USC Launches New Online Resource for Muslim and Jewish Engagement

LOS ANGELES, February 26, 2008—USC’s Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement proudly announces the launch of its website, http://www.usc.edu/cmje. This new website provides important resources for scholars, groups, community leaders and individuals working to develop interfaith partnerships between Muslim and Jewish communities in the United States and beyond.

The website includes the following resources:

·    Scholarly and community-based resources to address critical issues in Muslim-Jewish engagement

·    Best practices to foster and enhance community partnerships

·    Articles, videos, and links to interviews with world-renowned scholars on important topics such as, Abraham and his sons, women in Islam and Judaism, and dietary laws.

·    Links to dialogue groups and organizations that facilitate interactions and scholarship

·    A calendar of national and international events

The Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CMJE) is a community resource for training in inter-religious outreach, an online resource center for materials on Jewish-Muslim relations, and a resource for journalists, academics and community leaders. CMJE works to promote dialogue, understanding and grassroots, congregational and academic partnerships among the oldest and the newest of the Abrahamic faiths while generating a contemporary understanding in this understudied area.
The Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement is a partnership between the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and USC’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. The partnership between a Muslim Foundation, a Jewish seminary, and a secular university is itself an example of the types of partnerships that CMJE envisions and hopes to promote locally and internationally.
CMJE is housed and administered at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion & Civic Culture.