. The ICCJ member organizations world-wide over the past five decades have been successfully engaged in the historic renewal of Jewish-Christian relations. Since 2010, the ICCJ family includes the International Abrahamic Forum, which promotes international dialogue among Jews, Christians and Muslims. Through its annual conferences and other consultations, the ICCJ offers a platform where people of different religious backgrounds examine current issues across national and religious boundaries, enabling face-to-face exchanges of experience and expertise. The Jerusalem Rainbow Group for Interreligious Study and Dialogue consists of Jewish and Christian academics and religious leaders who gather monthly to share theological and philosophical perspectives on topics relevant to religious life and to Jewish-Christian relations, thereby seeking to overcome longstanding religious animosities and create a positive framework for reconciliation. The Mosaica Center is the Jewish center of the Religious Peace Initiative. Based in West Jerusalem, it is responsible for expanding the participation of rabbis in the work of the Initiative and in its activities and for strengthening its ties with leaders in Israel and in the Jewish world. The Mosaica Center offers a platform in which religious leaders can address the challenge of peace in their own language, and ask how should peace look like if it is to include the religious public, and how can it fulfill the words of Torah rather than violating them. The Center works together with senior Rabbis from the religious Zionist world and among the rabbis of Judea and Samaria, alongside prominent figures from all the Haredi streams, to expand the Jewish religious discourse around finding a way out of the conflict. The Mosaica Center also works to incorporate the vision of the Initiative into various religious communities in Israel, to strengthen the recognition of the importance of religious discourse for peace among the general public, and to challenge the prevalent views of the Jewish public regarding political Islam as a possible partner for reconciliation and dialogue. Microphones for Peace is a unique internet radio platform that uses sound to carry songs and stories that bring people closer together. It creates connections between cultures, building audible bridges. It helps us realize our similarities and celebrate our differences. In addition to the voices of faith are those of culture, art, social action and literature. They come together as a chorus of hope that one day we will all live peacefully together. The radio station has acted as a stage for activists and poets to share their personal and public prayers, promoting tolerance and mutual respect for the “other” in their midst, whether they be from a different religion or culture.
Pardes Center for Judaism and Conflict Resolution (PCJCR) seeks to strengthen the Jewish culture of healthy and constructive conflict (machloket l’shem shemayim) and the pursuit of peace (redifat shalom) through the integration of Jewish texts and values along with contemporary conflict resolution theories and practices. To this end, PCJCR runs a variety of Rodfei Shalom programs which target specific audiences within the Jewish population Praying Together in Jerusalem is a movement whose participants believe in the power of side-by-side prayer to bring friendship, respect and, ultimately, peace between people of all faiths. In addition to our regular monthly gatherings in the Old City of Jerusalem, PTIJ organizes occasional events to provide opportunities for people of diverse faiths to meet, pray alongside each other and share wisdom from their various sacred texts.
Rabbis for Human Rights was founded in 1988 and is the only rabbinic voice in Israel that is explicitly dedicated to human rights. RHR represents over 100 Israeli rabbis and rabbinical students from different streams of Judaism who derive their authority from Jewish tradition and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The mission is to inform the Israeli public about human rights violations, and to pressure the State institutions to redress these injustices. Rabbis for Human Rights give expression to the traditional Jewish responsibility for the safety and welfare of the stranger, the different and the weak, the convert, the widow and the orphan. RHR seeks to harness the teachings and values of our region’s faiths as a means of reconciliation & understanding. Activities include public panels, interfaith prayer & study, and interfaith activism combating hate crimes. The Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue is an interreligious organization based in Jerusalem which promotes an inclusive society for all religious, ethnic and national groups. Through education, encounter, research and advocacy, we foster better relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land. We believe that understanding, respect, justice and equality will enable us all to live in peace. |