Comparative Approaches in Jewish and Islamic Studies
Please join the GTU's Madrasa-Midrasha Program for a webinar on "Comparative Approaches in Jewish and Islamic Studies" featuring Jerusha Rhodes (Islam, Social Justice and Interreligious Engagement Program (ISJIE) at Union Theological Seminary) and Noa Bar-Gabai (Swig Program for Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco).
Watch the Program Here
Dr. Rhodes's talk is titled "Muslima Theology as Comparative Theology" and will focus on the potential and value of comparative approaches in Muslima theology (Islamic feminist theology). Acknowledging concerns and obstacles related to power and knowledge, Dr. Rhodes will discuss ways in which informed comparative engagement enhances constructive egalitarian theologies.
Dr. Bar-Gabai's talk, "Traces of Vanished Jewish-Muslim Symbiosis in Mizrahi Traditionism" will explore Mizrahi traditionism (“masortiyut”), a dynamic relation to Jewish law and tradition that grew out of patterns of Islamic modernization. Haviva Pedaya and Albert Swissa, Hebrew writers with roots in the Muslim world, portray Mizrahi traditionism as a kind of trace: a link to a Muslim-Jewish past that is erased by Zionism but also challenges its reliance on the binary poles of “secular” and religious.”
Dr. Jerusha Tanner Rhodes is a Muslima theologian, scholar, and public educator. She is Associate Professor of Islam and Interreligious Engagement and Director of the Islam, Social Justice and Interreligious Engagement Program (ISJIE) at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Her work and writing focus on Islamic feminism, interreligious engagement, religious pluralism, and social justice. She is author of Never Wholly Other: A Muslima Theology of Religious Pluralism (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Divine Words, Female Voices: Muslima Explorations in Comparative Feminist Theology (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is currently writing a new book on interreligious engagement and justice.
Dr. Noa Bar-Gabai teaches in the Swig program for Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco. Her research explores critical interpretations of secularism, tradition, and state as suggested by the Hebrew narratives of Mizrahi or Arab-Jewish authors. She also teaches courses in migration studies and on the plurality of Jewish identities in the graphic novel.
We would like to thank the Walter & Elise Haas Fund for the generous support of the Madrasa-Midrasha Program at the GTU.
This event is online only