International and interfaith connections
At the conclusion of the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions, Imam Jamal and I said goodbye to Pastor Don at the Salt Lake City airport and returned to Seattle from four of the most intense days I have spent in a long time. We were among over 10,000 people from 80 different nations and 50 faith traditions to have gathered in the Salt Palace Convention Center. Fortunately, I had packed lightly enough for my suitcase to gain 10 pounds in books and other materials I collected at the Parliament!
There were over 600 presentations, of which the Interfaith Amigos offered two that proved to be extremely well-attended. As expected, we were something unusual, since our 14-year association allows us to share not only from the profound spiritual wisdom of our respective traditions, but from the friendships that continue to deepen among us.
The evening before we left, we chose to escape the crowds and accept a dinner invitation from a remarkable Pakistani friend, Rehan Allahwala. He drove the three of us, along with another man from Bangladesh, across town to a Pakistani restaurant. There we met another young man from Pakistan and a young Palestinian man from East Jerusalem.
The eight of us sat around a table and pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves. After introductions, a conversation that began between me and the Palestinian named Mohammed quickly became the focus. Rehan seemed to invite us to a safer topic than the expanding conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Transcending the need to prove ourselves right
I shared that on our last trip to Israel/Palestine, we spent the majority of our time in East Jerusalem. During those years, I was wearing my kippah all the time, and in that environment, drawing angry stares. When I had opportunities to talk with them, I shared that I was a Jewish American, and not an Israeli. Just as that broke the tension on that trip, it allowed a fascinating dialogue between Mohammed and me.
He had never met a Jew with whom he could share openly. Although we certainly did not agree on everything, we transcended the level of needing to prove ourselves right. When he spoke of the problems with Zionism, I explained that I, too, am a Zionist, since that is a person who supports the existence of the State of Israel as a place where Jews are always welcome.
While I shared my support for a multi-state solution, Mohammed shared what I had often heard from other Palestinians--the one-state solution, where all could live in peace. That was not a new idea, of course. My philosophic mentor, Martin Buber, who came to Israel from Germany at the beginnings of what would become the Holocaust, favored a bi-national state.
I told Mohammed that history has convinced many of us Jews that we needed to have a place where we would always be welcome should anti-Semitism again become the law of a land. I explained that in a world of 1.7 billion Muslims, 2.1 billion Christians, and only 15 million Jews, there was some reason for Jewish paranoia. Like many, he was surprised that Jews constitute less than a quarter of one percent of the world's population.
We did not solve the deep problems in Israel/Palestine, of course. But something very profound opened as a consequence of our conversation. Perhaps the rest of the table breathed a sigh of relief when the talk turned to other matters, but I had not been uncomfortable with that dialogue. I was grateful for the opportunity to talk with a Palestinian and share our perceptions, our experiences, and our beliefs.
Finding alternatives to fruitless polarization
When we meet those with whom there are significant differences of opinion, our normal response is to slip into polarization. Certainly, such polarizations seem to characterize our country and our world. Those on a spiritual path realize that the very form of polarization tears us apart, making common cause and common action veritably impossible.
In personal, national, and international relations, it is crucial that we find the alternative to such fruitless polarizations in which each side believes it is right and the other wrong. In our presentations as Interfaith Amigos, Imam Jamal, Pastor Don, and I stress that spirituality is always inclusive. Spiritual awareness opens wide enough to embrace both sides. Healing will not come through the victory of one side and the defeat of the other. Such a win-lose scenario simply provides the breeding ground for the next problematic polarization.
Mohammed shared that he was changed by our conversation. His basic political position was unchanged, but he had glimpsed another reality, and he had experienced his own position honored.
That night, we missed some wonderful presentations at the Parliament of World Religions. But a small group of us caught sight of an energy of peace. That dinner session had not been listed in the weighty catalogue of Parliament offerings, but it may have been one of the most important of the night.