Religious Nationalism: Christian and Jewish Perspectives
08/09/2025 | Na stronie od 21/08/2025
Source: Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue
Together we’ll examine religious nationalism through Jewish and Christian
In today’s world, religious nationalism has become one of the most influential forces in shaping societies and politics. It doesn’t only affect communities on a local level — it is transforming global conversations, fueling polarization, and reshaping power structures.
While media outlets often highlight the rise of religious nationalism, understanding this phenomenon requires going beyond headlines. To truly grasp contemporary politics — particularly in the context of Israel-Palestine — we must also recognize how religion and nationalism intersect, creating new challenges and opportunities for dialogue.
📅 On September 8 at 19:30 Jerusalem time, join us for a timely and thought-provoking webinar. Together we’ll examine religious nationalism through Jewish and Christian lenses, exploring the tensions, shared challenges, and possibilities for rethinking interreligious relations.
With guest speakers:
- ✨ Matthew D. Taylor – Senior Christian Scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies (Baltimore)
- ✨ Mikhael Manekin – Director of the Alliance Fellowship Program and co-leader of the Faithful Left movement
Moderated by:
- Hana Bendcowsky – Program Director of JCJCR at the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue
👉 Register now to join the discussion:
Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue
The Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue is a Jerusalem-based interreligious, peacebuilding organization. We believe that understanding, justice and equality will enable Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, and we envision societies which embrace religious, ethnic and national diversity as an asset rather than a threat.
Founded in 2006, the Rossing Center is a leading organization in the field of interreligious education and encounter, with a diverse Israeli-Palestinian staff of Jews, Christians and Muslims who engage over 10,000 individuals in our activities each year. Our mission is to build the desire and capacity of Israelis and Palestinians to create truly shared societies for all groups, and we are working to achieve this by teaching skills and values of inclusivity within the Israeli education system, as well as engaging Jews and Arabs in mixed spaces.
Our Work In line with our mission and theory of change, our activities are designed to foster the desire and build the capacity of Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims, to create inclusive, just societies for all. Our projects and programs fall under three main spheres of action:
Our Education Department aims to change the Israeli education system holistically, so that principles of inclusivity are embedded in education curricula, and educators at all levels are equipped to teach the values and skills necessary to build an equal, peaceful society. In particular, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, our programs target principals, teachers and teachers in training, who can act as multipliers with the ability to educate the next generation of Jews and Arabs to develop open, pluralistic identities, to be sensitive to inequality and injustice, to be tolerant of difference and to be ready to live together and side by side in an inclusive society.
Our Dialogue Department projects focus on engaging Jews and Arabs to act cohesively together to make the mixed spaces in which they live, work and study, shared and inclusive.
Our International Engagement Department provides encounter, research and information services to local and international audiences. This enables the valuable exchange of ideas vis-à-vis effective peacebuilding between the Rossing Center and institutions and organizations in other countries – learning from each other’s experiences and practices.
Along with our civil society work, we engage relevant stakeholders to achieve systemic change. Our bottom-up/top-down strategic approach has allowed us to create long-term partnerships with institutions such as the Ministry of Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and wide-ranging civil society organizations dedicated to the values of peacebuilding, shared society and the combatting of racism. To date, we have collaborated with over 140 religious, interfaith, intercultural, educational and public bodies.