Permanent link for Many Plates Make A Feast: From the Melting Pot to a Potluck Nation at the Interfaith America Leadership Summit on August 8, 2023

This past weekend, I trekked to Chicago for the annual Interfaith America Leadership Summit - three-days filled with workshops and panels, energy and enthusiasm, and hundreds of both well-established and burgeoning interfaith leaders from college campuses across the country. I had the chance to connect with fellow staffers and students alike, all devoted to the exploration and promotion of religious pluralism. The theme of the conference, "Many Plates Make A Feast," called attention to an important change that has taken place within the interfaith movement over the past few years.

Most of you will be familiar with the adage of the U.S. as a 'melting pot', which was en vogue for many years and still has quite a hold on the American imagination. The idea was that our nation represented a mixture of beliefs, backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities that melted into a unified whole. This metaphor has largely fallen out of favor, the primary critique being that such a melting together erases essential and irreducible differences between individuals and communities for the sake of a predominantly Judeo-Christian homogenized 'norm.' Several other metaphors have been suggested in its replacement in attempts to understand multiculturalism - the kaleidoscope, the tossed salad. Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, and others are turning to the image of a potluck. 

Rather than downplay our differences, a Potluck Nation is one wherein we bring our diverse 'dishes' - aka our identities, perspectives, and experiences - to the table in all of their complicated glory. Not an ingredient in someone else's dish but a whole entity on its own to share with the other members of the potluck. This changes the conversation from one of dilution and erasure to invitation and exploration. It also begs the question: What can I bring to the potluck?

At the Summit this weekend, I was simply overloaded by the number and the variety of 'dishes' available. Our conversations ranged from discussions of how to tackle the hot button issues on each of our campuses and navigating murky administrative waters in a world where DEI work is so often under threat to our favorite songs to listen to when we're having a really good day and the moments that bring us pure joy in our work. Some, like myself, were just beginning on their journeys to implement interfaith programming on campus and eagerly listened to the successes and pitfalls of those around them; others had been at it for years and cherished the Summit as an opportunity to rejuvenate their efforts. It was uplifting, overwhelming, and ultimately inspiring. I left feeling both amazingly supported and metaphorically quite full from such a diverse feast. 

This shift in the interfaith movement from downplaying our differences for the sake of commonality to celebrating our uniqueness is an essential one. It does mean that dialogue can and often will be messy, that we will be asked to sit with tension and to engage with those who actively disagree with us - perhaps they bring a spicier dish to the table than what our palette is used to! But it is in this messy (and spicy) work that we can truly begin to see others in their fullest, most complex, most beautiful humanity rather than as caricatures or stereotypes. We can begin to engage with the diversity around us rather than simply witness and acknowledge it. This is how we move towards pluralism. This is how we reimagine a better world together.

Liz English

LaTanya Lane, Director of the Interfaith Leadership Institute at Interfaith America, addresses students and educators on the first day of the conference.

Interfaith leaders answering the prompt, "What from your traditions and experiences are you bringing to the feast?"

Posted on Permanent link for Many Plates Make A Feast: From the Melting Pot to a Potluck Nation at the Interfaith America Leadership Summit on August 8, 2023.

Permanent link for A Moment for Mindfulness: Walk the Labyrinth during Laker Welcome Week on August 1, 2023

Hard to believe as it is, fall is just around the corner! Soon, students will be heading back to campus and with them comes a flood of events geared toward welcoming new and returning members of the GV community to campus. The program known as Laker Welcome kicks off the week before classes start and includes a huge number of programs, from departmental meet-and-greets to advising sessions to beach clean-up service days and more, capped off with Campus Life Night on Sunday, August 27th.

In the midst of all this activity, the Kaufman Interfaith team hopes to offer a brief moment of calm by hosting a contemplative labyrinth . Labyrinths have been used as contemplative tools for centuries. Different from a maze, the labyrinth has only one entrance/exit. The continuous path allows for a loosely guided walking meditative practice that can help ground a wandering mind.

We'll be setting up the mobile labyrinth, provided by Trinity Methodist United Church, on Wednesday, August 23rd from 11am-2pm . Staff will be available to talk through some mindfulness basics to anyone interested. All GVSU faculty, staff, and students are all invited to participate and are welcome to drop by any time. Walking the labyrinth can take as much or as little time as you like - with some folks moving though in 15 minutes and others devoting over an hour of their time to the practice. This is a resource for you - use it as you like!

We'll be located on the large lawn near Kirkhof and the Mary Idema Pew Library . Whether you'd like to walk the labyrinth, learn about mindfulness practices, or just sit and enjoy some peace and quiet during a busy week, we hope you'll stop by!

Posted by Elizabeth English on Permanent link for A Moment for Mindfulness: Walk the Labyrinth during Laker Welcome Week on August 1, 2023.

Permanent link for Introducing the Kaufman Associates on July 18, 2023

We are excited to announce the establishment of the Kaufman Associates program which will recognize persons who have made significant contributions to our Institute as volunteers. These individuals have made a huge impact in our program spaces and we are excited about this new initiative that will recognize their work. 

The group includes individuals who lead book groups, write for our Interfaith Inform, assist in presentations and various programs of the Institute, provide advice for initiatives from their expertise and community experience, or provide other volunteer support to our efforts. They include:

David Baak

Simin Beg

Cary Fleischer

Karen Meyers

Carol Robinson

Fred Stella

We are incredibly grateful for all of their investment. We have benefited from their advice over the past several years, as well as their involvement in programming— and we are eager for their assistance as we move into the next phase of the Institute’s life and work.

Even as we look to grow this roster of committed volunteers and advocates, we honor the ways these Associates have already been very active in advancing Kaufman’s interfaith mission and have also pledged to continue to support interfaith understanding and mutual respect in the existing efforts as well as in new programs being developed. We welcome them into this new capacity and look forward to this formalized relationship with Kaufman!

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Hear from them:

“Interfaith work is foundational to our community thriving. This work has become critical. I am committed to this work because I want to be a part, albeit a small part, of the solution.”

-Dr. Simin Beg, Corewell Health

“As a healthcare provider, I am passionate about patients receiving care respectful of their beliefs. The Kaufman Interfaith Institute provides the connection I need with others who can serve as resources for inclusive, equitable care.”

-Dr. Carol Robinson RN, CHPN

“As an educator, facilitator, bridge builder, and person of faith, I am a part of Kaufman Interfaith Institute (both financially and as a volunteer) because I hope to engage in building bridges that connect persons of different backgrounds in meaningful ways that allow us to cross the spaces between us.”

-Karen Meyers, Director Emeritus, GVSU Regional Math & Science Center

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You’ll be hearing more about the Associates and their work through the Institute's communications outlets. Stay posted! 

- Doug Kindschi, Sylvia and Richard Kaufman Founding Director, Kaufman Interfaith Institute

Posted on Permanent link for Introducing the Kaufman Associates on July 18, 2023.

Permanent link for Announcing Shared Leadership of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute on July 11, 2023

The Kaufman Interfaith Institute is pleased to announce some new developments in our organizational structure as we move forward into the next academic year.  Effective this month the leadership will be shared with Douglas Kindschi serving as the Sylvia and Richard Kaufman Founding Director, and Kyle Kooyers serving as the Director of Operations.  I will continue responsibility for budget, serve as appointing officer for staff, and take on an advisory role for planning and fund raising. I will also assist during the transition of the ongoing leadership for the Institute.

I am particularly pleased to continue working with Kyle Kooyers, who has been serving as the Associate Director for the past few years. His new role as Director of Operations will involve much of what he has already been doing so successfully but will signal his expanded responsibilities as we transition leadership. He will introduce himself further in his statement below.

- Doug Kindschi, Sylvia and Richard Kaufman Founding Director, Kaufman Interfaith Institute

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I am so very honored to be a part of this team and humbled to be stepping into this role. Since the beginning of my time with the Institute in 2016, I have found this work of human connection, interfaith understanding, and collective transformation to be deeply formative and immensely inspiring. Community organizing has been a common thread throughout my personal journey. The life and energy I find in interfaith collaboration and cooperation is truly without match. As I reflect over this past program year, there’s one phrase, offered by one of our attendees at our Rabbi Sigal Interfaith Leadership Lecture featuring Valarie Kaur, that keeps coming to mind… “Now I feel like I can breathe.”

For a woman of color, whose adoptive parents were white and whose late brother was native American, Valarie’s framework for Revolutionary Love, as she said, “explains my experience and my brother’s and my life. He always fought through life because there was such extreme prejudice and white supremacy behaviors towards us. So never got to that part where he could breathe. And when you said to imagine an ancestor behind you, I instantly saw him behind me. And he is from the Ottawa Tribe. So, I felt him saying, ‘Thank you for acknowledging me.’  He was never acknowledged. He was always acknowledged as an opponent. He always had rage. He always fought. And I grieved for him. Now I feel like I can breathe.”  

Spaces of deep personal and communal transformation, spaces where people can feel seen and understood, do not happen simply because one has reserved a room, invited a speaker, brought in students, faculty, staff, and community members, and worked diligently with conference and events to curate a lovely room set-up and some tasty food. While critically important, the logistical labor is not what makes a gathering of people life changing. That is achieved by the work of human hearts:

• Cultivating trust born out of sustained and mutual relationships.
• Giving land and labor acknowledgement to the people it’s due.
• Forging agreements to enter healthy conversation across difference with the expectation that each person with leave having grown, hearing a new perspective, seeing a similarity, growing in understanding, making a new friendship, changing an old attitude for one of admiration.
• Honoring the distinctiveness or our cultures, traditions, beliefs, and lived experiences as well as celebrating that which we hold in common.
• Naming the realities of power and privilege, along with the ways in which here in the United States and around the world religious, spiritual, and secular communities are complicit in systems of oppression and violence AND at the same time, are also the ones who are leading the work for peace, understanding, equity, and justice.
• Listening to and dreaming with one another about a world we’ll be proud to hand off to the next generation while also ensuring they have a place at the table.

Whether it’s creating spaces for joy - like our International Interfaith Concert featuring ensembles from Israel and Afghanistan or the Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration for an evening of gratitude and love - perhaps, we can feel like we can breathe.

Whether it’s creating spaces for grief, mourning, and remembering - like the Community Interfaith Memorial Services or hosting Remembrance in Action, two art exhibitions and film screenings that bring to the fore the horror of the Holocaust and the need to resist hate - perhaps, we can feel like we can breathe.

Whether it’s developing spaces for listening and support - like Talking Together, a year-long program to address and heal toxic polarization on our campus and in our community or working to implement processes, programs, and resources, to ensure that our students, faculty, and staff feel a deep sense of belonging in their respective religious, spiritual, or secular identity on campus - perhaps, we can feel like we can breathe.

Whether it’s investing in the next generation - like running our Youth Interfaith Service Day Camp bringing together middle and high school youth from around West Michigan to engage in interfaith and cross-cultural understanding and service or mentoring and resourcing those students as they take the reins of the Interfaith Movement through our Kaufman Interfaith Leadership Scholars program - perhaps, we can feel like we can breathe.

All of these initiatives and programs, these spaces of transformational, happen as a direct result of the inspiring and compassionate team that is the Kaufman staff. Week to week, month to month, they engage in the hard work of doing the heart work that makes interfaith understanding and cooperation possible. We joke that our spaces may not look as pretty or polished as larger institutes and centers, but, make no mistake, they are life changing. It takes a very special group of people to time and time again offer programing and space where people are seen, where people feel understood, where our stories are shared, and where the focus of the event isn’t so much to be self-aggrandizing and breathtaking but to be grounded in a revolutionary sense of love that is ultimately breath-giving.

As we look to the future and seek to live into GVSU’s Reach Higher 2025 values - a commitment to Inquiry, to an Inclusive & Equitable Community, to Innovation, to Integrity, and to International Perspectives – these commitments will continue to remain at the fore of our programming because they are first and foremost embodied and exemplified by our staff. It is a profound joy and blessing to be a part of this team.

Thank you for your continued partnership and for all of you who have invested me and in the work of the Institute. I look forward to all that is to come and am eager to connect over coffee/tea or by hosting you here in our new office space!

- Kyle Kooyers, Director of Operations, Kaufman Interfaith Institute

Posted on Permanent link for Announcing Shared Leadership of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute on July 11, 2023.

Permanent link for Exploring the Garment: Kaufman's New Look on July 11, 2023

"In a real sense all life is inter-related. All [people] are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in  a single garment of destiny  . Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

"When we choose to wonder about people we don't know, when we imagine their lives and listen for their stories, we begin to expand the circle of who we see as  a part of us.  "

Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger

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One of our longest-running friendship groups at Kaufman is “Interfaith and Interwoven.” Every week from September to May, a group of women from different religious and non-religious backgrounds (and various handicraft skill levels) gather together for conversation while creating winter gear for students at a local elementary school. This group began in-person, transitioned to a Zoom call during the shut down, and has remained virtual since then so as to keep longtime members who have moved away from the West Michigan area connected to the group.

Another fixture in the West Michigan interfaith scene is the weekly WGVU radio show, Common Threads. Hosted by one of our Kaufman Associates, Fred Stella, the show explores religion and spirituality by providing intelligent conversations with clergy, authors, journalists, filmmakers, and lay members of the community speaking from a variety of religious identities. The topics range widely, yet the ‘common thread’ remains: that we have so much to learn from each others’ experiences in the world.

As we were envisioning our brand redesign, the image of the woven garment kept surfacing. Knitting together conversations and friendships alongside mittens and scarves. The interwoven perspectives of religious scholars and practitioners. Kaufman’s unique position as connector between communities. And the voice of Dr. King ringing in our ears, with the poignant imagery of the “single garment of destiny.”

As Valarie Kaur taught us last winter, the first step in actualizing this interconnectivity, in no longer seeing others as strangers but as parts of ourselves that we do not yet know, is wonder. Being curious is how we begin to visualize the intricate patterns that bind us together as one humanity. The infinite number of potential connections, of fragments of ourselves in others, creates an ever-growing garment, so large we cannot see the edges. Curiosity driven by joy spurs us forward as the Kaufman Institute continues into the next phase of exploring this weave with our community.

It is with excitement that we launch Kaufman’s new look and feel, replete with bright colors we hope will spark joy and wonder and an array of weave patterns to highlight the myriad ways we are interconnected, even in our differences.

Liz English

Posted on Permanent link for Exploring the Garment: Kaufman's New Look on July 11, 2023.

Permanent link for Celebrating Our Youth Programs on May 23, 2023

Last year, I was invited to speak about fostering interfaith relationships by a professor at Hope College. In my introduction, as I always do, I described myself as ‘Muslim American.’ A student raised her hand and asked me why I described myself this way. “I would never call myself Christian American,” she said. At first I was taken aback by this question, but then I realized my unconscious description of myself was a reflection of a deep-seeded need inside of me to dismantle the perception that for one to be Muslim and American was an oxymoron or worse yet, abhorrent. I wanted to start the conversation with these students by defining myself in a way that was authentic and valid to who I, a part of the 3.45 million Muslims in America, am. As an immigrant of Pakistani descent, a mother, an interfaith youth activator, a ‘Muslim American,’ and an active community member, I believe in the power of relationships and stories to change hearts and minds.

The importance of us each telling our own story is what my work at the Kaufman Interfaith Institute entails. As Program Manager, I am honored to work with the next generation of youth leaders via our summer camps and our co-curricular Scholars programming.

I cannot believe this will be our fifth year of hosting the Kaufman Interfaith Service Day Camp. What began as a dream of community leaders who were passionate about introducing the power of interfaith relationships to younger generations, evolved into a Summer Day Camp. The initial focus of the camp was shared experiences via service at area nonprofits and sacred site visits. Rather than a cursory cross-cultural experience, day camp has transformed into an exploration of equity and justice by making meaningful connections between the core values of a particular worldview, the service we engage in with area nonprofits, and the activities we do during camp. So, our visit to the Sikh Gurdwara, where we learn about “seva” or humble service as we partake in the Langar meal, connects to the service we perform with our hands at Plainsong Farm or New City Neighbors’ Urban Farm. Being called in their faith tradition to care for the earth by these nonprofits connects to the need for good nourishment, especially for those in non-system supported areas. And all of this connects to the Food Access simulation the students experienced as an activity during the same day at camp

Each day of camp is an exploration of the interfaith imperative to advance equity. Students explore their own spiritual, secular, or religious identity and how it connects to the theme of the day. They meet other students and hear their “why” for engaging in this interfaith experience, expanding their views and growing their perspective. Ultimately, they find time to make personal connections to others through story and by creating space within their imagination for other viewpoints outside of their own. Uniquely challenging and expansive, this camp has drawn in area students representing over eight different worldview expressions.

There is still room for your middle- or high-school age student to join our 2023 Interfaith Summer Day Camp taking place the week of June 12th from 9am-3pm. Transportation, meals, snacks, fun and engaging activities, and unique experiences will be provided by the Kaufman staff and our community partners. This year’s day camp would not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of the MillerKnoll Foundation, Gentex Corporation, Corewell Health, University of Michigan Health West, and the Dominican Sisters at Marywood. Here’s where you can find more information about our Interfaith Service Day Camp or to register your student.

Through working with the youth, we have been able to find a balance between narrative and data which drives the way youth leadership and embodied dialogue are framed and executed for effective change. Our Kaufman Interfaith Leadership Scholars meet every other Sunday throughout the school year. This year, as our fourth year of Scholars is coming to an end, we have three Scholars who have been with us since we began. Two of them are seniors and one is only a freshman in high school. Each year, the Scholars spend the first semester learning about interfaith leadership and personal asset mapping while receiving training from GVSU staff on identity, equity, anti-racism frameworks, and deep dialogue. They then apply that training to a project of their choosing during the second semester. This year, the students will host an interactive dialogue at area public schools focused on creating inclusive school environments for people of all spiritual, secular, or religious identities. The students will present their findings at the Parliament of the World’s Religions taking place in Chicago in August. This unique extracurricular opportunity is transformative for our area youth and our communities. While the fifth year of Scholars will begin in the Fall, registration is open now for all that are interested. No prior experience is necessary. Check out this page for more information about our Leadership Scholars

Our dreams for Kaufman’s Next Generation programming are vast. As students graduate high school and move on to jobs or college, we find ourselves wanting to stay connected. We hope that the seeds of learning we are planting produce sprouts of understanding, equity, and belonging wherever these students land. 

Zahabia Ahmed-Usmani

Posted on Permanent link for Celebrating Our Youth Programs on May 23, 2023.

Permanent link for Staff Spotlight: Liz English on March 14, 2023

In October of 2008, McGill University in Montreal hosted a conference called “Scriptural Authority and Status in World Religions.” Representatives from each of ‘the big six’ religious traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism) took turns speaking about the role of the written word in their respective traditions. Recitations from their sacred books accompanied histories of the creation and protection of those texts, stories of the complex traditions of interpretation surrounding them, and personal testimonies of complicated and rewarding relationships with the words. Six speakers somehow wove together a singular message on humanity’s written relationship to the divine, and it echoed in the rafters.

There I was in the crowd, 19 years old, in my sophomore year at McGill, and completely entranced.

I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, raised in the Presbyterian Church, with amazingly few interactions with other religious perspectives under my belt by the time I ventured off to college. I remember attending a bar mitzvah or two in my early teens, though the memories that remain are predominantly of awkward teenage dancing and not of any substantive dialogue. Sadly, I remember being introduced to a skewed image of Islam in the aftermath of 9/11. What I would later learn was a beautiful tradition was then obscured by fear, confusion, and misinformation. My family did travel quite a bit as I was growing up, but visits to Notre Dame and the Sagrada Familia, while intensely meaningful, didn’t do much to widen my gaze beyond Christianity.

I left Memphis with my Christian upbringing and my Southern accent in tow. Any awareness I had of other worldviews was at best peripheral and at worst dangerously incorrect. 

Thankfully, even a short time in Montreal, a truly multicultural city, did wonders to educate me to the diversity of the world. But while the city opened my eyes, the conference shined the light. I remember winding down at the post-conference reception thinking, “Everyone is saying the same thing!”– a sentiment which I can recognize now as more than a little naïve and overly simplistic, but my 19-year-old self saw only the similarities. I felt enlightened and inspired and hungry for more. Within a week, I had changed my schedule for the upcoming semester and enrolled in a major in World Religions.

In the years following this experience, through my time at McGill, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Denver, I leaned into the academic study of religious and spiritual traditions of the world, basking in not only their moments of similarity but also their profound and illuminating differences. While my personal spirituality waxed and waned, my curiosity never faded.

What began as ethereal enlightenment grew to include down-to-earth questions. After years of studying the beliefs, the rituals, the communities themselves, I turned to the process. Why do we study religions the way we do? Where did this comparative practice come from, and what purpose does it serve? Conversely, what harm does it cause? Whose voices have been elevated in these conversations, and whose have been silenced? I committed myself to the hard and necessary work of naming and deconstructing Religious Studies’ damaging colonial history and its effects in the hopes of creating a more equitable discipline going forward.

By joining the Kaufman Interfaith Institute team, I’ve come out from behind my stacks of books and taken a much-needed step into the lived experiences of my community. From worldviews on a page to worldviews as they are lived - complex, personal, and dynamic. Stepping into this work, I have my religious literacy and my questions in tow, but above all, I carry with me my unrelenting curiosity. I am here to listen and to learn. 

It is my hope that, together, we can continue the work of the Kaufman Institute of fostering mutual respect and understanding while also pushing the boundaries, asking hard questions about the spaces we create, the voices we elevate, and the comparisons we draw. 

Liz English

Posted on Permanent link for Staff Spotlight: Liz English on March 14, 2023.