Meaningful relationships exist even with irreconcilable differences.
In the spirit of continuing intereligious dialogue, even under the most difficult of circumstances, ICJS offers Can We Talk? Urgent Interreligious Conversations in a Time of War, a three-option package to facilitate conversations for groups (schools, staffs, organizations, congregations) about Israel and Gaza, particularly as related to identities and issues rooted in religious difference.
The first option (Workshop) may be offered to a large group, such as a full faculty and staff, and may serve as a stand-alone training or as a preliminary learning for the dialogue activity. The second option (Dialogue) is for small in-person groups only. Dialogue participation should be voluntary and the workshop (or similar training) is a prerequisite for participation. The third option (Reflection) is only for those who have completed the dialogue.
All programs are based on the ICJS framework of Dialogue vs. Debate, which teaches fundamental dialogue skills.
For more information or to arrange a session contact Christine Gallagher or Melissa Zieve.
This workshop provides foundational learning for any conversation that touches on religion and religious diversity. Through teaching and reflection, this 90-minute session is an exploration of how dialogue can be a path to mutual understanding, how religion shows up in public spaces, and why dismantling bias and bigotry requires us to learn how to talk about religion.
The workshop has two components. The first part is an exploration of our theory of dialogue and how it can be a path to mutual understanding. The second part is a presentation on how religion shows up in public spaces and why dismantling bias and bigotry requires us to learn how to talk about religion.
Both parts are a mix of presentation and individual reflection.
90 minutes (in-person preferred but remote is possible)
Participants in the opt-in, guided dialogue practice skills of dialogue, especially listening to learn, asking questions to clarify, and respecting others’ experiences as true and valid for them.
Prior to meeting, participants complete a three-question form which we will use to create a shared text that will form the basis of our dialogue. This workshop is described in greater detail in this Q&A with Melissa Zieve.
The dialogue activity involves vulnerability. Before agreeing to participate, community members should ask themselves the following questions:
Prior to meeting, participants will respond to three questions in an anonymous online form which we will use to create a shared text that will form the basis of our dialogue.
105 minutes (in-person only)
Within two weeks after the dialogue activity, we lead participants through a reflection exercise to process their dialogue experience and reflect on how it has affected their conversations since then.
90 minutes (in-person only)
A partial list of organizations and institutions that have completed a workshop or facilitated dialogue in the past year:
By Heather Miller Rubens | September 2024
When I’ve told people about the work we have been doing this past year at ICJS, they have a lot of questions: How are you actually able to do dialogue right now? Has the war frayed interreligious relationships beyond repair? What are commonly held expectations and fears about interreligious dialogue, particularly around Israel and Gaza? What has ICJS learned as an organization?
In this Q&A, Melissa Zieve, ICJS’ senior director for program, scholarship, and operations, offers her reflections after nearly a year of co-leading (with ICJS’ Christine Gallagher and Heather Miller Rubens) these candid, but difficult dialogue and listening sessions.
I was saying that I’ve learned to define dialogue as two people having irreconcilable differences, but hearing each other—me being able to repeat that person’s point back to them, and them saying, ‘Yes, that’s what I said.’ And when I say that, people are actually moved.