After minyan this morning, students and faculty were treated to a very informative overview of the beginnings of Islam by Imam Earl El-Amin. Imam El-Amin also shared his personal story – he converted to Islam many years ago, in part because he learned that his African ancestors were probably Muslims. He is very active in interfaith activities, grew up with many Jewish friends, and knows many local rabbis quite well; he also has met with both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict. He took several questions from the audience. After a brief break, we reconvened to hear Imam El-Amin talk informally with Rabbi Chaitovsky about various key questions of theological aspects of the two faith traditions of Judaism and Islam. The Imam also asked questions of the students so that he had a better understanding of our school. Students also had another opportunity to talk with him on topics ranging from what challenges both Jews and Muslims face today, and how he interprets writings that seem antiquated, controversial, or hurtful to some groups (including Jews).
In the afternoon, students broke up into their schpiel troupes and wrote their Purim skits for Friday’s performance. Each group has a particular part of the Megillah, a genre they are using for performance, student directors, and several items that must be included: certain props and certain clichés. Following this, we enjoyed an academic introduction to Islam as well as traditional Arab story-telling with Dr. Hezi Brosh and Jennifer Rudnik (local professional story-teller). Dr. Brosh has his Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University, and is an Associate Professor at the United States Naval Academy. He is the first scholar to explore the influence of cognitive and affective variables on the learning of Arabic as a foreign language by Hebrew speakers (who knew that someone could specialize in that!).
All in all, a successful first day!
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