Faith communities creating one neighborhood

Monday, 19 December 2011

"Talking with one another is loving one another." 

~ Kenyan Proverb

"We build too many walls and not enough bridges."

~ Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

English Mathematician and Physicist

About Community

We are now...linked together by bridges of dialogue and mutual understanding," said a leader in Omaha, Nebraska's global example of creating a 35-acre Tri-Faith Neighborhood.
     Patient, dedicated talking with one another has led to this community-of-choice for the:

American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture http://www.aiisc.org

Temple Israel of Omaha http://www.templeisrael-ne.org/

Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska http://www.episcopal-ne.org/

Tri-Faith Initiative http://trifaith.org/

     Muslim Syed M. Mohiuddin, president of the AIISC, enunciated the global urgency of developing interfaith relationships.
     "In a time when the world is engaged in building walls, this is a celebration of building bridges."
     Bob Freeman, Jewish congregant and Tri-Faith Initiative Board Chair, said: "Every time I open our prayer book, Im astounded at how many passages encourage this.
     "Experience teaches us that interaction can transform intolerance, ignorance and fear into understanding, respect and trust."
READ more:

Tri-faith Initiative in Omaha Nebraska 1st of its Kind in the World

Islam Today -- Wednesday, 14 December 2011

http://en.islamtoday.net/artshow-230-4284.htm

     The new Omaha community is in the spirit of Lod -- Lydda, before 1948 -- where a mosaic of Holy Land Palestinian, Jewish, and other citizens have a Triangle of Peace where a church, synagogue, and mosque share walls.
     Like Omaha, the Lod Community Foundation --  http://www.lodfoundation.org/ -- is creating a dozen Arab-Jewish initiatives to widen the circle of citizen-participants who think and act for the sake of everyone.
     Their Web site is temporarily closed for modernization.

Lod Community Cooperation

CNN World Report - February 2009

3-1/2 min video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-6mOt9xe6E

Israeli students start their own revolution in Lod

A student village is being built to revitalize the struggling city of Lod.

Ha'aretz -- 19 August 2011

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/israeli-students-start-their-own-revolution-in-lod-1.379549

About Change
& Time

     Susie Buffet, an Omaha citizen writes on the new Tri-Faith Neighborhood.

"In the late '60s my dad was a member of the Omaha Club a club whose members were white, Gentile males.
     When his friend, Nick Newman, applied for membership his application was rejected.
     The reason? The Jews have their own club.
     So to protest that bogus logic, my dad applied for membership at said Jewish club Highland Country Club.
     He was eventually accepted as the first non-Jewish member.
     Nick joined the Omaha Club and barriers were broken."

     Buffet concludes about timing, patience, and Omaha's new Tri-Faith Center:

"The irony is not lost on me that the location of the Tri-Faith campus is none other than the site of Highland Country Club the same turf where my dad made his statement for religious diversity in the 1960s.
     At the press conference announcing that each faith group and the Tri-Faith Center had closed on the land taking the first of many steps to make the vision a reality the most moving moment was when three young people one Jew, one Christian and one Muslim each came to the podium to offer a blessing, one at a time, in their respective faiths.
Listening to those young people, so respectful of each other, and so devout in their own faith, a feeling of hope for the future was palpable in the room."

"For years I have had a bumper sticker on my car that says 'COEXIST.'
     The 'C' is the Muslim crescent, the 'X' is the star of David and the 'T' is the Christian cross.
     Despite the hard work that inevitably lies ahead, the work of the Tri-Faith Initiative makes me believe that the sentiment expressed on my bumper sticker is within reach.
     If not my reach, then the reach of my children."

     Susie's bumpter sticker is described at http://www.coexistbumpersticker.org/
READ more:

Coexistence Is Within Reach:

The Making of a Tri-Faith Community Center

Susan A. Buffett

Huffington Post - 16 December 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-a-buffett/omaha-tri-faith-initiative_b_1154257.html

About Movement
on Earth

     Increasingly, in November 2011 thousands of Muslims and Jews across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa participated  in 4th annual Weekend of Twinning -- https://www.ffeu.org/index.htm
     Since 2008, the Foundation for Ethnic Understandings (FFEU) has organized hundreds of similar initiatives around the world in cooperation with the World Jewish Congress and the Islamic Society of North America.
     The annual Weekend of Twinning brings together hundreds of synagogues and mosques, cultural centers, Muslim and Jewish university students and young leadership groups and Muslim and Jewish social action networks.
In 2011 were 125 events with participation of 250 Muslim, Jewish organizations in 26 countries in four continents
     These gatherings have helped Muslims and Jews in North America, Europe and around the world to nurture ties of friendship and trust -- more each year.

Jews, Muslims hold world's largest dialogue

YNet News -- 23 November 2011

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4151833,00.html

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These and hundreds of other success stories are preserved at http://traubman.igc.org/messages.htm