A free public discussion at New York University’s Deutsches Haus on Tuesday, March 31, will feature an array of experts on Muslim/Jewish/Christian relations in Europe, Latin America, and the US, and LGBT relations with the Abrahamic faiths.
Hardly a day goes by when religion is not in the news – sadly, it’s often a report on discrimination or violence by one faith group against another or against LGBT communities. Yet faith traditions may not be part of the problem – they may be the solution.
A free public discussion at New York University’s Deutsches Haus on Tuesday, March 31, at 6:30 p.m. will feature an array of experts on Muslim/Jewish/Christian relations in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., and LGBT relations with the Abrahamic faiths. These participants will discuss inter-faith dialogue as a way to look at discrimination and co-operation among faith groups and towards LGBT persons. As Professor David Gushee holds, the Christian theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and other righteous Christians who saved Jews from the Nazis offers a critique of "othering" and the way towards a different perspective.
Panel participants will include:
Silvina Chemen is a rabbi, educator, and contributor to materials for UNESCO and UNICEF. She is on the Forum for Religious Diversity at Argentina's National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism and is co-author with Francisco Canzani of A Dialogue of Life: Towards the encounter of Jews and Christians.
Dr. Mehmet Daimagueler is a lawyer and frequent columnist in Germany in Die Welt, Taz, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and works extensively on Muslim-Jewish relations. He has been leading the prosecution in the high-profile case against right-wing violence by the National Socialist Union. His latest book is Kein schönes Land in dieser Zeit (No Pretty Country in Our Times).
Professor David Gushee the the Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University and the author/editor of 20 books and hundreds of articles in The Washington Post and other prestigious periodicals. His books include Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust and the new Changing Our Mind, about Christian relations with the LGBT communities.
Professor Marcia Pally (moderator) teaches at NYU in Multilingual Multicultural Studies and is a regular guest professor at Humboldt University (Berlin). Her latest book on religion, culture, and politics is America’s New Evangelicals: Expanding the Vision of the Common Good. She has written for scores of US periodicals and has been a regular columnist in many German publications.
Events at Deutsches Haus are free. Advance registration is required. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to deutscheshaus.rsvp@nyu.edu. As space at Deutsches Haus (located at 42 Washington Mews, New York, N.Y. – enter the Mews from University Place) is limited, so please arrive 10 minutes prior to the event to ensure a good seat.
Inter-faith dialogue/Dialogue with LGBT is a DAAD-sponsored event.