INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS

The International Abrahamic Forum

The International Abrahamic Forum is an expression of the ICCJ's renewed commitment to the Jewish-Christian -Muslim dialogue.

Already in 1995, the International Council of Christians and Jews decided at its Annual General Meeting to establish the "Abrahamic Forum" - a trilateral Jewish-Christian-Muslim committee. This decision was taken in recognition of the growing impact of Islam in the western world, the essential need for dialogue, tolerance and respect and for overcoming fears and prejudices. Recognizing as well the important role that Christians and Jews can and should play in this dialogue, the ICCJ decided to widen the scope of its activities and to contribute from the most successful experience gathered in many years of Christian-Jewish dialogue to the trilateral field of Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue.

Today, the need for this trilateral dialogue is even greater and more essential. Islam is not only the second largest religious community in the world, after Christianity, in some parts of the world it is also the fastest-growing. The large-scale immigration of Muslims has become a critical issue on the European scene sometimes leading to extreme forms of xenophobia.

In light of these developments, the 2010 Annual General Meeting of the ICCJ held in Istanbul, called for the revival of the Abrahamic forum as a trilateral body within the ICCJ while maintaining the bilateral, Jewish-Christian nature of the organization. To start this process, the ICCJ invited a small group of Jews, Christians and Muslims to Berlin from 12-14 December 2010, in order to explore the theoretical and spiritual aspects of the subject and to produce a working paper dealing with the issues each of the three faith traditions should bring to the dialogue table, the benefits and dangers of trilateral dialogue and the specific input from the Jewish-Christian dialogue into the "trialogue".

The meeting was held at the Konrad Adenauer Academy in Berlin and was graciously supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Interior and the Pratt Foundation, Israel/Australia.

Following that meeting the ICCJ Executive Board had formally accepted the recommendation to revive its Abrahamic Forum and to appoint a steering committee of nine members representing equally the three faith traditions - Jewish, Christian and Muslim - to run its activities.

During the Annual General Meeting in Cracow on July 2011, the ICCJ Executive Board, appointed the following members to serve on the steering committee:

Jewish members:

• Rabbi Ehud Bandel, 1st Vice President of the ICCJ, Jerusalem
• Ms.. Debbie Danon, Three Faiths Forum, London
• Prof. Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College, LA

Muslim members:

• Prof. Mona Siddiqui, University of Glasgow, Glasgow
• Mr. Abdessalam Najjar, Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam
• Prof. Rashid Omar, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Christian members:

• Prof. Karl-Joseph Kuschel, University of Tübingen, Tübingen
• Prof. Heidi Hadsell. Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT
• Rev. Canon Hosam Naoum, St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem

The main task of the Steering Committee is to further the trilateral dialogue as an integral component of the interfaith work of the ICCJ and its member organizations and to advance the relations and contacts of the ICCJ with interested people and organizations involved in the trilateral dialogue and encounter.