Interfaith

The Center promotes interfaith understanding and is committed to education in interfaith genocide, and Holocaust education.  We have demonstrated the deep commitment to erasing faith barriers and dedicating the center's mission in fostering positive interfaith stories and events.

Presently, the center is involved in three major educational efforts, affirming this dedication to the moral mission of the center. These consist of:  

1.  Dr. Afridi's Manhattan College Religion 110 students helped renovate a Chabbad synagogue inside the Al-Iman Mosque in Parkchester, Bronx.  CLICK HERE for more information.

2.  HGI will be continuing a program which takes Manhattan College students via the Study Abroad Program to Venice, Italy for the 500th Anniversary of the Jewish Ghetto.  HGI has partnered with the International Jewish Studies Program in Venice. For a glimpse into the Venice experience, please see the separate "HGI Abroad in Venice, Italy" tab. 

3.  HGI has partnered with SelfHelp, and Yeshivat Chovevai Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, NY.  The three partners have created a unique fellowship entitled YHS: BRIDGING FAITHS THROUGH THE HOLOCAUST.  Every month three Yeshiva and Manhattan College students meet with Holocaust survivors.  They attend events at all three centers and will interview the survivors for their final project.

 

 

 

   

Similar Centers around the Nation.  Prepared by Kayle Hahn 

Save Us From Genocide Program Recognized - Interfaith Center at the Presidio (interfaithpresidio.org) 

Interfaith Center at Presidio (ICP) is a San Francisco Bay Area inter-religious advocate of peacemaking among religions. ICP hosts a variety of special interfaith programming at the Presidio chapel including Sunday concerts via zoom, Girl Scout Sunday interfaith services,  Memorial Day and Veterans Day services to commemorate the veterans who have sacrificed their lives for our country. In addition, ICP holds author reading and docent tours.  In 2016, The Interfaith Center at the Presidio and its partner organizations earned the United Nations Association (UNA) Global Citizen Award from UNA’s Bay Area Chapter for its Save Us From Genocide campaign to raise awareness about the plight of Yezidis and Assyrians facing genocide in Iraq and Syria. The program calls attention to the plight of Yezidis, Assyrians, and other religious minorities who continue to be forced from their homes in Iraq and Syria, their women and girls kidnapped and raped. 

Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights - Gratz College 

Located in Melrose Park, PA at Gratz College, the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights offers students the opportunity for graduate study in three fields that address the universal human problems of hatred, bigotry, religious intolerance, inequality, and violence. They are: The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program, The Human Rights Program, and The Interfaith Leadership Program. The first of which focuses primarily on why the Holocaust and other genocides occured, and how the discriminatory beliefs and religious teachings laid the foundation for such hatred and mass murder. They focus on using this information and knowledge in order to stop genocides that are still occurring in today’s world and in the future. The second of which is especially in Catholic colleges and universities throughout the United States. Finally, The Interfaith Leadership Program is devoted to educating people about religious differences, and how becoming skilled in interfaith dialogue and interfaith understanding can make a difference in putting an end to religious misunderstanding, hatred, and violence. 

University of Denver Center for Judaic Studies 

The center for Judaic Studies located in Denver is composed of a multidisciplinary team of teacher-scholars. They are very interested in promoting research and community initiatives that will build a better intercultural understanding of Jewish faith and its role in the modern world. The Center provides funding for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in doing projects that advance social justice and interfaith dialogue. They hope that these projects will bring them closer to the Denver community and help build bridges across religious, social, and cultural divides. 

Seton Hill Holocaust Center 

This center, located in Greensburg, PA focuses on countering antisemitism through fostering closer Jewish-Catholic relations. They do this by making the Holocaust scholarship available to educators at every level, especially in Catholic colleges and universities throughout the United States. It was founded in 1987. 

Saint Elizabeth University 

Saint Elizabeth University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education located in Morristown, NJ not only provide education and remembrance of the Holocaust and other genocides, but also to facilitate Catholic-Jewish dialogue and interfaith understanding. They also aim to provide a variety of programs, courses, resources, and other educational opportunities to SEU students that focus on both Genocide and Interfaith work.

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Calendar of Events

Previous events

Mar21

As the sun sets, marking the end of the daily fast during Ramadan, and the culmination of the Fast of Esther in the Jewish tradition, we invite you to break bread with members of different faith communities in a spirit of unity, understanding, and friendship. This unique event aims to foster a sense of togetherness, promote dialogue, and celebrate the rich tapestry of religious traditions that contribute to the mosaic of our community. A vegetarian, Kosher and Halal dinner will be served.

Please register here for Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMldu-hpzsoHdRk-Nq3UNqkiEAMqrCeVj_O

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMldu-hpzsoHdRk-Nq3UNqkiEAMqrCeVj_O

Wolf Gruner, Ph.D., discusses the subject of his book Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany (Yale University Press, 2023), which features the life stories of five Jewish men and women who resisted in different ways against persecution in Nazi Germany. By discussing their courageous acts, the book demonstrates the wide range of Jewish resistance in Nazi Germany, challenges the myth of Jewish passivity and illuminates individual Jewish agency during the Holocaust.

Wolf Gruner, Ph.D., holds the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and is a professor of history at the University of Southern California and founding director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research. He received his Ph.D. in History from the Technical University Berlin and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Yad Vashem Jerusalem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Women's Christian University Tokyo, among others. Gruner is the author of o books on the Holocaust, including Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Nazi Racial Aims. His 2016 prizewinning German book was published in English as The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses. He co-edited four books, including Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust and New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in Global Comparison. He is an appointed member of the Academic Committee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Genocide Research, among others.

Azeem Ibrahim's compelling lecture delves into the root causes and motivations of the harrowing Rohingya genocide, shedding light on the historical context, human rights violations, and geopolitical complexities surrounding this tragic crisis.

Azeem Ibrahim, Ph.D., is a research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, and a director at the Center for Global Policy in Washington, D.C. Over the years, he has advised numerous world leaders on strategy and policy development. Ibrahim is also the author of the seminal books Rohingya: Inside Myanmar's Genocide (Hurst, 2016) and Radical Origins: Why We are Losing the Battle against Islamic Extremism (Pegasus, 2017). He is a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine and his writing has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Times (UK), Chicago Tribune, Newsweek and many others. Outside academia, Ibrahim has been a reservist in the IV Battalion Parachute Regiment and an award-winning entrepreneur. He was ranked as a Top 100 Global Thinker by the European Social Think Tank and named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, after which he completed fellowships at Oxford and Harvard. In 2019, he received the International Association of Genocide Scholars Engaged Scholar Prize for his research on the Rohingya genocide. In 2022, Ibrahim was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I, on the recommendation of the prime minister, for his services to foreign policy.

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