Updates on Living the Interfaith Life

Hello, friends!

I recently decided that if I had a hashtag for my life, it would be #interfaithallthetime.* And I love it.  So I figured I'd do a quick rundown of the latest happenings that prove this fact true:

1. The Pope (here's a cool article) is coming to visit my university on April 10th. No joke. Here's to hoping I manage to get a selfie with him.

2. I went to a Holocaust modern art exhibit in late February with a friend of mine who is in seminary here in Rome, after he saw a poster for it. It was small, but I very much appreciated some of the pieces for their colors and difficult deeper meanings.

3. I saw nuns hitting a piñata at a Mexican-themed party, about a half-hour before our hosts passed out tequila shots (and no, I did not witness nuns doing tequila shots, sadly enough).

4. On a short trip to Barcelona this past week with a Christian college friend, we had a lot of interfaith experiences: We went to a church that had geese walking around in the courtyard, a basilica called La Sagrada Familia which might be the coolest church ever, the oldest synagogue in Europe which is in a tiny underground room in the center of Barcelona, and Reform Jewish services. I have to say, after years of researching Judaism and antisemitism in Spain, which included doing a summer research project, writing a lengthy journalism article, and writing an undergraduate honors thesis, this trip (my first to Spain) was fulfilling on so many levels. Spanish Jews! They exist! And I got to go to services with Jews in Barcelona! Pretty incredible.

The incredible Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona

The gorgeous colors of some of the stained glass windows

5. My (Catholic) mother wrote in a Torah, something most Jews will never even do. Our Temple apparently is a guardian of a Holocaust scroll (news to me!), a Torah that was presumably part of a synagogue in Europe that was affected and perhaps destroyed under the horrifying conditions of the Holocaust. In an effort to restore the scroll, our temple held a fundraiser where, by sponsoring a letter or a word, you could help guide the sofer's (Torah scribe's) hand while he wrote out part of the scroll. With my father out of town on business, and me living across the pond this year, my mother decided to participate in honor of both of us. I've heard the comparison that the Torah in Judaism and the Qur'an in Islam play similar functions to the role of Jesus in Christianity (as the way to get closest to G-d, the most revered part of the faith, etc.), so this was truly a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience. I am so glad that not only was my mother touched by participating, but that our synagogue offered this opportunity for people to really experience a critical part of Judaism so closely.

Mama Z with the Sofer

6. On our weekly Monday-night outing to the quiz at our local Irish pub this week, my flatmate and I were joined by two of our seminarian friends. We had a lovely time, but had to stop the gentlemen from trying to cheat by looking up the answers on their smartphones (apparently that morality class they took didn't stick too well).

7. Friday night we're hosting a Purim party in our apartment, complete with a whole mix of friends of different faiths. Wish me luck on my first-ever attempt at making hamantaschen...

Life here is really #interfaithallthetime.

How about all of you? Any interesting interfaith/ecumenical/neat religious experiences to share? Feel free to post about them in the comments.

Now go out and love one another.

<3,
Allyson

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*A hashtag, for those who are unaware, is a phrase following the pound symbol [#] that sums up an idea and groups together other peoples' comments on the same idea. It's used on websites like Twitter and Facebook. For more info, you can read the Wikipedia page on the topic.