Symposium on Jewish-Muslim Entanglements

 The horrendous war on Gaza continues to strain relationships between Jewish and Muslim communities in the U.S. As much of American public opinion often links these communities to the struggle between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, friends and allies can become hesitant to speak out of fear that they might jeopardize the relationships they have built and nurtured. The aftermath of October 7th has further complicated this dynamic, affecting everything from personal friendships to broader social, economic, and political spheres. The developments in Israel-Palestine have significantly affected free speech and the ways in which communities pass judgment on each other. The condemnation of Israeli policies toward Palestinians is met by a silencing and accusations of anti-Semitism, equating critical views of Israel with jeopardizing the safety of Jewish people worldwide.

On the other hand, discussing Jewish-Muslim relations without addressing the issue of Israel-Palestine can be seen as sidestepping major issues or being complacent about the suffering of Palestinians. Our conversation will delve into the entangled history of Jews and Muslims, asking if a shared past of intertwined lives can offer a path forward. Can we find a sense of solidarity and common purpose that has previously helped both communities through difficult times? By examining the historical record, we will seek out themes and ideals that resonate with both Jews and Muslims today, helping them to view their intercommunal relationship through a new lens. This panel will explore how strengthening these ties—by engaging in difficult conversations during hard times—is not only a morally uplifting goal but a crucial step in countering the rising threats of white supremacy, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism in America.

The study of Jewish-Muslim engagement is often framed as an affective history. That is, contemporary scholarship frequently characterizes historical relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in emotional terms. Thus evaluating interactions based on the affection or antipathy expressed by religious authorities towards other communities. How a society treats its religious minorities often has dramatic and lasting historical implications. Yet, at least when it comes to the intertwined histories of Judaism and Islam, the attitudes of religious authorities, or even those of local practitioners, do not determine to what extent two religious communities become intellectually entangled and come to coproduce religious and cultural imaginaries. In many cases, even practitioners and thinkers who were ostensibly at odds with one another developed shared religious and cultural vernaculars that influenced the communal imaginaries of all players. 

This session explores examples of shared Jewish-Muslim religious, scriptural, cultural vernaculars and how these historical cases can (and cannot) function to open up new affordances for the way university communities imagine the function of religion in general and Jewish and Muslim practitioners as contributors to campus life in particular. This session will also consider the ways in which these historical models might open up new ways of thinking about modern questions of intellectual pluralism within the university.

This panel examines the complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship between Zionism and the Christian Right, focusing especially on the far-right’s appropriation of Zionist narratives. While Christian Zionism has long mobilized biblical prophecy and apocalyptic theology to support the State of Israel, more recent alliances reveal a convergence of interests that extend beyond theology. Panelists will explore how Israel has become a symbolic and strategic cornerstone for right-wing and far-right political movements in the United States and Europe; how Christian Zionists frame Jewish national sovereignty as part of a broader “Judeo-Christian” civilizational project; and how these partnerships reproduce anti-Semitism, even as they profess to combat anti-Semitism. Particular attention will be given to the weaponization of Holocaust memory and anti-Semitism, the dehumanization of Palestinians, and the ways Zionism and Christian far

This panel will critically examine how Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and anti-Blackness are connected, rooted in, and perpetuated by white supremacist structures. A common thread throughout the panelists’ discussion is an exploration of how white supremacy manipulates the concept of a Judeo-Christian identity to exclude and marginalize non-white, non-Christian, and non-Jewish communities, reinforcing systemic hatred of the Other. Through case studies, theoretical analyses, and historical perspectives, this panel deepens our understanding of these complex dynamics and explores strategies for dismantling the systems that enable them, fostering an environment of solidarity, freedom, and social justice.

Daʿwa, a gentle invitation to understand Islam, is a parallel term to kiruv, which means to bring Jews closer to the Divine. While the two terms invite members of a religious community to come closer as a community in an embrace of God, the political atmosphere threatens to create further divisiveness, exploiting rifts within and between Jewish and Muslim communities. October events and the war on Gaza have deeply affected Jews and Muslims living in the US. For decades, members of both communities have felt impacted by the conflict in Palestine-Israel and, in some cases, turn to their religious spaces in search of guidance and comfort. These developments have placed a burden on Muslim and Jewish communal leaders who find themselves swarmed by questions, pressures, and demands from their constituencies to aid them in this perilous time. Religious leaders have navigated competing demands in complex ways, relating their communities’ differing religious and political outlooks, while also facing the particular difficulty of engaging with members of communities other than their own. In their interactions with the wider society, they have sought to build bridges of allyship and solidarity, often realizing their objectives only through compromises and exchanges that secured support from other communities rallying for their cause. Yet in a divisive atmosphere where no one is immune from criticism and surveillance, they have also faced significant censure for exercising free speech and for serving not only their own communities, but American society at large.