The Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CMJE) & NewGround Text Study Pilot Program is made possible by the support of our partners: the Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) at the University of Southern California (USC), the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The Text Study Program will use Islamic and Judaic religious texts to promote religious understanding, facilitate dialogue, and enhance participants’ knowledge of their own faith through context, comparison and discussion. The program will be led by Reuven Firestone, professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles and senior fellow at the CRCC, and Jihad Turk, the Director of Religious Affairs at the Islamic Center of Southern California, a Religious Director at USC, and a PhD candidate in Islamic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. NewGround directors, Malka Fenyvesi and Aziza Hasan, will also be leading each session as program facilitators. For more information about the program please see either http://www.usc.edu/cmje or http://www.newgroundproject.org/.

Requirements

 

The CMJE & NewGround Text Study program is for college graduates and professionals who live in Southern California and have an interest in religious text study, interfaith dialogue, civic engagement and education between diverse Muslims and Jews. Participants who are selected for the program will be expected to commit to four text study sessions, once a month (on weekday evenings) for four months. This program will also require some prerequisite reading (approximately two – three hours) as well as some minimal assigned reading between sessions. Participants also commit to attend the closing dinner to take place at the conclusion of the program.