Wednesday 24-04-2019 - 12:03

Jewish Society President Isabelle Tarsh and Outreach Officer Gréta Grossman recently won Interfaith Project of the Year at the Union of Jewish Students awards. We spoke to Isabelle about the project and interfaith in Durham.

What project did you win the award for?
Greta and I won the award for our work with Islamic Society (ISOC) and the Joint Anglican and Methodist Society (JAMS) for National Interfaith Week in November. We had a week of events which culminated in our Bring-a-Friend Friday Night Shabbat Dinner, which saw 60 people of different faiths attending, to eat a meal and talk together. However, it was also a recognition of all the interfaith work that we have been doing throughout the year.

What did it mean to you to win the award?
For me, it was incredibly meaningful to win the award. I had been very involved in interfaith work as a teenager, and I knew it was something I wanted to continue at university. However when I started Durham there were very few ways to get involved, outside of scriptural reasoning, which I didn't feel I knew enough to take part in. So to be able to create a more casual space for students of different faiths to come together, get to know one another, and talk about their beliefs (or lack of), has been very special.

What does interfaith mean to you?
To me, interfaith is how we build community in a larger sense. It is how we build bridges, and how we learn that there is more that connects us than divides us. So many conflicts across the world are based in differences in faith that it often seems like religion can only divide people. However, when we come together and actually talk about our beliefs, they are often much more similar than we expect, with most religions having shared morals and values at their core.

How would you like to continue building interfaith networks in Durham?
We have already started laying the foundations for more interfaith work in Durham, by starting the Durham Interfaith Students Network, which has been a joint project between JSOC, ISOC, JAMS, and Chaplaincy. We had our inaugural 'Faith Cafe' last term, where 35 students came to chat about faith over coffee and cakes from different cultures. Hopefully this will continue to be a termly event, and will be joined by a larger programme of interfaith events!

You can find out more about interfaith in Durham by following the Durham Interfaith Student Network Facebook page.