Definition:

Of, relating to, or involving persons of different religious faiths.

‘Dialogue is about encountering the other in their own terms’ Rabbi Jonathan Magonet

The terms interfaith or interfaith dialogue refer to the cooperative attempt between people of different religious traditions at both an individual and institutional level to understand the position of one other.

Historically, countless wars have been fought and individual battles engaged in by people who could not live side by side in their different faiths. The media emphasise the tensions and hostilities between different religious groups. Interfaith dialogue is the attempt to break down barriers and build bridges between people with differing belief systems and to find places of commonality.

Reform Judaism encourages interfaith dialogue and Reform Jews have been at the forefront of Jewish Christian Muslim relations. This was recognized in 2004 when the Chief Executive of the Movement for Reform Judaism was appointed as joint president on the Council for Christians and Jews. The Leo Baeck College, which trains rabbis for the progressive movements, includes Jewish Christian Muslim dialogue as part of its core curriculum. They are involved in the annual Jewish Christian Muslim conference in Germany every year which creates encounters between people of different faiths.

The primary type of interfaith dialogue for Reform Jews is Jewish Christian Muslim dialogue due to the shared descent of the three faiths from Abraham. This shared tradition serves as a starting point for exploration of shared values as well as differences. Dialogue with other non-Abrahamic faiths also takes place and is of course deeply valued.

The majority of Reform synagogues have interfaith programmes and connections and encourage involvement.

‘It is particularly the responsibility of Jews who are committed to the Reform or Liberal end of the Jewish spectrum of religious practice to be at the forefront of dialogue with modernity in all its various guises, and obviously at the interface with the outer world and other faith traditions. The times determine what is essential, and the situation of Jews in an open society is not merely affected by outside forces but to a large extent defined by them. So areas like interfaith dialogue, that might have seemed marginal at various times in the past, are now much more central.’ Jonathan Magonet in ‘Talking to the Other: Jewish Interfaith Dialogue with Christians and Muslims’.