(Auther: Mickey Glass, Vol. 77, #3, Spring 2022)
I am often asked – why interfaith? Why is it necessary for different faith communities to work together? Surely, it’s perfectly OK for each of us to do the best we can within our own circle, minding our own garden, so to speak.
In the history of Western civilization nothing has proved harder than to see God, to see human dignity, to see good in those whose language is not ours, whose skin is a different colour, whose faith is not our faith, whose truth is not our truth. Quietly, without bells and whistles, we who choose to be involved in interfaith activities try to convey a simple message: He is my God, but also the God of all mankind, even of those whose customs and way of life are totally unlike mine.
I approach interfaith work from a specific Jewish perspective. My involvement is premised on a very important principle outlined, amongst others, by Rabbi J.D. Soleveitchik a great many years ago: The God of Israel is the God of everyone, but the religion of Israel is not the religion of everyone”.
We sit with others to improve the world, but we do not worship together. All faiths share certain beliefs and thus we have no hesitation in joining hands with all who share our vision of Tikkun Olam – by our acts we redeem a fractured world. We have much to learn from one another and must not be afraid to draw on the knowledge, expertise and experience of others. We even have a special blessing to be recited on meeting a non-Jew of wisdom: “Who has given His wisdom to mortal man” (Brachot 58a).
My involvement in interfaith is premised on a very important principle outlined, amongst others, by Rabbi J.D. Soleveitchik many years ago: “The God of Israel is the God of everyone, but the religion of Israel is not the religion of everyone”.
Before myths about events in the Middle East muddied the waters, there were, as a matter of course, meetings between Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to discuss common concerns. I recall, for example, a joint delegation going to the Minister of Defence at the time to discuss assigning Muslim and Jewish army conscripts to camps situated close to town with mosques and synagogues.
Here in Cape Town the interfaith movement had its genesis in the struggle against the iniquities of apartheid. Rabbis such as David Rosen, Eugene Duschinsky, David Sherman and Selwyn Franklin led the way, often against the wishes of the then leaders of the community, in building bridges and partnering other faith communities in various programmes and practical projects. The Cape Town Interfaith Forum was founded by Rabbis Duschinsky and Sherman, working with Hussein Solomon and others.
Throughout the country Jewish religious leaders were in the forefront. How many recall that the first religious leader expelled from South Africa for ‘political’ activities was a Jew, Rabbi Andre Unger of Port Elizabeth? Elsewhere in South Africa, former Chief Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz, Rabbi Moses Weiler and Rabbi Ben Isaacson in Johannesburg as well as Rabbi Richards in Durban were amongst the most prominent public critics of what was then government policy.
I mention this background because it is important to understand that co-operating with other religious communities is not something new but is based on a clear understanding of the Jewish message. It is about faith, an unusual faith in which God summoned a people and charged them with becoming his partners. That faith inspired not only Jews, but also Christians and Muslims. As phrased so succinctly by then Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: “Judaism was never meant for Jews alone. It contains a message for all humanity. Judaism belongs to the human conversation”. It is up to us to make the effort to share our ideas, and let others share theirs with us.
I mention this background because it is important to understand that co-operating with other religious communities is not something new but is based on a clear understanding of the Jewish message. It is about faith, an unusual faith in which God summoned a people and charged them with becoming his partners. That faith inspired not only Jews, but also Christians and Muslims. As phrased so succinctly by then Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: “Judaism was never meant for Jews alone. It contains a message for all humanity. Judaism belongs to the human conversation”. It is up to us to make the effort to share our ideas, and let others share theirs with us.
Jewish involvement in interfaith activities has contributed much to our success in creating links of understanding and facilitating co-operation on a wide range of social issues. What makes such unified action much easier is the fact that both Christianity and Islam grew in Jewish soil – Judaism is twice as old as Christianity and three times as old as Islam – and share the ethos of our common father, Abraham.
In 1991-2, the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris was the primary mover in the drafting of the religious charter – or to give its official title – “The Declaration of the Rights and Responsibilities of Religious People”. It was vitally important for faith leaders to sit together to place on record, publicly, the values without which a just social order could not be established. It was most important for the collective strength of the religious communities to be established in order to facilitate the promotion of reconciliation and reconstruction.
With the South African social fabric being shredded, I believe that the time has come for our religious communities to become a lot more vocal about matters which impact negatively on the life of every single South African. Faith communities can no longer be silent on the grounds that this or that issue is ‘political’. Whilst the last thirty years has witnessed many achievements of which we can justifiably be proud, the reality is that very much more could have, and should have been achieved. As the custodians of the moral high ground faith communities, working together, need to publicly draw red lines wherever they are required in order to create a public awareness of how our elected office bearers and public servants are expected to carry out their responsibilities to the electorate. As long as there remains a perception of impunity and avoidance of responsibility, behaviour patterns are unlikely to change. The first step to restore responsibility and accountability is to hold those who deviate from acceptable norms to account and to seize their ill-gotten gains.
What makes unified action much easier is the fact that both Christianity and Islam grew in Jewish soil and share the ethos of our common father, Abraham.
The Catholic historian Paul Johnson, in his monumental work The History of the Jews stated what, to him, was obvious. He writes that the Jews were the exemplars and epitomizers of the human condition. It seems, he said, to be the role of the Jews to focus and dramatize the common experiences of mankind and turn their universal fate into a universal moral. Our uniqueness is our universality.
I believe that in these times, interfaith programmes are even more important. As we live in an age of turbulence, we need to find an antidote to the fear which expresses itself in so many different ways, including, of course, antisemitism. That antidote, we believe, is faith – a faith that knows and has experienced nearly all the dangers but nevertheless never loses hope. Faith is not certainty, but it provides each of us with the courage to live with uncertainty and the trust that led us, the Jews, to rebuild our lives and return to our ancestral home. The Jews remain a living symbol of hope.
The dignity of the individual, the sanctity of life, the rule of justice over the powerful and the powerless alike, the establishment of a compassionate society living in law-governed liberty – these are Jewish precepts which form the basis of our Western democracies and are the constant messages which we, as Jews, try to convey in our interactions with other faith communities. As we go about our various activities we try, wherever possible, to avoid political discussions. This is particular so when we work with the Muslim community.
I mention this specifically because I want to stress that antisemitism is not intrinsic to Islam as it once was to Christianity. Its appearance in Islam only dates back to the 19th Century and there was never a counterpart within classical Islam to the antisemitism of medieval Christianity that saw Jews as the cosmic embodiment of evil.
Many will recall the extremely well attended function in 2016 at the Marais Road shul to mark the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. The Second Vatican Council under the leadership of Pope Paul VI forever altered the Christian approach to Judaism. This was further proof, if proof was required, that Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. The victim cannot cure the crime. Only those active in a culture which harbours it can effectively fight antisemitism.
It is in times such as these that it is even more important than ever that we engage with other religions, concentrating on those precepts which we share and have in common. We need to remember at all times that we are all in God’s image and yet we are all different.
Far too often in today’s world, groups speak to themselves and not to one another – Jews to Jews, Christians to fellow Christians, Muslims to Muslims. Differences in practices, in customs, in beliefs are very rarely explained. Gone are the days when people of different viewpoints shared the public arena and were thus able to meet and reason with their opponents. Our world is dominated by social media which targets those who disagree with us and effectively screens out the voice of dissent.
Conversation, which is the heartbeat of democracy, is slowly dying and with it our chances of peaceful interaction. I am one of those who believes that interfaith co-operation can be a form of conflict resolution.
In our ambient society we have 760 000 Muslims and over 25 million Christians of different sects. Other small groups include Bahai, Hindu, Buddhists and African Tradition which is a variation of Christianity with a strong leaning to ancestor worship. It is only by interfaith activities that we learn about one another and get to respect the values which are common to all.
In our interactions with other faiths, we seldom get involved in the politics of division – Muslims and Jews in the Middle East; Hindu and Muslim in Kashmir; Christians and Muslims in Nigeria; Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland; Buddhists and Hindu in Sri Lanka – these are all divisive issues. But they are not at all religious or theological in origin. They are all territorial conflicts in which ethnic religious differences are exploited mercilessly. That remains an issue to be addressed as long as we are aware of the paradoxes that whilst each of our religions claim to improve the human condition and aspire to world peace and harmony, they also remain a constant vehicle for strife and violence. It was Pope Paul 11 who said that “violence in the name of religion is not religion”. It is clear that when violence is NOT in legitimate self-defense, it is a desecration of religion itself. Judaism also emphasizes that to fight against threats is not always a solution. “Our sages teach us: Who is the real hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend”.
Twenty-three years ago, we were privileged to host in Cape Town the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Over 7000 delegates from around the globe spent a week examining all aspects of interfaith co-operation. The conclusion arrived at was that we do not seek religious unity but religious harmony.
The Jewish tradition expresses itself in a fusion of universalism and particularism. On the one hand Jews are vitally concerned with the problems affecting the common destiny of man. We consider ourselves members of the universal community charged with the responsibility of promoting progress in all fields, economic, social, scientific and ethical. Thus, we don’t believe in Jewish isolationism, in living in culturally closed societies.
On the other hand, we remain a distinctive faith community with a unique commitment, a singular relationship to God and a specific way of life. We thus welcome an exchange of ideas and impressions in areas of universal concern. In areas of faith, religious law, doctrine and ritual, Jews have always been guided by distinctive concerns, ideals and commitments. This explains why we co-operate essentially on the level of practical action.
If we look around the world, not least in our own backyard, we need to understand that there is much in our broken society which is crying out for correction. We live in a very unequal society. There is much that require us to work together, especially since much was aggravated by the Covid pandemic. Let us look at some of the most important issues:
Research has shown that child hunger has become a major issue. The proportion of households experiencing real hunger due to insufficient food has increased from 13% to 19%. The most startling finding is that child hunger is now at the highest level in a decade.
Previous surveys had shown that one in eight (12%) households with children had children suffering hunger every week. This increased in the latest survey to one in six (18+%) with the sharpest increase being for households with black children – up from 13% to 19%) suffering from hunger. Before the pandemic more than one in four (27%) of SA’s children were stunted, meaning that malnourishment was so bad that they had “low height for age”. Hunger also results in negative mental health and depression. Amongst those who had experienced hunger, 40% screened positive for depressive symptoms, compared to 27% for those who had enough to eat. One of the major reasons for the deterioration in hunger figures was the closure of schools during the pandemic.
All faith communities need to formulate their policies internally and then insist on being involved. It is no longer sufficient to allow politicians to be the sole arbiters of when our children are given food or simply ignored.
We often see figures of unemployment published. But have you stopped to consider the implications? Total unemployment is close to 50%. Nearly 60% of the 22-30 age-group are unemployed. One of the contributory causes is the shockingly poor education – the most recent survey disclosed that over 74% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in any language. Almost one third of the unemployed have obtained their matric certificate and many remain illiterate and innumerate. This inequality is particularly noticeable in rural communities. I am not here to shock you with figures but merely to draw attention to those social issues which impact on our society, and which deserve the attention of all people of faith.
Liberal democracy is at risk throughout the Western world, in Britain, Europe and the United States. People are not machines and survive by caring for one another. Freedom, dignity, compassion and rights will not survive unless they are supported by a moral sense that puts our shared humanity first. Politics will continue to disappoint our expectations and the resultant tide of anger and resentment is an increasing alarm, a danger signal for the future of freedom.
Universities used to be seen as bastions of free speech, of new ideas, of enlightenment. Today, they lead in the deterioration of public standards of truth and civil debate and constantly threaten the freedom of expression. Universities are increasingly guilty of hedging free speech, of limiting access to contrary views and creating all kinds of qualifications, making it no longer free. The tenor of debate, whether in politics or academia, has become angrier and more vituperative. We no longer have room for opposing view- points. This leads, eventually, to a feeling of powerlessness, anxiety and fear and opens the doors to populists, people who claim to resolve these differences for us.
Another dimension of our contemporary unease relates to the issue of inequality. There is no way that Mr. Average working man or woman can relate to a CEO of a mining house taking R340 million in remuneration or even R40 million for the CEO of a retail group, no matter how rational the explanation might be. Forty years ago, the ratio between the salary of a worker compared to that of a boss was about 20 to 1. Today it is 320:1. This is a global issue, but it is simply unsustainable in a society such as ours.
Another reality is that 95% of personal and company tax is raised from the richest 5% of the population. Put another way, the wealthiest 3 million South Africans are expected to carry the load for 60 million. This too is not sustainable. Official figures indicate that during the period 1990-2018, more than 900 000 South Africans emigrated, of whom 1000 were millionaires. I mention this because there appears to be a belief that all government needs to do is to increase taxes.
Because of political realities, the governing party was forced to follow a policy of cadre deployment, resulting in numerous local authorities and national departments being forced to offer employment and appoint totally unqualified but, politically well connected, individuals to positions of authority. There are thousands of positions in local, provincial and national government where politics trumped competence. Cadre deployment has resulted in hundreds of public protests in almost all parts of the country, evidence of qualified professional being retired and replaced by political hacks. Just bear in mind, that we are looking at billions of rand syphoned away, resulting in the collapse of services.
In July 2021 we witnessed wanton destruction, random hysterical hatred directed at businesses, at institutions, at government. Over 340 people died. It represented the greatest failure of our Police services, security agencies and our Defence Force. But, of course, the dysfunction of government is denied and ignored and twelve months after these horrific scenes appeared on our TV screens, those responsible continue to behave with impunity, without even a suggestion that any political leader should assume responsibility for things which “just happened”.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where corruption has become systemic and all efforts to eliminate corrupt practices need to enjoy the full support of society, which it does not. We need to ask, where is the voice of morality – because society is constituted by a shared morality. It is only our faith communities who can again create the trust between humanity so that we can work together without having to constantly guard against violence, betrayal, deception and exploitation. As we enter 2023, we need to strengthen the bonds of community in order to establish the needed trust in order to achieve our objectives.
One definition of ‘populism’ is trading on people’s bitterness. A better definition might be ‘a form of politics that occurs when people see unacceptable gaps opening in wealth and opportunity, when they feel that the establishment elites are working against them, that the government is ignoring their problems’. This leads to calls for strong leaders and a relative indifference to normal democratic process. This loss of trust in public institutions, in our political leaders, inevitably give rise to extremism in politics, to xenophobia, and an increasing disconnect between the so-called elite on the top and the Mr. the bottom.
We see it all around us. A new phenomenon called “identity politics” has emerged. Political campaigning is no longer focused on the nation as a whole but on self-identifying minorities, leading to the counter politics of populism claiming to speak on behalf a beleaguered and enraged indigenous population who see themselves side-lined and short- changed. New political parties are founded to fight the inroads of ‘foreigners.
Add to this is the manipulative use of social media. The constant distortions, the post-truth, alternate facts and fake news all serve to stir the pot of resentment and anger. Social media dominates – whatever happens in Pofadder could well be a headline in New York.
This collapse of society’s norms is not a South African issue only. It is worldwide. Three years ago in America, 72 000 died from a drug overdose; alcoholism is killing more and more teenagers around the world; suicide rates are up 33% in less than 20 years; in Britain the number of people receiving treatment for drug abuse has increased more than four-fold in a single decade; a report in Britain told us that 20% of 14-year-old girls in Britain had deliberately harmed themselves.
We in South Africa are not immune to these trends. A question comes to mind – where is society headed, particularly in our democratic western world? It seems as if the battle for freedom has been won but the pursuit of happiness remains a mirage. And unscrupulous politicians are not afraid to use these fears to promote a populist agenda.
Until fairly recently it was common cause that society depended on a moral consensus. That morality was promoted by faith communities. Faith communities are thus pivotal to the whole idea of society building. That is why I believe that the interfaith movement is so important.
We evaluate man as the bearer of God’s likeness. We define morality as an act of imitato Dei, etc. That is why our dialogue on these and other issues must be grounded in religious values.
Nearly four thousand years ago we received the Ten Commandments. These, subtly and uniquely, blend laws regarding our relationship with God together with laws that deal with social justice. At the time this created a completely new world view as opposed to the norms existing at the time. Over three million people, the Jews, for the first time received, as it were, a book of instructions which emphasized that the religious experience and the decency upon which we are commanded to build our interpersonal relationships are no longer to be seen as two diverse, separate realms – rather they are two aspects one whole – religion and common decency are intertwined and inseparable. It is mostly forgotten that social justice was introduced to the world by the Jews. Whilst Judaism, like all faiths, might contain some strange concepts, its ultimate purpose is certainly no mystery: It is to honour the image of God in other people and thus turn the world into a home for the divine presence.
Until fairly recently it was common cause that society depended on a moral consensus. That morality was promoted by faith communities. Faith communities are pivotal to the whole idea of society building.
We know that our common father, Abraham, was invited by God to initiate a new faith in which every generation strove for justice in human terms. It is not a faith which accepts the status quo as God’s will. On the contrary, it’s a faith in which God invites human beings to become his partners in the work of redemption; to build a society on the basis of a justice that people understand and relate to.
In recent years, social responsibility has become problematic. There exists a perception that these issues are far too big for individuals to make a difference. So, we delegate our responsibilities to government. In so doing, we substitute politics for ethics, law for moral obligation and independent contractors for personal involvement. And so social responsibility has become a matter of personal choice rather than collective responsibility.
Any conception of human life without social responsibility fails to justice to human dignity. Judaism teaches that someone else’s physical needs are my spiritual obligation. Thus, wherever you find a Jewish community, you will find self-help groups. Our own small Cape Town humanity exemplifies this:
We run our own aged home – Highlands House; our own orphanage which caters mainly to children from broken homes as well as orphans – Oranjia; we established a half-way house providing a residence and controlled employment to those who are physically and mentally challenged – Astra Sheltered Employment and Rosecourt; we have a home for those whose physical and mental condition makes it impossible for them to join other facilities – Glendale. Then there are helping hand societies for those needing interest free bridging finance to tide their businesses through choppy waters and there are over 750 family units depending entirely on community support for their weekly groceries.
But, of course, our embrace of social responsibility extends far beyond our own community and its needs:
For over thirty years we have operated Afrika Tikkun, co-founded by late Chief Rabbi Harris, whose annual budget today comfortably exceeds R100 million. It specializes in skills development and training in transformative development from cradle to career.
Jewish initiative led to the establishment more than 55 years ago of Ikamva Labantu. It is now the largest, by far, NGO active on the Cape Flats. Helen Lieberman created an organization which is today the standard by which others are judged. It caters to the needs of thousands every single day.
Rolene Miller was the moving spirit behind the establishment of MOSAIC. She saw that abused women in the townships desperately needed to be empowered and educated about domestic violence. MOSAIC, now active in 33 communities, was the first body dealing specifically with domestic violence, helping with the writing of affidavits and assisting in obtaining protection orders and counselling. [For more on Rolene Miller and Helen Lieberman, see Gwynne Schrire, “For the greater good of society”: Five remarkable Cape Town Women”, Jewish Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 1, Pesach 2018, “For the greater good of society”: Five remarkable Cape Town Women – Jewish Affairs
Our Union of Jewish Women has provided early school facilities for decades throughout the country, but especially here on the Cape Flats. The Kensington Educare Centre provides quality education and nutritional support to high-risk pre-school children. The Union is also involved in the Vlottenberg Community Centre, which keeps children off the streets in areas such as Blue Downs, Wesbank and other neighbourhoods and also help with senior citizens who do not enjoy family support or food. In Khayelitsha, the UJW helps the Nolunthu Soup Kitchen and After School Centre. It also supports Babes Creche in Dunoon, the Mama Flo project to end period poverty and joined with social workers and nursing staff at Somerset Hospital in providing at-risk mothers with baby bags (a project known as “Bags for New Beginnings”).
I could go on listing other projects, other centres but the point I want to stress is that our small community is deeply involved in uplifting and improving the lives of those living in marginalized communities, an involvement which I must emphasize, is out of all proportion to our size.
Why? Because our Bible gives a very clear message: Serving God and serving our fellow human beings is inseparably linked and any split between the two impoverishes both. And let us be clear – this applies to all faiths. It is not what God does for us, but what we do for God, that changes us.
It was the Jewish prophets who introduced the whole idea of man’s responsibility to his fellow man, the concept of social welfare. No one who reads the Jewish prophets can fail to understand that every individual is sacrosanct; every life is sacred; every human being has inalienable dignity. Thirty- six times in our Bible we are told to remember the stranger in our midst, to ignore the suffering around us at our peril. That is the basis of human rights as taught by our Torah. Those of us who claim to be people of faith need to always remember that it was in and as the voice of social protest that the Biblical imagination took place.
Our vision of the universe is anything but comfortable. To imitate God is to be alert to poverty, suffering and the loneliness of others, to act directly, not only through prayer but through positive action. That is the challenge which our faith communities face. And we need to face it together.
Mickey Glass is a former director of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues – Cape. He has been involved for many years in interfaith work in the Western Cape, including serving as chairman of the Western Cape Religious Leader’s Forum. This article has been adapted from his address to University of the Third Age Comparative religions course in September 2022.
