By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
Rabbi David Rosen is a busy man.
Along with being the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department for Interreligious Affairs, he is also the chairman for the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, a coalition that represents Judaism to other religions, specifically in dealings with the Catholic Church.
“This the only area we Orthodox formally work together with the Reform and Conservative movements on any global scale issues,” Rosen said of IJCIC.
All told, he chairs or serves on almost a dozen organizations that deal with interfaith relations. Rosen, who was in Seattle during the spring to take part in the Seeds of Compassion events, said he spends about 70 percent of his time on the road, traveling to different conferences and speaking engagements.
JTNews spoke with Rosen earlier this month, prior to his taking part in a panel discussion at the University of Washington called “Religions as Promoters of Human Rights and Peace?”
JTNews: A large part of your career has been devoted to promoting interfaith dialogue. How did interfaith catch your attention in the first place?
Rosen: I came to interfaith through a commitment to social justice in South Africa. There, I was rabbi at a rather ridiculously young age of the largest Orthodox congregation in the world, with a membership of 10,000 and 1,500 attendance in synagogue on the Sabbath. And my wife and I decided we would only be in South Africa if we were going to stick to our moral principals. One of the ways you could engage communities across what was called “the color bar,” the racial divide, was through interfaith. So I got involved in interfaith out of that commitment to social justice and then determined that it was terribly important for all kinds of reasons, like the way we’re perceived, and in terms of contributing to society and promoting shared values. So I became quite passionate.
JT: It seems like interest in interfaith discussion has grown in the past few years. Have you found this to be true?
Rosen: Yes, that’s true. Especially in Israel and especially with my colleagues in the Orthodox rabbinate who 20 years ago would have thought that I was very strange to be involved in this kind of work. Today there is overwhelming understanding that it is, at the very least, necessary.
JT: What has brought about that change — the impression that interfaith connections are necessary?
Rosen: There are many things in many parts of the world. In Israel, what has had an affect on it has been the visit of the pope in the year 2000. Also, relations with countries where religion is so much a societal force, like with India. And a recognition that with violent, extremist attacks on Jews and on Jewish interests and specifically on Israel, that allies who will condemn violence, specifically within the Muslim world, are of strategic importance to protect our own interest and our own well-being.
JT: In August, you wrote an article on the Saudi-led interfaith conference in Spain. That event in and of itself seems like a big step forward.
Rosen: In a way, what’s happening with the Saudis is a parallel to what is happening with Haredi Judaism — understanding that you can’t live in complete isolation. And that, in certain respects, in terms of your image and your interest, it’s not good for you to do this, which for the ultra-Orthodox world is a radical change in their self-understanding, and for the Saudis, similarly. It’s a mind-boggling transformation.
JT: One thing that was really striking about that article was your description of meeting people who had never seen Jews before. What was that like to be an ambassador for an entire religion?
Rosen: Well, that happens to me very often, especially in the East. What was different with the Saudis was that people who had never met Jews were sitting down with enormous prejudices — but at least being open to whether those prejudices were right or wrong. But when I travel to the East, to Japan or India, there Judaism is basically a tabula rasa. They have no idea what it is, much less what a rabbi is. So I often come across people who are delightfully ignorant. Sometimes dangerously ignorant. In the Saudi case, it was amazing to hear some of their misconceptions, I mean some really frightening ones. But this was great. It was an opportunity to have a serious, rational conversation, which was quite amazing.
JT: What do you see as the biggest challenge right now for those working in the interfaith sector?
Rosen: It’s a frustration that probably relates for many here in Seattle over the wonderful events that happened with the Dalai Lama. And that is, good news does not travel well. I often say that at our interfaith meetings, for all the wonderful things we’re doing, we need to end up with some sort of fistfight at the end; if someone could bloody somebody else’s nose, because that way people would know about it. Because when it’s constructive, it doesn’t get coverage. Now, I’m not blaming the media, I’m blaming us. How do you get a positive message across? The image of religion for most people in the world today is negative because what we usually see in the newspapers in negative. And it’s not wrong, it’s right. But it’s just a tiny fraction of what’s going on. The vast majority of is overwhelmingly positive and we don’t get that message out.