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AAi Compassion

Almost every week of the year, AAi unites Jews, Christians, and Muslims to serve poor, suffering, and unhoused neighbors, building bridges of understanding and respect between our communities as we collaborate in compassion תיקון עולם‎ and صدقة . The heart and soul of AAi is compassion, so AAi organizes both congregational and public compassion events.

Congregational Compassion

Congregational compassion events are hosted at a synagogue, church, or mosque and attended mostly by members of the three sponsoring congregations.

AAi Meal Service

This is AAi's signature compassion event, which usually starts with kosher and halal food preparation at a synagogue, church, or mosque (shift 1).


AAi Meal preparation shift 1 at Muslim Community Association, Santa Clara, Calif.

Thereafter, volunteers convoy together to serve the hot meal at a local soup kitchen or shelter (shift 2). 


AAi Meal Service shift 2 at soup kitchen in San Jose, Calif.

AAi Hygiene Kit Assembly

Volunteers gather at a congregation to assemble 1,000 hygiene kits, then deliver them to several different distribution partners.


AAi Hygiene Kit Assembly at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, Calif.

AAi Blood Drives

In partnership with American Red Cross, volunteers meet at a congregation to check-in donors, sterilize chairs and tables in donor waiting areas, refill refreshments for donors post-donation, and ensure donors are feeling well before departure.


AAi Blood Drive at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga, Calif.

Public Compassion

Public compassion events are hosted by AAi's nonprofit partners and attended by diverse Jewish, Christian, and Muslim volunteers from a variety of congregations.

AAi Food Distribution

Volunteers distribute thousands of pounds of food to poor families and seniors who struggle to make ends meet and must often choose between buying groceries or paying rent.


AAi Food Distribution in San Jose, Calif.

AAi Food Packing

Volunteers pack food to be distributed to hungry and unhoused neighbors at 36 food pantries and at a growing number of encampments throughout San Jose, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale.


AAi Food Packing in San Jose, Calif.

AAi Home Building

In partnership with Habitat for Humanity, volunteers build mini-homes and emergency housing for the unhoused.


AAi Emergency Home Building in San Jose, Calif.

AAi Bike Repairs

Volunteers repair donated bicycles so poor and unhoused neighbors can have reliable transportation to access social services, commute, and do more than just survive.


AAi Bike Repairs in San Jose, Calif.

AAi Encampment Medical Clinics

In partnership with the City of San Jose and Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America (APPNA) volunteers provide medical services to encampment residents.


AAi Encampment Medical Clinic at Roosevelt Park, San Jose, Calif.

Check out some of our past compassion events, register to volunteer, or contact AAi to learn how your congregation can organize AAi compassion events in your community.

 

AAi Seminars

AAi also provides both introductory and advanced education from a world-class faculty of bridge-building scholars so Jews, Christians, and Muslims can better understand and respect each other's faith and culture, thereby enhancing their collaboration in compassion.
 

Jewish Seminars
 

For the Jewish community, AAi offers:
  • UNDERSTANDING MUSLIM NEIGHBORS by Prof. Rabbi Reuven Firestone (available online now), Regenstein Professor in Medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and Affiliate Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California. Recipient of numerous research fellowships and university invitations, he is currently an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow in Berlin (summers, 2017-2019) and Sigi Feigel Visiting Professorship for Jewish Studies, University of Zürich (2018). Prof. Firestone has written over a hundred scholarly articles and eight books, including An Introduction to Islam for Jews and An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims. His scholarship has been translated into German, French, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, Albanian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Indonesian and Urdu. Having lived with his family in Israel, Egypt and Germany he regularly lectures in universities and religious centers throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He served as vice president of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) and president of the International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA) and has initiated and continues to be involved in numerous projects and initiatives which bring together Jews Muslims and Christians, Jews and Arabs, and Israelis and Palestinians.
     
  • UNDERSTANDING CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORS for the Jewish community is in development.

 

 

Christian Seminars

 
For the Christian community, AAi offers:
  • LOVING MUSLIM NEIGHBORS by Rod Cardoza
    (available online now) a cultural, theological and linguistic anthropologist. Cardoza has published ethnographic research on Muslim ritual, and lectures internationally on Muslim-Christian dialogue. He studied Urdu language at Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India. He researched social stratification among Muslim communities in Ahmedabad, India; shamanism among Maguindanaon Muslims in rural Mindanao, Philippines; and Shi'ite mourning rituals in Gujarat, India. He worked closely with leading scholars from Delhi University and Hazrat Pir Mohammed Shah Research Centre in India to publish religious peacebuilding Urdu texts. He also researched the role of Muslim cinematography in teaching Islamic knowledge in Egypt, where Rod lived with his family for several years while studying Arabic. Rod has lectured widely at universities and seminaries such as Lewis & Clark College, American University DC, Fresno Pacific University, and Fuller Theological Seminary. Rod authored "New Paths in Muslim-Christian Dialog: Understanding Islam from the Light of Earliest Jewish Christianity," (originally presented in Washington, DC at the Annual Conference on Muslim Peace, Justice and Interfaith Dialogue sponsored by Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, and Islamic Society of North America), published in The Muslim World, a journal devoted to the study of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations.

 

 

 

  • LOVING JEWISH NEIGHBORS by Dr. Marvin Wilson  (available online now), Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Gordon College. He served as a translator and editor of the NIV (New International Version) Bible, currently the most widely used English Bible translation in the world. Dr. Wilson has taught Biblical Hebrew and Jewish Studies for more than 60 years and co-edited four books with Jewish scholars to build bridges of understanding between Christian and Jewish communities. He authored the celebrated book, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (1989), singled out by Christian Century Magazine as an “all-time best seller” in the field of religion, and selected to form the basis of an award-winning PBS documentary, Jews and Christians: A Journey of Faith. More recently, Dr. Wilson authored, Exploring Our Hebraic Heritage: A Christian Theology of Roots and Renewal (2014), about which Prof. Susannah Heschel (daughter of the legendary Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel) wrote, “For two thousand years, we have longed for a Christian scholar of Judaism as sensitive and knowledgeable as Marvin Wilson, and his work fulfills our hopes.”


Muslim Seminars

 
For the Muslim community, AAi offers:
  • UNDERSTANDING JEWISH NEIGHBORS by Dr. Amir Hussain (coming fall 2024, إنشاء الله ), Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He specializes in the study of Islam and has served as an editor of three popular textbooks of Oxford University Press: World Religions: Western Traditions; World Religions: Eastern Traditions; and A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Prof. Hussain has authored several books and over 60 scholarly articles on religious studies, lectured in academic arenas internationally, and appeared as a religious advisor on several television programs, including The Story of God with Morgan Freeman. Amir also served for five years as editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, the premier scholarly journal for the study of religion, and is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Religion. Prof. Hussain has collaborated extensively in interfaith work with numerous rabbis and Jewish institutions across the country and around the world to analyze and illuminate sacred texts, traditions, and practices in an Islamic pursuit of justice and righteousness.

 

 

 

  • UNDERSTANDING CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORS by Prof. Abdullah Saeed (coming in 2024, إنشاء الله ), the Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne in Australia, the Director of the National Centre for Contemporary Islamic Studies, and the Convenor of Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. Prof. Saeed graduated from the Islamic University of Medina in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics as well as a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Melbourne. He is an active researcher, focusing on the negotiation of text and context, ijtihad and interpretation. He is particularly interested in the promotion of inter-religious initiatives and regularly engages with Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities at national and international symposia to enhance community understandings of Islam, Islamic thought, and Muslim societies. He has authored and edited numerous works, including Reading the Qur'an in the Twentieth Century: Towards a Contextualist Approach (2014); The Qur'an: An Introduction (2008); Islamic Thought: An Introduction (2006); and Interpreting the Qur'an: Towards a Contemporary Approach (2006). Prof. Saeed continues to teach Islamic studies at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and is the Foundation Chair of the Sultan of Oman Endowed Chair in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne.

To host an AAi seminar at your congregation, contact AAi for details.

More seminars by additional instructors are needed to meet the diverse needs of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim congregations. AAi continues to build an international alliance of peacemaking educators to equip their respective communities to build bridges of understanding and respect with Abrahamic neighbors, not only by surveying the vast common ground shared and exposing unjust stereotypes, but also by exploring various perceptions of difference that have divided us historically. AAi stands ready to collaborate with Jewish, Christian and Muslim peacemaking scholars to develop these seminars and propagate them widely Read more
 

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