Armonk rabbi an interfaith player
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- July
- 29
STILL IN NEW HAVEN—I just had a nice talk with Rabbi Douglas Krantz, the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk. He’s an observer at the big Christian/Muslim summit here at Yale and will be on a panel that sums things up on Thursday.
I spoke to him in a lovely Yale courtyard during a coffee break. I asked him how he became a participant.
“I got invited,” he said.
He’s been involved in interfaith work before, so someone knew something. Krantz is less interested in how he got here than the work that’s being done.
“These are people who have differences—and they’re talking,” he said. “That is significant. And everyone is not necessarily agreeing on everything.”
Interfaith work is hard work, Krantz told me. It’s about building human relations. “Human relations are structures. Profound structures,” he said.
Krantz also mentioned one of the unspoken truths at most interfaith events: That you have to deal with the religions on paper and how people really behave.
“Christians, Muslims and Jews are not necessarily idealized manifestations of their religions,” he said.
What will say at Thursday’s wrap-up? He’s not yet sure. But he knows the key to pursuing and promoting interfaith relations.
“I think we just keep going.”
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on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 3:16 pm by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
