August 2012
A Christian Community that Embraces the Divinity of Difference
Shalom, Rabbi by Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson
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or 37 years, The Park has shared our house of worship with Congregation Da’at Elohim (also known as the Temple of Universal Judaism), a reform Jewish congregation. We have prayed together, broken bread together, and served the needy together. We jointly produce the HeschelKing Interfaith Service every January, and work hand-in-hand each week at the Saturday Community Lunch Program. Da’at Elohim has just engaged a new rabbi, and it is my pleasure to introduce him to you. I am excited to have Rabbi Ari Fridkis as my partner in service to the community of New York City. Rabbi Fridkis has been a Reform rabbi for twenty-five years. Ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he holds a BA, BLitt, MA, MSW, Certificate in Jewish Education and Rabbinic Ordination. Rabbi Fridkis is also a psychotherapist in private practice, holding a clinical MSW/LCSW from Yeshiva University. I’ve asked him to share his vision for his congregation and our partnership. Please continue to extend a radical welcome to the rabbi and our friends at Da’at Elohim.
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s the new Rabbi of Congregation Da'at Elohim/The Temple of Universal Judaism, I'd like to introduce myself to you – members and friends of the Park Avenue Christian Church – with the same warmth and openness that Pastor Jackson and the church have welcomed me.
As I look around me at both my new congregation and the church community, I feel doubly blessed. I sense how strongly the church's ideals and ministry – concern for the poor, the outcast, the immigrant – seem parallel to ours.
Vol. 113, No. 8
as fellow members of the House of Israel. Rabbi Dr. Lawrence Hoffman, Professor of Liturgy and Ritual, taught us to understand both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism (i.e. normative Judaism which found expression in the Roman period) as two parallel paths, two different interpretations of ancient Israelite history and tradition. Rabbi Dr. Martin Cohen, my close friend, mentor and teacher, instructs us to see Judaism and Christianity as “sister faiths.” When I sat with Pastor Jackson a couple of weeks ago, we touched on this idea. Both Jesus and Rabbi Hillel – 1st century contemporaries – proclaimed the same message when asked, “what was the greatest commandment in the Torah?” Without missing a beat, both replied: “to love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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ogether, ours is a mission to reach out to the larger community saying, in the words of Paul, “there is a better way.” There is a path higher than the one we Rabbi Fridkis and Pastor Jackson see proclaimed so boldly in our In the Torah, the first five books of society: to have and acquire rather than Hebrew scripture known to Christians as to love or give. the Old Testament, the single Even six centuries ago some of our commandment repeated most frequently rabbis taught that the “other Gods” is to love and care for the stranger. God referred to in the Ten Commandments says to the children of Israel, “You must were not the idols of Abraham's father, care for the stranger, for you too (the but the idols of the people: wealth and House of Israel) were strangers in the land acquisition, in contrast to the One God of Egypt.” who commanded kindness and compassion, fairness and justice. his synergy between Da'at Elohim and The Park does not surprise me. hese ideas are at the center of my As a student at Hebrew Union ministry. I feel privileged and College, Reform Judaism's rabbinical proud that our congregation long seminary, we were taught over and again ago found a home where that ministry is to view our Christian brothers and sisters shared. – Rabbi Ari Fridkis
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