Joining two Muslim scholars from Iran is a Jewish scholar from Chicago, who does martial arts when he’s not leading synagogues, being sought by the media, and writing books (he’s working on his 10th), plus a Harrisonburg-based professor of the arts who was raised in a liberal Jewish family, knows Hebrew and Arabic, and is married to a Mennonite.

Below are brief descriptions of the fascinating lives and myriad interests of these two men, beginning with rabbi Niles Goldstein followed by professor Bob Bersson.

Niles Goldstein

Niles is a forward-looking rabbi and award-winning writer. He is passionate about renewing an ancient faith (Judaism) and dialoguing with people of other faiths. In 2000, Niles was named one of the “Top 40 People to Watch” in the 21st century by The New York Observer.

Niles came to 91����Ƶ for the 2014 spring semester as part of the visiting scholars program of the Center for Interfaith Engagement. The program is funded for three years by the of New York City. Niles is teaching a course in spiritual writing as well as a course in comparative monotheistic religions with a Muslim scholar and Christian scholar.

Niles is currently based in Chicago, where he is the community rabbi and rabbinic scholar for two large Reform Jewish synagogues. He also teaches a graduate course on moral leadership and leads seminars on comparative religion and spirituality at Loyola University.

Niles lived previously in New York City, where he co-founded an innovative and independent Jewish congregation in 1999 called The New Shul. He served as senior rabbi of the 200-household synagogue until 2010.

While at 91����Ƶ, Niles is completing his tenth book – Question of Faith: Timeless Questions from the Bible that Guide and Ground Our Lives. He travels frequently to the Washington D.C. area to lecture on the book and to promote 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement

His book, Gonzo Judaism–A Bold Path for Renewing an Ancient Faith, was a finalist for the Quill Award for best religion book of 2007.

Niles authored, co-authored or edited eight other books: The Challenge of the Soul–A Guide for the Spiritual Warrior; Craving the Divine–A Spiritual Guide for Today’s Perplexed; Lost Souls–Finding Hope in the Heart of Darkness; God at the Edge–Searching for the Divine in Uncomfortable and Unexpected Places; Spiritual Manifestos–Visions for Renewed Religious Life in America from Young Spiritual Leaders of Many Faiths; Duties of the Soul–The Role of Commandments in Liberal Judaism; Forests of the Night–The Fear of God in Early Hasidic Thought; and Judaism and Spiritual Ethics.

The essays and op-eds of Niles have appeared in many publications, including Chicago Sun-Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Newsday, The Forward and Moment. He has been featured and interviewed in Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Jerusalem Report, Belief.net, Yahoo Internet Life, New York Observer, New York Magazine and Jewish Week.

Niles has appeared on television and radio, such as NBC, CNN, NPR and BBC. He was a regular contributor to the show New Morning on the Hallmark Channel and was the voice behind Ask the Rabbi on the Microsoft Channel.

In the late 1990s Niles was involved in two ground-breaking projects in New York. As senior fellow for the , he developed and taught curricula on leadership development and community building at conferences and seminars throughout the United States. As program officer for the , he helped establish a national Jewish retreat center with a focus on spirituality and pluralism. He was also the founding editor of , a journal of Jewish thought and opinion.

Niles is a 1988 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in philosophy and minored in English literature. In 1992 he earned a master’s degree in Hebrew letters from Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion. He was ordained as a rabbi two years later.

Niles’ activities and skills range from fluency in Hebrew to black belts in karate and tae kwon do. He also created and led Jewish Adventure Travel trips to domestic and international destinations and created and led humanitarian missions to overseas locations.

Bob Bersson

Bob’s interests are innumerable, his experiences are deep and wide, his vision is broad, and he has a passion for mutual understanding. Professionally, he was a professor of art and art history for 23 years at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

At 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement, he teaches a course on films about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (He teaches the same course at JMU.)

Raised in a liberal Jewish family in New York City, Bob has visited Israel, where he has family and friends, three times. His longest stay was for six months when a work-study program (ulpan) took him to a kibbutz. After he retired from JMU in 2003, he spent 14 months in Egypt, where he became familiar with Muslim and Coptic Christian cultures. Added to his religious experience is that he is married to a Mennonite who is an 91����Ƶ alum, Dolores Shoup.

In Harrisonburg, Bob founded the , focusing especially on getting Muslims, Jews and Christians to work together on thorny problems like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is currently publishing a book titled Three Years in Cairo: Stories from the Egyptian Street.

Bob speaks the languages of both sides of the conflict in the Middle East – Hebrew and Arabic.

Bob’s academic career started at Brandeis University, where he graduated in 1968 with a degree in studio art and art history. Later he earned an MS in art education from the State University of New York and a PhD in art education from the University of Maryland.

At JMU he taught modern and contemporary art history, aesthetics, art criticism, and art appreciation. He wrote two textbooks on art history and art appreciation − Responding to Art: Form, Content and Context (McGraw-Hill, 2004) and Worlds of Art (Mayfield, 1991). He produced an illustrated children’s art-appreciation book titled Stripes and Stars (Crystal, 2004). He also directed a documentary for JMU, “Hard Times for the Truly Needy,” about government budget cuts that hurt the elderly, disabled and others in the Shenandoah Valley.

While at JMU, Bob won a distinguished teaching award and an “educator of the year” award for higher education in the Southeast from the .

Bob seems interested in everything and everyone, from golf to guitar. He not only plays golf and performs in local bands with his guitar, he can’t get away from teaching. He teaches private guitar lessons and offers a course on “Golf Made Easier” in the local Lifelong Learning Institute.

In addition to the Interfaith Initiative for Peace and Justice, Bob founded other local projects − Citizens for Downtown, Caucus on Social Theory and Art Education, Fridays on the Square arts series, and Blacks Run Greenway.

Here are their scholarly bios, beginning with the most recent arrival, Sedigheh (Sheida) Shakouri Rad, who joined her husband, Amir Akrami, at 91����Ƶ at the end of 2012.

Sedigheh (Sheida) Shakouri Rad

Sheida arrived at 91����Ƶ after her reformist political leanings led to her termination as a professor at the University of Tehran. She is hopeful for her country, though, after the election of a more progressive president of Iran in June 2013.

She joined her husband, Amir Akrami, who had been a visiting scholar at 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement since September 2012. In the fall of 2013 she was appointed a visiting scholar as well.

The visiting scholar program is funded for three years by the of New York City.

Sheida is teaching courses at 91����Ƶ on “Women and Islam” and “Elementary Farsi,” the language of her country. In addition to teaching, Sheida and her husband are leading a series of informal coffeehouse programs on campus about Iranian life and culture.

For 15 years Sheida was a professor at the University of Tehran, first in the department of Islamic theology and knowledge, where she had been a student herself, and then in the new Center of Women Studies. Her main areas of expertise are women in the Quran, women in Islamic law, women in Iran and Islamic feminism. During her time there, she received a scholarship from her university and the government to pursue a doctorate.

Sheida earned an MA in the history and civilization of Islamic nations from the University of Tehran and a PhD in Islamic studies at the University of Birmingham in England. The title of her doctoral dissertation was “The Status of Women in Iranian Modern Shi’i Thought (1906-2004).”

She and her future husband both graduated from the University of Tehran in 1987 with a BA in Islamic theology and sciences, but they did not know each other at the time. They were introduced later through common friends.

Sheida and Amir have a son in university in Montreal, Canada, and a daughter who just graduated in clinical psychology at the University of Tehran.

Her first jobs as a young university graduate were to conduct research on “Iranian women’s problems” for the Office of the Prime Minister and to teach Iranian history at an elite high school for talented students.

As a faculty member at the University of Tehran, Sheida mainly worked in Cultural Studies and Social Planning Institute under the auspices of the government’s Ministry of Sciences, Research and Technology. She served as a researcher, research supervisor and evaluator of research projects. In 2000 she helped establish a women’s studies program at the institute and served as its first chair for three years.

Earlier, Sheida conducted research on the textbooks on religion that should be used in Iran’s elementary schools. This led to a national conference on religious training in schools.

Currently she is one of three researchers who are working on a “Gender in the Quran” project for a non-governmental organization called the Institute for Women Studies. “It is an effort to present a new interpretation of the Quranic verses on women,” she says.

In 2010, Sheida presented an academic paper on “The Quran and Domestic Violence” at the Peace and Islam Conference in Sweden.

Sheida is the editor of three books on women’s issues. She also co-authored What is Islam? which was first published in her country and then translated into English and French.

Amir Akrami

Amir, firmly rooted in his home country, pursued part of his education in the West and travels the world as an expert in interfaith dialogue.

He missed the opening of 91����Ƶ’s fall 2012 semester, however, because of travel difficulties between Iran and the United States, whose governments have been enemies for 35 years. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

When Amir arrived on campus a few weeks after the semester started, he was the first participant in the visiting scholar program of 91����Ƶ’s Center for Interfaith Engagement.

Amir has taught three different courses at 91����Ƶ – “Introduction to Islam,” “Issues in Islam” and “Rumi’s Thought.” During the spring 2014 semester, he is teaching Islamic spirituality as well as a course in comparative monotheistic religions with a Jewish scholar and Christian scholar.

Amir came to 91����Ƶ after three years as a researcher and lecturer at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy. Before that he was a visiting research fellow for five years at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at the University of Birmingham in England. While there he also taught Islamic studies at Al-Mahdi Institute.

Earlier, Amir taught for five years in the Islamic theology department at the University of Tehran, which he had attended as a student. While there, in Iran’s capital city, he was active in three related organizations – International Center for Dialogue among Civilizations, Institute for Inter-Religious Dialogue, and Inter-Religious Dialogue in Islamic Culture and Relations Organization.

A 1987 graduate of the University of Tehran, majoring in Islamic theology and sciences, Amir went on to earn a master’s degree in religions and mysticism. He earned a PhD in the philosophy of religion at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He finished his doctoral dissertation at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy.

For much of his career, Amir has traveled the world to interact with scholars of other religions, often presenting formal academic papers. Among the events were: Conference on Faith Communities in a Civil Society, held in England; Conference on Islam and Peace, in Sweden; Conference on Dialogue between Religions, in Iran; International Conference on Dialogue among Cultures, in Spain; and International Consultation on Christians and Muslims in Dialogue, in Switzerland.

Perhaps most significant was an annual Christian-Muslim dialogue series organized after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. Called Building Bridges Seminars, they were organized by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who heads the worldwide Anglican churches (known in the United States as Episcopalians). Responsibility for the seminars was later transferred to the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University.

Amir attended the first seminar in 2002 at the archbishop’s palace in London, England. He also attended the seminars in Bosnia (2005), Washington (2006), Singapore (2007), Rome (2008) and Qatar (2011). Each seminar features three days of intensive study by Christian and Muslim scholars on texts from the Bible and Quran.

That’s what is happening at 91����Ƶ.

“Interacting with people of other faiths builds friendship and understanding – something we sorely need in this world,” says , PhD, director of , “and interfaith dialogue strengthens our own faith.”

This semester a Muslim professor from Iran is teaching “Islamic Spirituality” and a Jewish rabbi from New York City is teaching “Spiritual Writers and Spiritual Writings.” Both of them join an instructor from to lead a class on “Comparative Monotheisms: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”

Focusing on the three Abrahamic religions

91����Ƶ is focusing on the three world religions that worship one God – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Over the centuries Christians, Muslims and Jews have fought each other savagely. Millions have died in the name of their God. But the three religions share a common birthplace − the Middle East − and a common ancestor, Abraham. And they have enjoyed periods of peaceful co-existence.

CIE’s logo features Abraham’s tent, which the center ‘s website describes as “open to the four winds, a safe place of hospitality towards strangers and engagement with them.”

“In today’s world and in a pluralistic society like ours, it is important that our students learn to know people of other faiths,” says Martin. “Our students will be going to places − both in the United States and abroad − where they will encounter people of other faiths.”

Martin says the historic differences between the three religions are exacerbated today by the Israel-Palestine conflict, the rise of Muslim extremism, and the United States’ counter-attacks after the terrorist attack on New York City in 2001. He decries the prevalence of “Islamophobia” in the United States.

Course co-taught by Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars

CIE, which is funded entirely by foundation grants and private donations, offers several courses each semester by visiting scholars. The team-taught “Comparative Monotheisms” course this semester draws two dozen undergraduates, graduate students, seminarians and members of the community.

“Students ask all sorts of questions, from theology to history, ancient or contemporary,” says the Muslim scholar, Amir Akrami, PhD. “However, the focus of our work is on prayer, scripture, reasoning, politics and action.”

Akrami, who has taught at 91����Ƶ since September 2012, is from the in Tehran. He was a regular participant in the internationally respected Building Bridges Seminars around the world.

Akrami’s wife, Sheida Shakouri Rad, PhD, joined him at 91����Ƶ a year ago. She is teaching Farsi, the language of Iran, this semester. Last semester she taught “Women in Islam.” She is on leave from the University of Tehran, where she has been a professor for 15 years.

The two other professors for the comparative-monotheism course are Niles Goldstein, an award-winning author and ordained Reform Jewish rabbi, and Reuben Shank, an 91����Ƶ adjunct faculty member who is Mennonite and studying for a doctorate in religion at the University of Virginia.

Films, interfaith peace camp, lessons from disaster work

The fifth CIE course this semester is “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Film,” taught by Bob Bersson, PhD, a retired professor of art and art history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg and founder of the local .

In addition to bringing scholars to campus, CIE offers an each summer, which includes trips to the local mosque and synagogue. Other events have been a Wednesday film series and Thursday forums.

CIE’s director likes the way that interfaith engagement sometimes emerges from work on the ground at disaster sites, both at home and abroad. “People of different faiths find themselves working together,” says Martin, “and they get to know each other.”

One result of Martin’s interest is an upcoming speech at 91����Ƶ on how “disasters blow down fences and make good neighbors” by a federal government official, who is a former Mennonite pastor. He is David Myers, and he will speak on March 20. He is a senior advisor at the in Washington D.C. and works in faith-based and neighborhood partnerships for both the White House and the .

Martin experienced the connection between disaster relief and interfaith engagement first hand when a major earthquake hit Iran in 1990, killing more than 35,000 people. He worked at the time as program director for central and southern Asia for , a North American relief, development, and peacebuilding agency that works in about 60 countries.

MCC exchange welcomed in Iran

MCC wanted to respond to a country considered a U.S. enemy, “to demonstrate that we would respond to human need wherever it occurred, irrespective of the religion and politics of the country,” Martin says. But the United States and Iran had no diplomatic relations (and still don’t), making travel to Iran difficult, and MCC wondered whether the hardline Muslim government would welcome an overtly Christian aid agency.

“It turned out, however, that Iran was more comfortable with an explicitly Christian organization than with secular agencies,” says Martin. “They understand the motivation that comes from religious faith.” So MCC was able to establish a long-term relationship with the Iranian Red Crescent Society on disaster relief and reconstruction as well as assistance to refugees.

The post-earthquake work then led to interfaith dialogue in the form of student exchanges and Muslim-Christian conferences every two to three years. The sixth conference will be held this May in Qom, an Iranian city known for being a center of Islamic scholarship. Martin will attend, along with some 91����Ƶ students.

Under the direction of Dr. Ed Martin

Martin was a program director with MCC from 1989 to 2007, based at its headquarters in Akron, Pa. After that he went to the , an international Quaker organization, in Philadelphia. He helped build connections between Iranian institutions and the United States and advocated for better relations between the two countries.

He started his career as an MCC volunteer in Nepal, where he met his future wife, Kathy Yoder. Later he worked at the in Sri Lanka. A graduate of Stanford University, Martin earned graduate degrees at Cornell University – a master’s in public administration and a doctorate in agricultural economics.

The vision for interfaith engagement at 91����Ƶ grew out of conversations among faculty, resulting in a formal proposal to the Board of Trustees, which it approved in 2009. The center opened later that year in the seminary building, with seminary professor Gerald Shenk, PhD, as part-time director. Martin was appointed director in 2010, serving part time and commuting from Pennsylvania.

Near and far support

CIE’s largest donor to date is the of New York City, which has given $355,000 over three years.

A major local supporter is John Fairfield, PhD, co-founder of the Rosetta Stone language-software company and professor emeritus of computer science at James Madison University. “I enjoy getting inside the head of someone who thinks very differently than I do,” he says. “It’s like travel to a foreign country − makes you notice things in your own country you’d taken for granted.”

He adds: “CIE is where we Mennonites meet other kinds of Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, liberals, conservatives and all kinds of people who challenge our understanding, because we value their critique and insights. And of course we think we’ve got something to offer, and we challenge them pretty deeply too. They seem to appreciate it. We need each other.”

And that’s why 91����Ƶ goes out of its way to bring people of different faiths together.

Amir Akrami, from the Iranian Institute of Philosophy in Tehran, is teaching two courses during the spring semester 2013 – “Introduction to Islam” and “Issues in Islam.” During the fall semester he taught a non-credit mini-course on Islam that attracted over 20 regular students. During the year he is also invited frequently to guest-lecture in other classes, and he spoke at 91����Ƶ’s first Interfaith Forum of the 2012-13 school year.

The visiting scholar series, initiated by 91����Ƶ’s three-year-old Center for Interfaith Engagement, is funded by a $355,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. The center focuses on the three monotheistic religions that started in the Middle East and which honor Abraham. The three are Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“We decided to start the visiting scholar program with a Muslim professor,” said Ed Martin, PhD, director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement, “especially in this time of an expanding Muslim population in the U.S. and a great deal of Islamophobia.

“It’s important that our [majority Christian] students learn about other faiths, such as Islam, and be comfortable relating to people of other faiths, particularly Muslims,” he added.

91����Ƶ selected Akrami from an application pool of 16 Muslim scholars. He was a regular participant in the internationally respected Building Bridges Seminars in London, Bosnia, Washington, Singapore and Rome. The seminars are based at Georgetown University in Washington.

Akrami holds a master’s degree in religions and mysticism from Tehran University in Iran and a PhD in the philosophy of religion from McGill University in Montreal. He finished his doctoral thesis at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy. Adrami also was a visiting scholar at the University of Birmingham in England and taught at the Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham.

What are Americans’ most common questions about Islam? “After the 9/11 attacks, they wondered whether Islam is an inherently violent religion,” said Akram. “The answer is ‘no.’” Other questions have to do with the status of Jesus in Islam and – especially from Catholics – the place of Mary.

On the reason for misunderstanding, even hatred, between Christians, Jews and Muslims, Akrami observed: “People are afraid of the dark – what they don’t know. But when you shed light on the dark areas, often through education, attitudes change.”

Another way to reduce hostility, Akrami said, is for people in the three religions to simply get to know each other.

One of Akrami’s students during the fall semester, assistant professor Linda Gnagey, was impressed with the diversity of the class – 91����Ƶ students and faculty, community members, those with and without personal experience with Muslims.

“Dr. Akrami differentiated between Islam the historical religion and Islam as a code of conduct,” she said. “This helped me to recognize the many beliefs, behaviors and attitudes that Christians and Muslims share.”

Akrami was joined in December by his wife, who is also a Muslim scholar. He has a 22-year-old daughter in Iran and an 18-year-old son in Canada.

The grant will be dispersed in increments of $119,000 in 2012 and $118,000 in 2013 and 2014. It will allow the at 91����Ƶ to host visiting scholars in Islam or Judaism as resources in the classroom and across campus. , director of CIE, said the grant will enable students to deepen their understanding of other faiths by learning from scholars that adhere to them.

“In today’s world, we believe engaging with and learning from people of other faiths is essential for creating a more knowledgeable and peaceful society,” said , provost at 91����Ƶ. “The support of the Henry Luce Foundation is deeply appreciated and will strengthen our efforts significantly.”

The full three-year CIE program budget to which the Luce grant is providing support includes salary and benefits for the CIE director, associate director, a Mennonite scholar, a second visiting scholar, and travel to conferences, said Martin. In addition, the visiting scholars funded by the grant will be available to , and .

“The CIE hopes that participants in the program will be able to analyze the role of religion in conflicts and how faith traditions can be helpful in promoting peace,” said Martin. “Participants will be encouraged to envision and design programs for communities of different faiths to cooperate in meeting human needs, particularly in times of disaster.”

The is dedicated to encouraging the development of religious leaders through theological education, and fostering scholarship that links the academy to religious communities and other audiences. A key priority is support for new models of theological education to prepare leaders for service in a religiously plural world.