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My name is Rabbi David Seth Kirshner.

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I have the great honor of being the rabbi

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of this temple, Temple Emmanuel,

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enclosed to New Jersey.

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I also am the immediate past president

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of the New York Board of Rabbis

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and the current vice president

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of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis.

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And I've been involved in all types of programs

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that reach out arms to people of different faiths

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and backgrounds, including the Muslim religion,

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and very involved at the Hartman Institute in Israel,

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which is engaged in MLI,

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which is the Muslim Leadership Initiative,

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to strengthen the ties between our two faiths

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and our two backgrounds.

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I think the role of religion in politics

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is one where it has to be used properly,

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like religion in any environment.

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If we misuse religion, it can be turned into a weapon.

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But if used properly, it can be a blessing and a gift.

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So I think the role of every politician,

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and I think in particular the role

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of the president of the United States,

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is to share and allow people to express their faith

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in the way that's native to them.

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If they're Muslim, if they're Christian,

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if they're Jewish, if they're Orthodox,

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if they're not Orthodox, even if they don't believe,

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to find a place for them where they can use their religion

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and feel comfortable and safe in that place.

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I think that's the beauty of what religion and politics

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has to offer.

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And I think when we look at the common values

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that Christianity has with Islam, with Judaism,

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there's a love of life, there's a love of humanity,

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there's helping the other.

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All of those things are common and core.

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And those are where I think politics can really come together

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and share in those common values.

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We've always had terrorism and radicalism.

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It's existed in many different forms.

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We've had it since the time of the Bible and the Koran

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all the way till today.

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The way to combat it, I think, is twofold.

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One is we need to take any of the deterrents possible,

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whether it's with physical force

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or whether it's through stopping the spread

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of this radicalization through the means of the internet

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and to curtail it where and when we can.

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That's number one.

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We need to let the terrorists know they can't win.

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That's number one.

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The second thing we need to do

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that I think is critically important

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is that when radicalism happens in the name of Islam,

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those who love Islam and know what I know about Islam

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and what you know about Islam,

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that it's a religion of love and support and kindness

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and understanding and goodness.

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And in no way does it support or promote these ideas

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of killing and hatred.

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Those people who understand that value need to speak out

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in condemning it louder than anyone else.

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They need to say more than anyone else,

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I don't believe in this.

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I don't stand for this.

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This isn't the value I believe in.

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And when radicalism happens in Judaism,

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it's me, the rabbi, who has to stand up and say,

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absolutely not.

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This is not what we believe and not what we stand for.

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And when radicals stand up in Christianity,

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we had this a few years ago,

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where radicals were shooting doctors

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who performed abortions.

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They were killing in order to stop killing.

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It's the Christian leaders that have to stand up

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and say, absolutely not.

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This is not what we stand for.

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This is not our values.

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So I think that two-pronged approach of being strong in our defense,

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but also being vocal in our leadership to remind the world

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where we stand and to say, this isn't us.

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Well, I agree with you.

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We are part of the Abrahamic tradition.

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And if we all come from Abraham, that means that you're my brother,

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literally and figuratively.

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That means that Abraham was the father of both Isaac and Ishmael,

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the continuers of what is Judaism and Islam.

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And there's a sad poetry that happens in the Jewish tradition of the Bible.

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And that is when Abraham has Isaac and Ishmael,

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they later split up and they come back together once.

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And that is to bury their father.

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And I only think in my mind, what would happen if they came together

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while their father was still alive?

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If he could see the beauty of his two children playing together,

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working together, celebrating together, hugging together, not just to bury.

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We have so much in common in our religion.

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We have words that are in common, values that are in common,

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teachings that are in common.

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The core components of the Koran are the core components of the Torah.

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The stories are a little different, but the values are the same.

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The way we treat people are the same.

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It's exactly right.

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So like anything in life, it's easy to focus on the things that don't work.

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It's easy to focus on the parts that are broken.

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It's simple to say, I don't like this, or I don't like that, or this doesn't work.

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But there are so many components of your life, of my life, of my neighbors in the Palestinian

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authorities' life, in the West Bank and Gaza, that are so similar.

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And if we spent a little bit more time, as trite and simple as it sounds, to focus on those

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commonalities and to make it work, it'd be a good place.

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I have people who come in this very office as a rabbi and they talk to me about issues

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they have in relationships with their brother or their sister or their spouse.

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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.

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But let's talk about all the things you do like.

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I want you to look your spouse in the eye and tell me three things you love about your spouse

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and five reasons why you're so proud that that person's your spouse.

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And when you start to change the way you think, not in what's broken, but in what works,

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it changes our disposition.

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So I think there is a lot of commonality.

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I think it's important for us to focus on those common pieces.

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There are still obstacles to get around, but nothing has a sense of perfection to it.

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And I'm sorry to be so long-winded in this answer, but in Judaism,

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the religion in which I practice, there is no absolute experience.

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So during the Passover Seder, which is a happy festive meal,

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we pour a little bit of wine out for our cup so our heart should bleed

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and we should not have a full cup to remember the pain that the Egyptians had gone through with the plagues.

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When we have a Jewish wedding, the happiest moment in our lives,

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the Jewish wedding, we break a glass to remember the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

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When we celebrate the very reflective day of Yom Kippur,

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we say L'shana Haba B'yoshalayim next year in Jerusalem, which is hopeful.

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That means we know inherently in Judaism, nothing is perfect.

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There's always going to be some brokenness in what we do.

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So if I can look at you and say, our relationship won't be perfect,

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but it will be very good, that's something to be very happy and proud of.

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And if I can look at my relationship with my Palestinian brothers and sisters,

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my Christian brothers and sisters say, we pray differently and we pray in different places,

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but our hearts and values are similar.

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What we care about matters.

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The values we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren matter.

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The world we want them to inherit matters.

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That's much more in common than what divides us and let's focus on that

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and use that as a foundation for us to build upon.

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I define Muslims the way I define every person.

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And that is, I look at every person for the benefit, for the good.

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There is good in every human being.

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Our tradition and my Jewish tradition tells me,

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give everyone the benefit of the doubt, give them merit.

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I don't judge a people based on one person or a group of people's behavior.

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I don't want you to judge me based on radical behavior in the Jewish faith,

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of either how they dress or how they behave or how they treat one another.

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And I wouldn't judge anyone in the Muslim faith based on the small contingent of radicalization

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that happens through forms of ISIS or other jihadi behaviors,

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because that is not representative of what Islam is about,

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what the Quran is about, what the Muslim faith and people are about.

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As someone who has visited both Egypt and Turkey and other places in the Middle East,

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I know that Muslim people are at their core good people, people who value life,

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who want to give their children a better tomorrow.

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That's what I want for my kids too.

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So I judge each of them individually.

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Now, sometimes I interact with my common Jew,

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and sometimes there's a good person in front of me and a not good person in front of me.

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And sometimes in the other world, in other faiths that happens as well.

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But I always see when I look at Muslim as a whole, the world of Islam as a whole,

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I see a religion that is based on the same foundations as Judaism and Christianity

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that are indeed Abrahamic at its core, whose values are the same as our values.

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And yes, there are turbulence, ripples, challenges that happen sometimes in your faith

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and in my faith and the Christian faith.

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But it's up to us, faith leaders, people who have the ear of those doing the sacred work that you're doing,

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to get the word out and say this is what we believe in, this is what we stand for.

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And love is more powerful, and we share love, and that is our core teaching.

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The more people do what you're doing and what your television station's doing

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and what this good doctor is doing in these books,

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that is what's sharing with everyone what the potential is.

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I think the notion of hope, which is what that is about, the messianic component, is core to who we are.

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And we saw this in the election in the United States in a fascinating way,

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that so many people latch on to the notion of hope.

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And I think that's core to your religion, I think it's core to my religion.

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It's no accident that the theme, that the anthem of the State of Israel is called the hope.

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Because for so many years it was our hope, and even today it's still part of our hope.

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So I think this notion of hope and coming to help us and redeem us shows our responsibility

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to bring that idea of the Messiah and our belief in a hope of a better tomorrow.

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If we didn't believe in hope, we wouldn't try to be better people.

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We wouldn't care about spreading the word.

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And that's what matters most.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you very much.