The Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore is a wholly independent organization that, for the last 39 years, has looked to build bridges between faith communities near and far.

It hosts seminars, offers education programming, awards scholarships and makes appearances at all sorts of events, among other initiatives. It works in schools, helping teachers navigate sensitive subjects without injecting bias. The institute holds an annual retreat for members and leaders of all three communities to connect in a way that is deeper than what’d you get from a single session.

Ben Sax serves as the head of scholarship and the Jewish scholar at the ICJS, and he said a big part of the mission is reminding people that those from different backgrounds have a lot in common with them.

“We tend to, in a lot of interreligious moments, compare our best with someone else’s worst,” he said. “[In part, what we do] is really just a way to help people move away from that impulse. Our program directors are just finding different ways to allow for people to better understand religious differences.”

The ICJS is also focused on helping those who don’t identify within a religious group participate in these types of areas and conversations, as well, even assisting them in charting a path if they are interested in growing in their spirituality.

While work like this has never been easy, it has changed in the last few years as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified. Sax explained why, in his mind, that is.

“I think that the sort of intrareligious conversations that Jews, Christians and Muslims have also spill out into the interreligious part … the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, regardless of any moment of time, is always the elephant in the room. You can have some of the most opaque, disparate theological positions, and people can talk about them all day,” Sax said.

He went on to say that opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are often interpreted as being more emblematic and can serve to divide people seemingly beyond the point of no return.

But the difference of opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be interpreted by many as a “heresy” — representative of who you are and coloring all other aspects of your personality and thoughts.

“[It] becomes inexorably connected to your identity in a way that means that everything you’ve done in the past, everything you’re doing in the present and future, will be viewed toward that statement about the conflict,” Sax said.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war, ICJS has not backed down from the challenge that lies in front of it.

“We had to lean into our mission. We had to. We put out a statement reminding people of what this kind of work looks like. There’s always violence, but we don’t have violence at this scale. It’s always the elephant in the room. We didn’t know what our work was going to look like during that time,” Sax said.

The ICJS held a variety of events and conversations with diverse groups of people at schools, community centers and workplaces. It took the intensity of the moment and used it to try and bridge gaps. One of the most emblematic events like this was its annual retreat in 2023, which was held right after Oct. 7 at Pearlstone in Baltimore.

“I sat with the CEO of Pearlstone and of Adamah to talk about, ‘can we do this this year on campus? What would it seem like? Some of the participants wear a keffiyah. Do we have Israeli flags around? What do we want to do? What is our comfort zone in making this work for everyone?’” Sax said.

Eventually, the institute’s leadership had to figure out what it was willing to compromise on and what it was comfortable with.
“It was actually one of the most incredible conversations I’ve had, because all of us were feeling each other out and realized that we’re coming from a similar place,” Sax said. “It was exhilarating.”

Organizations like ICJS are not easy to build or sustain, but are essential for repairing wounded connections in a multicultural country founded on the idea of free religious practice.

And for those who work at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, the hard work is worth it.

“I’m not beaten down,” Sax said. “I feel a lot of motivation to continue this work, and I think it’s partly because I do see results. The bigger question is ‘how do you measure change in people,’ right? It’s a really hard thing … there’s just a lot of nastiness and a lot of fear and anger, and that shows up in these spaces, too. And it may never go away [but] I want to say that I’m encouraged because despite everything, people still feel a need for this.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com