My name is Rabbi David Seth Kirshner.
I have the great honor of being the rabbi
of this temple, Temple Emmanuel,
enclosed to New Jersey.
I also am the immediate past president
of the New York Board of Rabbis
and the current vice president
of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis.
And I've been involved in all types of programs
that reach out arms to people of different faiths
and backgrounds, including the Muslim religion,
and very involved at the Hartman Institute in Israel,
which is engaged in MLI,
which is the Muslim Leadership Initiative,
to strengthen the ties between our two faiths
and our two backgrounds.
I think the role of religion in politics
is one where it has to be used properly,
like religion in any environment.
If we misuse religion, it can be turned into a weapon.
But if used properly, it can be a blessing and a gift.
So I think the role of every politician,
and I think in particular the role
of the president of the United States,
is to share and allow people to express their faith
in the way that's native to them.
If they're Muslim, if they're Christian,
if they're Jewish, if they're Orthodox,
if they're not Orthodox, even if they don't believe,
to find a place for them where they can use their religion
and feel comfortable and safe in that place.
I think that's the beauty of what religion and politics
has to offer.
And I think when we look at the common values
that Christianity has with Islam, with Judaism,
there's a love of life, there's a love of humanity,
there's helping the other.
All of those things are common and core.
And those are where I think politics can really come together
and share in those common values.
We've always had terrorism and radicalism.
It's existed in many different forms.
We've had it since the time of the Bible and the Koran
all the way till today.
The way to combat it, I think, is twofold.
One is we need to take any of the deterrents possible,
whether it's with physical force
or whether it's through stopping the spread
of this radicalization through the means of the internet
and to curtail it where and when we can.
That's number one.
We need to let the terrorists know they can't win.
That's number one.
The second thing we need to do
that I think is critically important
is that when radicalism happens in the name of Islam,
those who love Islam and know what I know about Islam
and what you know about Islam,
that it's a religion of love and support and kindness
and understanding and goodness.
And in no way does it support or promote these ideas
of killing and hatred.
Those people who understand that value need to speak out
in condemning it louder than anyone else.
They need to say more than anyone else,
I don't believe in this.
I don't stand for this.
This isn't the value I believe in.
And when radicalism happens in Judaism,
it's me, the rabbi, who has to stand up and say,
absolutely not.
This is not what we believe and not what we stand for.
And when radicals stand up in Christianity,
we had this a few years ago,
where radicals were shooting doctors
who performed abortions.
They were killing in order to stop killing.
It's the Christian leaders that have to stand up
and say, absolutely not.
This is not what we stand for.
This is not our values.
So I think that two-pronged approach of being strong in our defense,
but also being vocal in our leadership to remind the world
where we stand and to say, this isn't us.
Well, I agree with you.
We are part of the Abrahamic tradition.
And if we all come from Abraham, that means that you're my brother,
literally and figuratively.
That means that Abraham was the father of both Isaac and Ishmael,
the continuers of what is Judaism and Islam.
And there's a sad poetry that happens in the Jewish tradition of the Bible.
And that is when Abraham has Isaac and Ishmael,
they later split up and they come back together once.
And that is to bury their father.
And I only think in my mind, what would happen if they came together
while their father was still alive?
If he could see the beauty of his two children playing together,
working together, celebrating together, hugging together, not just to bury.
We have so much in common in our religion.
We have words that are in common, values that are in common,
teachings that are in common.
The core components of the Koran are the core components of the Torah.
The stories are a little different, but the values are the same.
The way we treat people are the same.
It's exactly right.
So like anything in life, it's easy to focus on the things that don't work.
It's easy to focus on the parts that are broken.
It's simple to say, I don't like this, or I don't like that, or this doesn't work.
But there are so many components of your life, of my life, of my neighbors in the Palestinian
authorities' life, in the West Bank and Gaza, that are so similar.
And if we spent a little bit more time, as trite and simple as it sounds, to focus on those
commonalities and to make it work, it'd be a good place.
I have people who come in this very office as a rabbi and they talk to me about issues
they have in relationships with their brother or their sister or their spouse.
And I say to them, I know you have this issue with your spouse that you don't like A or B or X or Y or Z.
But let's talk about all the things you do like.
I want you to look your spouse in the eye and tell me three things you love about your spouse
and five reasons why you're so proud that that person's your spouse.
And when you start to change the way you think, not in what's broken, but in what works,
it changes our disposition.
So I think there is a lot of commonality.
I think it's important for us to focus on those common pieces.
There are still obstacles to get around, but nothing has a sense of perfection to it.
And I'm sorry to be so long-winded in this answer, but in Judaism,
the religion in which I practice, there is no absolute experience.
So during the Passover Seder, which is a happy festive meal,
we pour a little bit of wine out for our cup so our heart should bleed
and we should not have a full cup to remember the pain that the Egyptians had gone through with the plagues.
When we have a Jewish wedding, the happiest moment in our lives,
the Jewish wedding, we break a glass to remember the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
When we celebrate the very reflective day of Yom Kippur,
we say L'shana Haba B'yoshalayim next year in Jerusalem, which is hopeful.
That means we know inherently in Judaism, nothing is perfect.
There's always going to be some brokenness in what we do.
So if I can look at you and say, our relationship won't be perfect,
but it will be very good, that's something to be very happy and proud of.
And if I can look at my relationship with my Palestinian brothers and sisters,
my Christian brothers and sisters say, we pray differently and we pray in different places,
but our hearts and values are similar.
What we care about matters.
The values we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren matter.
The world we want them to inherit matters.
That's much more in common than what divides us and let's focus on that
and use that as a foundation for us to build upon.
I define Muslims the way I define every person.
And that is, I look at every person for the benefit, for the good.
There is good in every human being.
Our tradition and my Jewish tradition tells me,
give everyone the benefit of the doubt, give them merit.
I don't judge a people based on one person or a group of people's behavior.
I don't want you to judge me based on radical behavior in the Jewish faith,
of either how they dress or how they behave or how they treat one another.
And I wouldn't judge anyone in the Muslim faith based on the small contingent of radicalization
that happens through forms of ISIS or other jihadi behaviors,
because that is not representative of what Islam is about,
what the Quran is about, what the Muslim faith and people are about.
As someone who has visited both Egypt and Turkey and other places in the Middle East,
I know that Muslim people are at their core good people, people who value life,
who want to give their children a better tomorrow.
That's what I want for my kids too.
So I judge each of them individually.
Now, sometimes I interact with my common Jew,
and sometimes there's a good person in front of me and a not good person in front of me.
And sometimes in the other world, in other faiths that happens as well.
But I always see when I look at Muslim as a whole, the world of Islam as a whole,
I see a religion that is based on the same foundations as Judaism and Christianity
that are indeed Abrahamic at its core, whose values are the same as our values.
And yes, there are turbulence, ripples, challenges that happen sometimes in your faith
and in my faith and the Christian faith.
But it's up to us, faith leaders, people who have the ear of those doing the sacred work that you're doing,
to get the word out and say this is what we believe in, this is what we stand for.
And love is more powerful, and we share love, and that is our core teaching.
The more people do what you're doing and what your television station's doing
and what this good doctor is doing in these books,
that is what's sharing with everyone what the potential is.
I think the notion of hope, which is what that is about, the messianic component, is core to who we are.
And we saw this in the election in the United States in a fascinating way,
that so many people latch on to the notion of hope.
And I think that's core to your religion, I think it's core to my religion.
It's no accident that the theme, that the anthem of the State of Israel is called the hope.
Because for so many years it was our hope, and even today it's still part of our hope.
So I think this notion of hope and coming to help us and redeem us shows our responsibility
to bring that idea of the Messiah and our belief in a hope of a better tomorrow.
If we didn't believe in hope, we wouldn't try to be better people.
We wouldn't care about spreading the word.
And that's what matters most.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.