Center for Interfaith Engagement at EMU

L'shanah tovah! Happy New Year to our Jewish friends and loved ones around the world.
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Happy Nowruz (Persian New Year!)

We at CIE wish our cherished Iranian friends and loved ones a very happy beginning of spring and new year!

To all our Hindu loved ones around the world, and especially our Nepali and Indian students at EMU, we wish you a very happy Tihar and Diwali! May the sparkling Diwali lights surround you and your loved ones with happiness and joy!

On this Yom Kippur, we say G'mar chatima tova! (May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for good!) to our Jewish sisters and brothers around the world.

Shana Tovah!

Tuesday, April 12th at 7:00pm in Common Grounds

"Poetry for Social Justice"

CIE at EMU will host Dr. Gaurav Pathania, assistant professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and published poet, for an evening of poetry reading and the celebration of several Indian poets.
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Dr. Pathania is a sociologist of higher education and social movements, and an anti-caste poet and activist. His ethnographic research in cultural sociology examines the intersection of caste, class and racial discrimination among the Indian diaspora. He has authored The University as a Site of Resistance: Identity and Student Politics (Oxford University Press, 2018) and is currently working on his memoir.

“Bob Bersson’s ‘Crown of Thorns’ Exhibit: A Jewish Artistic Interpretation of a Central Christian Story”

Wednesday, March 23rd, at 7:15pm, EMU Facebook Live

Artist Bob Bersson, a Jewish Scholar in Residence for EMU’s Center for Interfaith Engagement, will talk about his “Crown of Thorns” exhibit of paintings in the Seminary Building and explore the Jewish-Christian dynamic that inspired the series from beginning to end.

Dr. Bersson is a James Madison University Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History, a practicing artist, musician, and writer. He was founding member of the Interfaith Initiative for Peace and Justice (2011-2014) and has been Jewish Scholar in Residence and a film/arts series coordinator for the Center for Interfaith Engagement at EMU from 2014 to the present.

His paintings will be shown at both the EMU Seminary and Library galleries during the spring semester 2022.
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Eastern Mennonite University EMU offers rigorous academic study at the undergraduate, graduate and seminary level.

There is something very sacred about two major religious holidays overlapping. While our Jewish loved ones observed the start of Hanukkah this evening, Christians around the world are celebrating the beginning of Advent, and the journey toward Christmas.
Light, and the lighting of candles one at a time, features very prominently in both holidays, and represents an audacious, and tenacious, hope.

Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends and loved ones around the world!