MONTREAL/November 12, 2003—
http://peace.concordia.ca
MONTREAL/ November 11, 2003 - On Thursday, November 13, at 8:30pm, Concordia University will present Building on Sand: Is Inter-Religious Dialogue Realistic? The event will be held in room H-937 of the Henry F. Hall Building (1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West), and is co-sponsored by Concordia's Peace and Conflict Resolution lecture series and the Canadian Endeavour for Moderation.
Rabbi Leigh Lerner (of Temple Beth Emanu-El Sholom), a leader of Montreal's Reform Judaism movement, and Professor Mahmoud Ayoub (of Temple University ñ Philadelphia) will speak at the event. Both of these men have long histories as innovators in inter-religious dialogue, and have spearheaded several successful exploratory programs. They will discuss the methodologies that they use to overcome the obstacles to dialogue, and will share the insights they have gleaned from their decades of service.
Rabbi Lerner is most noted for his work with the Montreal Christian-Jewish Dialogue and the Montreal Muslim-Jewish Dialogue, as well as for hosting several leaders of the peace movement at Temple Emanu-El. Professor Ayoub is an international broker for Muslim-Christian and Muslim-Jewish reconciliation movements, having worked extensively in the United States, Canada and Lebanon. He has taught at Seminaries and Rabbinical Colleges, and currently serves on the U.S. Inter-religious Committee for Peace in the Middle East.
Based in Montreal and founded in 2003, the Canadian Endeavour for Moderation editorial board consists of four Jewish and Muslim students from Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Canada. The endeavour was conceived in response to the deteriorating relations between Montreal's Jewish and Muslim communities and the obscurity of moderate voices within the more extremist factions. The endeavour is a journalistic and research exercise with a pro-moderate agenda. It reports on Jewish and Muslim political moderation in Montreal and Canada but by amassing a centralized resource for moderates and potential. The endeavour works with the Department of Religion at Concordia University.
For information about this particular event, contact Ian Spiegel at (514) 295-1371. For updates about the series, please contact Laurie Lamoureux Scholes at peace@alcor.concordia.ca or (514) 848-2424, ext. 3816.
- 30 -
