From Ramadan to Elul: A spiritual journey

By Andrew Friedman, FTA

Image by Carlos Latuff

For Lee Weissman, a Breslov Chasid in Irvine, the recent onset of Elul caps a spiritual journey he began a month ago with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Weissman, a teacher at the Tarbut v’Torah Community Day School in Irvine and a scholar of Southeast Asian religions, says similar themes run through Ramadan and Elul, the Hebrew month of repentance, charity and extra prayers leading up to Rosh Hashanah and the High Holy Days. And he says his close ties with local Muslims have helped put him in the “correct” frame of mind to begin his own month of penitence and prayer.

An Interfaith Easter in Sacramento California

The Sacramento Bee reports that hundreds of worshippers in Sacramento, California, were able to celebrate this Easter Sunday together thanks to a local Muslim organization that let the Christians hold services in their mosque.

Patriarch Bartholomew Praises Gulen’s Dialog Efforts

Bartholomew (Photo: EPA)

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s columnist John Kass, Patriarch Bartholomew praised Fethullah Gülen’s dialogue efforts.

Turkey should do more to protect its Christians

Turan Kayaoğlu, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and a visiting professor at Qatar University, wrote an article that appeared in Today’s Zaman about Turkey’s responsibilities towards its minorities.

The Regeneration Concert for Possibility

(c) Yuval Ron Music

On Sunday March 18th, Regeneration organized their “Regeneration Concert for Possibility“. The concert was held at the Temple Emanuel and it was cosponsored by All Saints Church, Islamic Center of Southern CA, Temple Emanuel and Muslim Public Affairs Council.

President Obama’s Interfaith Dialogue & Community Service Challenge

(c) www.whitehouse.gov

Last spring (2011), the White House announced the establishment of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, aimed at strengthening the relationships among diverse faith groups and promoting interfaith service efforts that benefit the broader, collective community. UCI was honored to be selected to participate in the challenge. More than 200 campuses across the country are participating in the President’s Initiative, including a number of other UC campuses.

Education and Dialogue in the Gulen Movement

James Harrington speaking at
Pacifica Institute, Salt Lake City

On Feb. 25, 2012, James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project and Adjunct Professor at the School of Law in the University of Texas, Austin spoke at the Pacifica Institute for the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable’s Interfaith Month celebrations. Mr. Harrington spoke about the Gulen Movement and how to build civil society. James Harrington is also the author of Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gulen, This event was covered in detail by the Hizmet Movement Blog and can be read in its entirely here.