delegations to the U.S. in order to experience how America
deals with religious diversity. This program has brought lead-
ing scholars from Morocco, Qatar, and Indonesia to HUC-JIR
to observe classes, conduct research in the libraries, and meet
and study with HUC-JIR’s faculty, alumni, and students.
Thanks to the generous support of The Philip and Muriel
Berman Foundation, CMJE is training HUC-JIR student interns
in religious dialogue and Jewish-Muslim relations, and involv-
ing them in a new project dedicated to responding to
antisemitism in the Muslim world.
“
We hope to provide resources and expertise that will help
us move forward in our relations with the Muslim world and
Muslim individuals in order to build a future that is more
secure and more hopeful for us all,”
explains Dr. Reuven
Firestone, CMJE Co-Director and Professor of Medieval
Jewish Studies at HUC-JIR.
51
The School of Jewish Nonprofit Management
(
SJNM),
educates Jewish communal professionals to
serve as leaders in social services agencies, Federations,
Hillels, JCC’s, and organizations promoting social justice,
camping, culture, education, Israel advocacy, community
relations, and other areas of Jewish engagement.
Through HUC-JIR’s special relationship with USC, MA in
Jewish Nonprofit Management students have the addi-
tional opportunity to pursue the following dual degrees
at USC’s top-ranked graduate schools:
•
MPA at the Price School of Planning, Policy,
and Development
•
MBA at the Marshall School of Business
•
MSW at the School of Social Work
•
Master of Communications Management at the
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
“
Our special relationship with USC allows us to offer
a more diverse array of dual degree options than any
other school educating Jewish professional leaders.
And the mix of these disciplines in our classroom
promotes a robust and dynamic learning environment,”
notes Richard Siegel, SJNM Director.
The Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement
(
CMJE)
is a partnership of the Omar Ibn Al Khattab
Foundation, HUC-JIR, and USC’s Center for Religion and
Civic Culture at the Dornslife College of Letters, Arts,
and Sciences. CMJE combines both a scholarly and grass-
roots organizing approach toward improving relations and
understanding between Muslims and Jews locally, nation-
ally and internationally. It provides resources for electives
at HUC-JIR and USC classes in General Education, Inter-
national Relations, and Religion. CMJE’s partners include
Civilizations Exchange & Cooperation Foundation, which
works with the U.S. State Department to bring Muslim
Skirball Campus/Los Angeles and USC
Dual-degree program student Natalie Farahan passes USC’s
Trojan Horse mascot sculpture as she goes from her Jewish
nonprofit management classes at HUC-JIR to her public ad-
ministration classes at USC.
Engaging in Jewish-Muslim text study at HUC-JIR: (from right)
Dr. Ibrahim al-Na`imi, former President of Qatar University and
Chair of the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue;
Dr. Reuven Firestone, Director, Center for Muslim-Jewish En-
gagement; and Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels, N ’79, of Beth Shir
Sholom, Santa Monica, CA.
