Talking To The Other: Jewish Interfaith Dialogue With Christians And Muslims

Talking to the Other Jacob said to Esau: I have seen your face as if seeing the face of God and you have received me favourably. (Genesis 33:10) Talking to the Other Jewish Interfaith Dialogue with Christians and Muslims Jonathan Magonet The publication of this book was made possible through a subsidy from the Stone Ashdown Trust Published in 2003 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © Jonathan Magonet, 2003 The right of Jonathan Magonet to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 1 86064 905 X A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset in Caslon by Dexter Haven Associates, London Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books, Bodmin Contents 1 Foreword, by Prince Hassan bin Tallal vii Preface xiii Interfaith Dialogue – A Personal Introduction 1 From Theory to Practice 2 The Challenge to Judaism of Interfaith Dialogue 11 3 Chances and Limits of Multicultural Society 23 4 Reflections on the Jewish Immigrant Experience 34 5 Controversy for the Sake of Heaven 48 6 Between Controversy and Conflict 62 7 The Ten Commandments and the Quest for Universal Values 73 8 Risk-taking in Religious Dialogue 90 9 Teaching the Teachers 107 Addressing Christians 10 Jewish Perceptions of Jesus 122 11 When I See What Christians Make of the ‘Hebrew’ Bible 134 Addressing Muslims 12 Jewish Perceptions of Muhammad 147 13 The Challenges Facing the Muslim Community 161 Addressing Jews 14 Towards a Jewish–Muslim Dialogue 169 Interfaith Dialogue and the Middle East: A Documentation 15 Haman’s New Victims 179 16 An Evening of Mourning for the Victims of the Massacre at the Hebron Mosque 183 17 Prayers for Peace in the Middle East 188 18 From a Narrow Place: A New Year Sermon 192 19 The Journey to Dialogue 199 Afterword, by Karen Armstrong 204 Appendix I: What is JCM? 208 Appendix II: A Prayer for Interfaith Meetings 214 Notes on the Text 215 References