Institute of Interfaith Dialog organized a lecture together with Congregation Beth Yeshurun. Rabbi Reuven Firestone, Professor of Medieval Jewish and Islamic Studies, HUC-JIR/Los Angeles, gave a lecture entitled "Anti-Semitism, Islam phobia and Opportunities for Dialog and Understanding" on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at Congregation Beth Yeshurun.

The event started with Rabbi David Rosen's welcoming comments. Later on Rabbi Steven Morgan introduced Reuven Firestone to the audiences. Rabbi Firestone began his talk with historical roots of Anti-Semitism and Islam phobia. He noted that both terms reflected racism and irrational hatred directed towards Jews and Muslims, respectively and they were deeply embedded in the Western World. He pointed out that in today's Western World, terrorism and Islam were mistakenly considered together. He emphasized that Islam was not the source of the problem, but individuals were. Rabbi Firestone stated that prejudices were cultural, not religious.  In the rest of his talk, Rabbi Firestone asserted that we had to accept and respect our disagreements. In this respect, Rabbi Firestone concluded his speech with a verse from the Old Testament and Qur'an.

Old Testament, Micah, Chapter 4 verses 3-6: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken. For let all the peoples walk each one in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.  Qur'an, Al Mâ'idah - the Table Spread-Chapter 5, verse 48: "If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues." 

Rabbi Firestone's speech was followed by questions from the audience. As an answer to the question "What can we do together to eliminate prejudices against one another?", he said that we need to know one another, our differences and commonalities through education and public media. When answering another question, he remarked that we need real democracy in which everybody will be respected and accepted regardless of their backgrounds and differences. He continued that racial or religious profiling did not work to eliminate the problem. He further said that secularism did not always guarantee the ideal democracy for everybody.

The lecture was concluded by mutual greetings of the attendees.