Emerging & Aspiring Religious Educators Conference at Isabella Freedman

June 24-27
Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village, CT

What will we teach our children about each other?

Isabella Freedman and the Manhattan College Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center join together to present this 3 1/2 day conference bringing together aspiring and emerging religious educators in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths to:

• foster relationships among future religious educators;
• explore existing practices in religious education that help to shape narratives that lead to suspicion, misunderstanding, mistrust;
• and explore potential practices, both within communities and through interreligious partnership, that would foster a new narrative promoting respect, understanding, and cooperation.

The program will include plenaries, facilitated conversations, and group work aimed at developing new ideas for advancing religious literacy through religious education, all led by an experienced team of conference leaders with strong histories in interfaith work. Conference leaders include:

• Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Manhattan College
• Michael Andraos, Catholic Theological Union
• Haifa Bint Kadi, Arts Educator
• Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Ph.D., Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
• Hussein Rashid, Center for Spiritual Inquiry
• Rabbi Or Rose, Hebrew College

One of the goals of the participants will be to create a curriculum for teaching Religious Literacy in schools.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Common Sense Fund, as well as other sponsors, the conference is being offered free-of-charge to all selected participants in a competitive process. Conference attendees will only be responsible for their own travel expenses. All food will be both Kosher and Halal.

Who should apply?

Potential participants range from those actively engaged in university studies leading to a career in religious education to those actively engaged as religious educators, whether in religious, secular private, public schools, or other venues.

While the conference aims to engage aspiring and emerging educators, there is no age restriction for applicants.

The presenters aim for an equal distribution of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim participants.

Application Information

All applications must be submitted by Friday, April 20, 2012.

Those selected to participate in the conference will be notified by May 11, 2012.

Full Calendar Next 30 Days