(A video of this discussion has been posted at past events.)

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
7:30 p.m. panel discussion
9:00 p.m. reception

McKenna Hall Auditorium
University of Notre Dame

For many, the Holy Land is emblematic of faiths in conflict. Faith groups in this country have been deeply divided over U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the past two years, however, many of the most prominent Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders in the United States have come together in support of a common agenda called the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East.

Two of these religious leaders and the Christian lay leader who helped organize this groundbreaking initiative will discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in finding common ground on the hotly contested issue of the U.S. role in promoting peace in the Middle East. The panelists will be:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
President, American Sufi Muslim Association

Rabbi David Saperstein
Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Ronald Young
Executive Director, U.S. Interreligious Committee
for Peace in the Middle East

The event is sponsored by:
Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
Program on Catholic Social Tradition
Center for Social Concerns
Theology Department
Campus Ministry

More about the panelists

Rabbi David Saperstein has been the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism for three decades. Described in a Washington Post profile as the “quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill,” he represents the national Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the administration. He has headed many national coalitions, including the Coalition to Preserve Religious Liberty, comprised of over 50 national religious denominations and educational organizations, and serves on the boards of numerous national organizations, including the NAACP and People for the American Way. In 1999, Rabbi Saperstein served as the first chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Also an attorney, Rabbi Saperstein teaches church-state Law and Jewish Law at Georgetown University Law School. His latest book is Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice: Tough Moral Choices of Our Time.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder and CEO of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA Society) and Imam of Masjid Al-Farah, a mosque in New York City. He has dedicated his life to building bridges between Muslims and the West and is a leader in the effort to build religious pluralism and integrate Islam into modern American society. He is the architect of the Cordoba Initiative, an inter-religious blueprint for improving relations between America and the Muslim world and pursuing Middle East peace. Imam Feisal is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Center of New York. His books incude Islam: A Search for Meaning, Islam: A Sacred Law, and his latest, What’s Right With Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West.

Ronald Young is the founder and executive director of the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East. The Committee is a national organization of 2,500 American Jews, Christians and Muslims, including prominent leaders of all three communities, working together for peace in the Middle East based on the deepest values in the three traditions. Young was a principal organizer and author of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East. He has taught as an adjunct at Haverford College and is author of Missed Opportunities for Peace: U.S. Middle East Policy.

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