Rabbi Daniel Brenner

While the world’s eyes were affixed to visions of relief planes arriving on the beaches of Indonesia last week, something truly miraculous was taking place in the halls of an elegant palace in the land of waffles. Under heavy security, Orthodox chief rabbis from Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Israel, Morroco, Norway, Romania, and the Czek Republic spent four days in Brussels praying, singing, sharing stories and studying together with Imams and Shieks from Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Kenya, and the…

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CENTER FOR MULTIFAITH EDUCATION DIRECTOR TO PARTICIPATE IN HISTORIC SUMMIT Rabbi Daniel Brenner, the director of Auburn’s Center for Multifaith Education, will be participating in the First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace this January in Brussels. Under the patronage of King Albert II of Belgium and King Mohammed VI of Morocco, the summit will bring together 100 religious leaders for dialogue and strategy sessions regarding religious tensions and conflict resolution. One of a handful of American rabbis…

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Smithsonian’s Folkways records has an album of Music of the Jews of Uganda Even when their leader sings syrupy Americanized brachot melodies they sound transcendent.

My piece in the NJ Jewish News is the “short take” on Get Religion, a nifty religion blog.

In the past week, I had the honor of both addressing and participating in the summit for interfaith respect described below. We met with UN Ambassador John Danforth (two days before his resignation….which was probably why he seemed out to lunch). Controversial Imams Enter Dialogue With Rabbis By Eric J. Greenberg December 3, 2004 Some of the most influential and controversial Islamic clerics in the Middle East are participating in a plan to launch what organizers describe as the first…

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Yesterday morning I particiapted in a conference put on by the Institute for Middle East Peace and Development (Stephen Cohen) which had a large group of Egyptian and Jordanian muslims who are interested in inter-religious paths to peace. In the evening, I met Rachel Bronson from the Council on Foreign Relations last night. She spoke at a parlor meeting on Israel/Saudi realtions. She was hopeful –perhaps post Arafat some things can move back on track to Taba.

The new information about Vital Signs is now up. Here’s the bio of Emanuel, one of the leads in the show.

Last night was an event at Jerry and Alicia Ostricker’s home for Rabbis for Human Rights. Rabbi Brian Walt spoke beautifully of Yakov and Esav’s reunion and Arik Aschermann told stories of driving his Honda Civic in the territories, protesting abuses by the IDF and planting trees. Congressman Rush Holt was there and I had the opporunity to dare him to wear Ruth Goldston’s button “Proud Liberal with Moral Values” – he took the button, but placed it in his…

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Thanks to my pal Dr. Robert Rabinowitz for sending this on. This is quality. Enjoy! Yiddish with Dick and Jane!

Born in a Sikh in Hawaii, now a Chasid in Jerusalem, Eliyahu Punjab McLean is a one-of-a-kind. I got a mention in McLean’s wonderful diary of peacemaking.