O pinion
The Importance of Multifaith Cooperation and Dialogue
BY SAUNDRA STERLING EPSTEIN
FOR MANY YEARS, I have
been honored to be involved
in the extremely important
work of building relationships
among different faith commu-
nities, as well as within the
different strands of our Jewish
community in its largess.

At this point in our lives —
individually and collectively
— it appears to me that all of
us who are knowledgeable and
comfortable in engaging in these
efforts should reach out and do
so, especially those who are on
the more-halachically observant
side of the spectrum, which is
too often poorly represented. (I
have been the only one in the
room too many times!).

To do so is healing, serves
as important advocacy and is
validating to all of us who are
people of faith. Moreover, it
makes a powerful and neces-
sary statement in our fractured
world at this time when the
strength and ethical pitch of
our religious teachings are
more necessary than ever.

Pew Research Center
findings indicate that in our
general population we have
approximately 30% religious
“nones” — that is, people
who do not identify with any
faith tradition or community.

This percentage is higher for
those who are not involved in
ongoing religious life involve-
ments on any level, with the
numbers of unconnected
individuals increasing in the
younger age brackets.

This problem of continuity of
our religious traditions and way
of life is a challenge shared by
all of our faith communities, as
indicated in my conversations
with my Muslim, Christian and
Catholic colleagues, specifically.

Concerns about human rights
issues and religious teach-
ings that, in their eyes at least,
contradict their social values
are often causes for which
our young people do not feel
that their respective religious
heritages are responsive.

Also, members of all of our
respective communities are
suffering from food insecurity,
threatened loss of homes, social
isolation, work insecurity,
sexual abuse and violence, the
opioid crisis and other ailments
that are pervasive at this time
and desperately need access to
services. We are all aware of
this, as well as the drain on our
service organizations in trying
to continue to meet mounting,
seemingly infinite, needs with
finite resources. Additionally,
we need to remind each other
the power of our faith in
supporting us spiritually while
we tend to the needs of our
physical realities.

To address these shared
challenges, there is an ongoing
effort to streamline our area’s
multifaith work, bringing
together the 20-year-old
Cheltenham Area Multi-Faith
Council founded as a response
to 9/11 by Rabbi Lance Sussman
and a group of Christian clergy
members and lay leaders; a
newly formed consortium of
Muslim, Christian and Jewish
community leaders; and the
developing Montgomery
County Multi-Faith Coalition
in a newly branded coopera-
tive where we crowdsource our
services and provide opportu-
nities for shared learning and
interaction with each other.

These collective efforts are
already yielding important
results, such as ensuring there
are food pantries that provide
food for people in need who have
religious dietary restrictions,
offering resources for women
and men from different faith
communities who are victims
of domestic violence, accessing
counseling services sensitive
to different faith communities’
sensibilities and so on.

Additionally, we
are committed to sitting together
to learn more about our respec-
tive faiths and foundational
texts, marveling at how much
we share as well as becoming
more sensitive to, and
respectful of, our differences.

As my treasured colleague and
friend, Aziz Nathoo, a Muslim
community leader and Sheikh,
often reminds us, “We are here
to converse, not to convert.” l
Saundra Sterling Epstein is the
director of BeYachad: Bringing
Jewish Living and Learning
Together. Upcoming events include
an Oct. 5 program entitled “GRASP:
Gathering Resources Addressing
Suicide Prevention” and another
on Nov. 15, “Thanks-Grieving.” For
more information, contact Epstein
at shulisrose@aol.com.

When I Faced Antisemitism on Campus in 1985, I Felt Alone.

I’m Glad Today’s College Students Have Each Other
BY HOWARD LOVY
IN 1985, I STOOD in the corner
of a crowded meeting room
at the Wayne State University
Student Center, stone-faced,
while people I did not know
lined up at a microphone to
denounce me before the Student
Newspaper Publications Board.

“I don’t think Howard Lovy
should be editor of The South
18 AUGUST 26, 2021
End because he is biased toward
Israel,” said one, referring to the
student newspaper, where I was
up for the editor’s position.

The board would decide if
I should take the top job. By
virtue of my role at the paper,
I was in position to assume the
top editor slot.

“Howard is a Zionist,” said
another critic, “so he should be
disqualified from this important
job as editor of The South End.”
Some of them said something
about the racist rabbi, Rabbi
Meir Kahane. Another said
something about the massacre
of Palestinians in the Sabra
and Shatila refugee camps in
Lebanon three years previously
by an Israel-allied militia group
and with the knowledge of the
Israeli army. Apparently I was
responsible for all these things
and people. I should not have
been surprised.

A few anti-Zionist students
had targeted me months earlier,
not only peppering the paper
with letters to the editor about
me, but showing up at The
South End office specifically to
harass and threaten me.

But at this hearing, there
were not dozens, but hundreds,
of people I had never met telling
the board about what a lousy
journalist I was because I had
written pieces on the opinion
page in support of Israel. The
Student Newspaper Publications
Board, wary of controversy
because of a previous editor’s
anti-military activism, rejected
me, and I did not get the job.

I was 19 years old at the time.

I’m 55 now and over the shock,
but I look back on it as a key
JEWISH EXPONENT
event in my development as a
Jew and as a journalist. It was an
important lesson for me in how
isolating antisemitism could be.

It was difficult for me to
explain to my friends and
colleagues that this even was
antisemitism at all. I mean, it
seemed perfectly reasonable to
many that my “bias” in favor of
Israel’s existence compromised
my impartiality. But what was
the “other side” I was supposed
to take equally? Israel’s nonex-
istence? In 1985, at the age
of 19, I lacked the words to
explain to anybody that I was
being targeted for harassment
specifically because I was a Jew.

In this way, I under-
stand what is happening on
campus today, with the rise in
antisemitism masquerading as
anti-Zionism. The AMCHA Initiative
has been tracking antisemitic
incidents and activities on U.S.

college campuses since 2015. Out
of curiosity, I punched Wayne
State into their database and
found 16 incidents of “antise-
mitic expression” and activity in
support of the boycott, divest-
ment and sanctions movement
targeting Israel from March
2016 to June of this year.

The argument, of course, can
be made that all these events
are not antisemitic, that they
simply express solidarity with
Palestinians. And if you’re not a
Jew on campus and don’t see and
feel for yourself how these things
manifest themselves in reality, it is
difficult to explain this gray area
between pro-Palestinian activism
See Lovy, Page 33
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM