Interfaith Encounter Association
We are dedicated to promoting coexistence in 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 the conflicts that exist in the region and beyond. We do not believe in the blending of all traditions ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Oct 07, 2009
Updated: Nov 05, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
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http://www.interfaith-encounter.org/index.htm
Dr. Yehuda Stolov had been the director of the IEA and is active in the interfaith field for many years. He brings a deep dedication to the fulfillment of the vision established over 40 years ago. If you would like to speak with him directly or have any questions or comments about the IEA, you can contact him directly yehuda@interfaith-encounter.org.
Global Dialogue Center Interview
Interfaith dialogue was established in Israel in the late 1950's by a small group of visionaries, including Martin Buber and others. Despite decades of commendable interfaith activities in the country, to date only an extremely limited circle of individuals has recognized that religious faith and commitment without dialogue threatens the stability of society, and thus seriously engages in dialogue. There is an urgent need to supplement existing interfaith efforts, both through new strategies to draw ever larger numbers of individuals into the circle of interfaith dialogue, and through the development of interactive models for encounter that can effect true and lasting change in the outlook and attitude of participants.
In the fall of 2001 – in the wake of over a year of needless bloodshed in the Middle East and the horrifying calamity of September 11th in the U.S. – the newly-formed Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) set itself to the daunting task of building and strengthening a grassroots interfaith movement for peace, justice, and sustainability in the Holy Land and in the Middle East. Envisioning a society in which the "otherness" of the Other is not only accepted, but truly understood and respected, the IEA dedicated itself to promoting real coexistence and human peace in the Middle East through cross-cultural study and inter-religious dialogue..
The IEA was founded on the following principles and goals:
v Equal representation of all faiths in the IEA;
v Gender equality in the decision making processes and activities of the IEA;
v Outreach to individuals and communities from all faiths, age groups, walks of life, and levels of society;
v Outreach to individuals and communities across the religious-secular and political spectra;
v Continual recruitment through committed activists on the local and regional levels;
v Implementation of interactive programs that effectively change outlooks and attitudes, such as extended weekend seminars and ongoing study groups;
v Continual development of new models for effective encounter; and
v Ongoing evaluation of all strategies and programs.
Recognition and awards
In the years since its inception, the IEA has been amazingly successful at staying true to its principles while beginning to realize a part of the society it hopes to create. For this IEA was recognized by several distinguished bodies:
• In acknowledgement of IEA's work, UNESCO has recognized the IEA as
"an organization that is contributing to the culture of peace" and
as an actor of the global movement for a culture of peace, a United Nations
initiative.
• In 2006 the IEA was awarded The Prize for Humanity by The
Immortal Chaplains Foundation.
• In 2007 Two of IEA’s coordinators won the Women’s Peace Initiative
Award of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.
• The IEA is the recipient of the 2007 INTR°A-Project Award for the
Complementation of Religions of The Institute for Interreligious
Studies.
• The film "Interfaith Encounter in the Galilee", produced by IEA to present
the work of its school-twinning project, was awarded the Commendable
Effort by the World Peace Film Award 2007 of the World Movement for
Global Democracy.
• In May 2008, the IEA was one of the sixty projects, selected as "the
entrepreneurial projects that will change the face of Tomorrow" to
present at the Israeli Presidential Conference – one of only eleven social
projects and the only project of peaceful coexistence.
International Connections
The IEA also maintains connections and relationships with many international
interfaith organizations and networks. The IEA is a Member Group of the
International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF), a Member Group of
Roots and Shoots of the Jane Goodall Institute and an Affiliate Member of
the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. The Jerusalem programs
of the IEA function as part of the Partner Cities Network of the Council for
a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR) and the Goldin Institute. The
IEA is a member in the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN and a founding
member of the Partnership Committee for the United Nations Decade of
Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace.
· Philosophy & Methodology
In the microcosms of the IEA's ongoing dialogue groups, seminars, and study sessions, fear gives way to familiarity, ignorance to understanding, exclusion to inclusion, discrimination to tolerance and respect, and strife to harmony. The goal is not to blend all traditions into one undifferentiated group but to provide a table where all can come and sit in safety and ease, while being fully who they are in their respective religions. In this way the IEA aims to change the dynamics of a society crystallized in a culture of war into a society embedded in a culture of humanized engagement. Thus the IEA views interfaith dialogue not as a goal in of itself but as a tool through which society can be re-crystallized into a culture of peace and harmony. By engaging ordinary people – not just their religious, spiritual, or political leaders – the IEA is creating extraordinary transformations in the way grassroots people perceive and encounter the Other – the seeds of a new crystallization capable of transforming society as a whole. The IEA believes that peace is a stool that stands on three legs: human, economic, and political. The IEA is helping to create, encounter by encounter, the human component to that peace – the component so sorely missed in previous peace-initiatives.
The IEA accomplishes its work through its unique programmatic method. The
IEA operates within three concentric circles of interfaith work, each with
the power to grow and impact the circle encapsulating it. In the first and
most preeminent circle – the Inner-Israeli circle – the IEA focuses
on the promotion of respectful relations between Jews, Muslims, Christians,
Druze, and Baha'is living in Israel. This process in turn impacts and
enables the second circle – the Israeli-Palestinian circle – where
the IEA works in cooperation with 8 Palestinian organizations across the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The work of the first and second
circles aids the work of the third circle – the Middle East region –
where the IEA has been a major founder in establishing the Middle East
Abrahamic Forum, along with similar organizations from Egypt, Iran, Jordan,
the PNA, Lebanon, Tunisia and Turkey.
Additionally, the IEA maintains three interconnected programmatic sections.
The general program is accessible to all segments of society,
regardless of age or sex. Owing to the nature of many cultural religious
practices in the Middle East, women are often times left out of the circle
of interfaith dialogue initiatives. Issues of modesty for men and women in
the four faith-traditions (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, & Druze) as well as
the disparity between male and female representation in each tradition's
higher clergy surround such interfaith encounters. These issues present
themselves as obstacles that particularly affect female participation,
resulting in the further marginalization of women from such initiatives.
Consequently, it is especially important that women have their own space to
come together across religious traditions and engage in interfaith
peace-building work equally. The Women's Interfaith Encounter (WIE)
was launched in the winter of 2001 to address this need and to rectify this
potential pitfall in grassroots inter-religious work. For the women in the
WIE, interfaith study also serves as a source of strength and empowerment to
recognize the values and challenges they share with women outside their
particular tradition.
The third programmatic section, the Youth Interfaith Encounter (YIE),
designs and implements programs specifically for young adults. Similar to
the challenges facing women are those facing youth. Young people's lack of
religious or social authority often results in their marginalization in
religious and inter-religious circles. Moreover, the dynamics of new and
creative thinking that typify young people's approach to the issues are
especially vital to grassroots interfaith work. In order for such a movement
to truly grow and spread out of the individual encounters into society at
large, it is imperative that today's youth be given the space and the
opportunity to develop themselves, foster their visions for the future, and
enable themselves to achieve it. The IEA responded to this imperative
through the YIE in the spring of 2002.
Lastly, the IEA employs three different program formats through which it
facilitates its interfaith encounters: inter-religious study sessions,
multi-day conferences, and desert seminars. In bringing Jews, Muslims,
Christians, Druze, and Baha'is together to study topics of relevance from
their own religious perspectives, interfaith study is used to achieve two
main goals. Primarily, it serves as a vehicle towards understanding,
acceptance, and respect for the Other, but it also serves as a way to deepen
awareness of one's own religion.
office@interfaith-encounter.org
Office address:
12 Ha'arazim Street
Entrance 34,
Beit Hakerem Neighborhood,
Jerusalem
(entering towards entrance 36 and immediately taking
down the stairs on the right hand side; at the end of the stairs make a left
and its the first entrance. We are on the top floor)
P.O. Box 3814,
Jerusalem 91037,
ISRAEL
Phone: 02-6510520.
Fax: 02-6510557
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