WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:06.940 My name is David Rosen. I'm an Orthodox rabbi. I was chief rabbi of Ireland. Before that, I was rabbi of the largest congregation in South Africa. 00:07.480 --> 00:10.540 Before that, I was trapped into the Israeli Defense Forces in West Sinai. 00:11.660 --> 00:20.060 For the last 15 years, I am in charge of all the American Jewish Committee's interfaith work around the world, and I'm based in Jerusalem. 00:20.600 --> 00:24.320 So basically, I'm employed to be ambassador for Judaism to the religions of the world. 00:24.860 --> 00:29.060 I'm also the advisor to the chief rabbinate of Israel in terms of its interfaith work as well. 00:29.060 --> 00:32.620 And we have some formal institutional structures for dialogue. 00:32.940 --> 00:38.860 Well, of course, education is a critical factor, but there is nothing more educational than the human encounter. 00:39.520 --> 00:47.200 The more we can enable people to meet with one another, to look in the other's eyes, to see each other as a child of God, 00:47.260 --> 00:55.180 as a creature of the divine one force behind the cosmos, the less we will be inclined to stigmatize, to generalize, 00:55.180 --> 00:59.100 to label people, and the more we will be able to understand them. 00:59.380 --> 01:04.780 And, of course, the one religion that has a specific imperative in this regard is Islam. 01:05.220 --> 01:11.880 We created you from one couple, male and female, and made you into peoples and nations so that you may know one another. 01:12.240 --> 01:18.200 In other words, Islam has an imperative of dialogue, and that dialogue should be the essential foundation for all religions. 01:18.200 --> 01:24.180 The more we get to know one another, the less chance that we will do to one another the terrible things we do. 01:24.600 --> 01:33.060 People can only do such horrific acts that are done today terribly in the name of religion by dehumanizing the other, 01:33.240 --> 01:40.720 making the other into purely an object with no human identity, let alone divine soul. 01:40.720 --> 01:44.620 And every time you pray, you pray for the children of Abraham, therefore you're praying for me. 01:45.320 --> 01:46.700 And people don't understand that. 01:46.780 --> 01:49.560 So, of course, education is very fundamental in that regard. 01:49.920 --> 01:52.300 It's not just a matter of fabricating hadiths. 01:52.340 --> 01:56.040 It's also a matter of how you interpret certain verses within the scripture. 01:56.400 --> 01:58.200 And, therefore, you can interpret verses in the Koran. 01:58.500 --> 02:03.140 So, you can have a passage which talks about the desecraters of the Sabbath being turned into apes and pigs. 02:03.140 --> 02:08.720 And you can understand that to be the advantage of Judaism, that Jews are meant to be observant, and those were the sinners. 02:08.980 --> 02:12.000 Or you can take it and generalize that all Jews are apes and pigs. 02:12.660 --> 02:19.120 And so, there's always a danger of abusing religion when people have violent intent. 02:19.840 --> 02:23.080 And, therefore, the question we also need to ask is, what is the source of their violence? 02:23.160 --> 02:24.520 It's not just bad education. 02:24.520 --> 02:34.000 It is manipulation for various economic, social, political interests, people who are marginalized, looking for some kind of purpose in life, all these factors. 02:34.140 --> 02:35.000 So, these have to be addressed. 02:35.120 --> 02:37.800 Education is critical, absolutely, but not alone. 02:38.100 --> 02:43.880 It has to come in hand with us addressing the sources, if you like, of the swamps that breed these Anopheles mosquitoes. 02:44.920 --> 02:51.340 And the fundamental teaching of both the Koran and the Torah is that the human being is called to live a righteous and just life. 02:51.340 --> 02:56.780 And that, first and foremost, means respecting the life and the dignity of each and every human being. 02:57.300 --> 03:01.080 That latter part, I don't know, is being actually the text of the Koran. 03:01.260 --> 03:08.640 I know the first part of being the text of the Koran, and I know that there are those who interpret that, which, of course, is not in the Koran, 03:09.260 --> 03:15.560 that if the people sinned, as a result, they broke God's promise, and, therefore, that promise was no longer theirs. 03:15.860 --> 03:19.860 But now is the Ummah Khair, which is that Muslims are no longer the Jews. 03:19.860 --> 03:21.660 But, again, that just proves our point. 03:21.780 --> 03:27.860 The point is, if you have a political agenda, you will interpret the text to suit your political agenda. 03:28.220 --> 03:30.100 But, thank God, not amongst all. 03:30.500 --> 03:33.380 And there are lots of good people and lots of good Palestinians as well. 03:33.780 --> 03:36.560 And, thank God, the vast majority of Muslims in the world are good people. 03:37.000 --> 03:42.020 And, thank God, we live in a time where there's more interfaith or cooperation than ever before in a human history. 03:42.500 --> 03:45.800 So, in fact, interfaith cooperation is an exponentially growing industry. 03:45.800 --> 03:52.320 I travel maybe 50% of the time, and I turn down 10 times as much as I take on. 03:52.520 --> 03:54.480 We do not have the resources to meet the demand. 03:54.600 --> 03:58.400 So, it's already a sign that we're living in a very blessed, wonderful age. 03:58.500 --> 04:05.400 The problem, of course, is that what gets into the media, into the newspapers and television, by definition, is the sensational and the negative. 04:05.940 --> 04:08.200 The problem is to do with something in the human heart. 04:08.200 --> 04:12.220 We enjoy the sensational more than the good pedestrian activities. 04:12.420 --> 04:15.180 So, we want something that's exciting and that's negative. 04:15.680 --> 04:18.820 And, therefore, as a result, we get to know about all the terrible things in the world. 04:18.900 --> 04:23.240 But, there are far more good things and wonderful things in the world that we simply don't know about. 04:23.560 --> 04:27.000 I try my best, as much as God will allow me. 04:27.220 --> 04:27.700 Inshallah. 04:28.000 --> 04:28.400 Thank you. 04:28.500 --> 04:30.000 I come from time to time. 04:30.140 --> 04:32.380 I was there at different conferences. 04:32.380 --> 04:34.600 Istanbul is one of the centers of the world. 04:34.800 --> 04:37.220 So, it's a crossroads, as it always has been. 04:38.200 --> 04:39.200 Thank you.