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Omaha Land buys a big Tri-Faith Initiative (Interfaith group) leap (and my side comments on this)
Land buys a big Tri-Faith leap
By Christopher Burbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha Jewish, Muslim and Christian organizations have purchased land for neighboring houses of worship, and at least one, Temple Israel, plans to begin construction in the spring of 2012, leaders of the Tri-Faith Initiative said Tuesday.
Construction also is expected to begin next year on a planned fourth building, called a Tri-Faith Center, with social, educational and conference facilities that all the groups could use.
A synagogue for Temple Israel, a mosque and study center for the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture, a church for the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska and the Tri-Faith Center would be built near 132nd and Pacific Streets, as part of a development on the site of the former Ironwood Country Club.
Leaders announced Tuesday that each entity had purchased land for its building. They consider that a major leap toward a dream, five years in the making, of a shared campus for Jews, Muslims and Christians.
"This is probably the first time that Jews and Christians and Muslims have collaborated to intentionally co-locate houses of worship in the same common neighborhood," said Bob Freeman, chairman of the Tri-Faith Initiative Board of Directors.
The announcement attracted about 100 people, including members of the various religious organizations. Each group plans its own facility and has been raising money individually.
Temple Israel will move from its current location at 70th and Cass Streets and is ready to begin building "as soon as the snow melts," Rabbi Aryeh Azriel said. He hopes it will be done in time for the High Holy Days in 2013.
Leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska and the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture didn't know when construction would begin.
Unlike Temple Israel, neither is moving a current congregation to the Tri-Faith site. Both are creating new ones.
The Rev. J. Scott Barker, the Episcopal bishop of Nebraska, said their focus is on building a church community first, then a building.
Dr. Syed Mohiuddin, president and co-founder of the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture, said that organization hopes to start building in 2012.
Freeman cited the practical benefits of locating houses of worship near one another.
"You have compatible uses, you have more green space that can be created, you can share parking on your peak use days and you can create outreach opportunities," he said. "The unique circumstance of having a Jewish, and a Christian, and a Muslim place of worship . creates even more interesting possibilities and, of course, challenges, and we look forward to tackling all of those in the coming years."
Freeman said the community had given about $1 million to the Tri-Faith Initiative to buy land and begin programming.
A representative of each faith group made hopeful remarks.
"Much has been said about the so-called karma of our move to a multi-faith neighborhood on the grounds of the former Jewish country club that was created in response to an earlier time of anti-Semitism," said John Lehr, president of Temple Israel.
"And this is indeed an interesting narrative. . That our Episcopal and Muslim friends have cast their votes as well . and that we are willing and able to do so peacefully, as neighbors intent on building bridges, rather than walls, surely bodes well for the times that are upon us."
Barker, who said the Episcopal diocese had invested $1 million so far, called Tuesday a day of great rejoicing. "We hope to be nothing less than a witness to the world of what is possible when people of different faiths work together," he said.
Mohiuddin said the institute he heads wants to promote a better Western understanding of Islam and to build a unified, informed Muslim community in Omaha.
He said people from the related Abrahamic faiths "should and can be working partners in the service of God."
Land buys a big Tri-Faith leap - Omaha.com
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Kelly: Why, pray tell, is first tri-faith project here? - Omaha.com
Kelly: Why, pray tell, is first tri-faith project here?
By Michael Kelly
WORLD-HERALD COLUMNIST
Of all the places in the world for a mosque, a synagogue and a church to be built next to each other on purpose, why Omaha?
How did the local participants come to trust each other enough to move forward on a project that will cost each millions of dollars? Is there something different here — not just on the 35-acre plot of land where the houses of worship will be built, but also on this larger patch of earth we call Omaha?
Last Thursday morning I met with four leaders of the Omaha tri-faith project — a Muslim, two Jews and an Episcopal priest — and we all asked each other that question. Lots of cities conduct interfaith gatherings, but no place else is doing what Omaha is doing.
In a world of turmoil — political, economic, religious and otherwise — the three faith groups are trying something very different in Omaha. They announced in my Sunday column that each has now purchased the land, hired architects, begun fundraising and is moving forward.
At our meeting last week, the Rev. Ernesto Medina of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska, which is planning a church on the tri-faith site southeast of 132nd and Pacific Streets, called the Omaha plan "radical and new."
"I don't know of any other place where this could happen but in Omaha," said Medina, who arrived four years ago from Southern California. "There's something about the relationships that already existed, something already naturally embedded in the culture. There's an ability to listen and an integrity of shared understanding of the earth that God has given us."
Trust and understanding result from people truly getting to know each other, and not just at interfaith picnics.
Dr. Syed Mohiuddin, who is Muslim, said that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel came to the mosque on North 73rd Street to defend it, if necessary, from people who were angry about extremist Islamic terrorists who attacked the U.S.
Interfaith efforts in Omaha are not new. Boys Town was founded in 1917 by a Catholic priest from Ireland, Father Edward Flanagan, who took in boys of all faiths and soon received key financial and moral support from Henry Monsky, a Jewish lawyer in Omaha.
In 1938, Omaha started a chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The story goes that Otto Swanson, head of Nebraska Clothing Co., was approached by a businessman whose group was promoting a secret boycott of Jewish businesses.
The group would encourage people to shop at Swanson's store because it was "Christian-owned." An indignant Swanson showed the man out — and with others soon formed the local chapter of NCCJ.
Johnny Rosenblatt, who was Jewish, served as Omaha's mayor from 1954 to 1961. Omaha's religious tolerance at one time may have outpaced its racial openness; there were no black teachers in public schools until 1963.
And yet when a federal court in 1976 ordered the Omaha Public Schools to bus children to integrate classrooms, Omaha — in contrast to Boston, Louisville, Ky., and elsewhere — was a model of calm. Even if not everyone in Omaha liked the busing.
So maybe there's a Midwestern "politeness" factor that is part of the culture that the Rev. Medina has observed.
In any case, the Omaha tri-faith effort is gaining notice elsewhere.
The Harvard University Pluralism Project is following developments. A national Jewish publication printed an article about Omaha's plan. An author who calls himself "the Optimistic Muslim" asked whether Omaha was becoming the interfaith capital of the world.
The ecumenical National Council of Churches announced Friday that it will honor the Episcopal church in Omaha as a model interfaith congregation.
The Omaha tri-faith effort began with Temple Israel, which wanted a site for a new synagogue and had already engaged in interfaith gatherings with Muslims and Christians.
The local Muslim group, called the American Institute of Islamic Studies and Culture, agreed to be part of the effort. Next in the fold came Episcopalians.
A 2006 memorandum of understanding included an agreement that no faith group would proselytize, seeking to recruit from one of the other groups. In 2009, more than 1,100 people attended an Omaha interfaith dinner with national leaders of the three faiths.
Because all three faiths descended from the biblical Abraham, the event was called "Conversations in Abraham's Tent."
The Tri-Faith Initiative, which is the coordinating group, kept looking for locations. Then the former Ironwood Country Club was sold for a future retail, residential and office development, Sterling Ridge. A 35-acre corner there will make up the tri-faith area.
Neighbors in homes just to the south, unfortunately, lost their lovely views of the golf course when developers tore down trees and scraped the land flat.
Nancy Kirk of the Tri-Faith Initiative said Monday that the group will work with architects and with neighbors who have asked for an earthen berm, landscaping and fencing. A meeting will be held in late January.
Meanwhile, the tri-faith project moves forward, with a formal announcement today. Of all places on the globe, could a mosque, a synagogue and a church be intentionally built next to each other only in Omaha?
I think not. It could be done elsewhere. But so far, Omaha is the only place preparing to do so.
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for the folks at Temple Israel to come to know the Jewish Messiah YESHUA mentioned in Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 9:6 and Micah 5:2 in the OT
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