San Diego, CA (special) -- Protestants, Mormons, Muslims, Baha'is, Hindus and Buddhists each represent a separate set of challenges to Rabbi Laurence Edwards, who serves as the American Jewish Committee's associate national director for interreligious affairs. 

In a HERITAGE interview last week Edwards surveyed the state of Jewish relations with these religious groups.

He said there is quite a dichotomy in the relationship between "mainline" Protestant groups like the Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians and the conservative Protestant groups like the Baptists.

With the mainline or "liberal" groups, Edwards said, "we typically have broad agreement on domestic issues and often disagreement about Israel and the Middle East."

He said he recently attended a church-wide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which is the largest of Lutheran bodies and is on the liberal side of the spectrum (notwithstanding the name 'Evangelical' in its title, which many people equate with conservative religious theology).

"I was able to attend the installation of their new presiding bishop in Chicago, which is where their headquarters are. ... The Lutherans have adopted extraordinary statements about relations with Jews and Judaism, really repenting and repudiating anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism, even to the point of repudiating some of the writings of Martin Luther, with whom obviously they are closely identified."

On the other hand, said Edwards, "they did pass a resolution at that assembly which, among other things, called for suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel-which strikes many of us in the Jewish community as really unthinkable in the present situation."   

The rabbi said the anti-Israel aid was not unanimous.  He attributed support for the resolution to a number of factors: "I think there is an almost reflexive identification with the perceived underdog, that is a piece of it.  They also have Lutherans living in Israel and in the Palestinian areas, Christians who are affiliated with them and who are themselves ethnically Palestinian Arabs... and I think there are also some real disagreements about policy, about what needs to be done there.  And I cannot rule out some lingering anti-Semitism in some corners and pockets."

Edwards said if the Oslo peace process had not gotten off track, "these resolutions wouldn't have come up.  It is just a little hard to understand why others don't see it quite the way we do - the reasons for why the peace process failed."

Concerning Baptists and other Conservative Christians, who believe Jews will go straight to hell unless they convert to Christianity, the approach toward Israel is just the reverse.  They strongly support Israel against the Arabs, partially because of their belief in prophecies that Jews will have been re-gathered in Israel before the glorious End of Days.

With the Conservative Christians, "we have things to talk about but it is a little harder to enter into a serious dialogue or conversation with someone who we know has the ultimate goal to convert you."

A similar problem troubles any attempts for serious dialogues between Mormons and Jews, according to Edwards.  Of Mormons, he said, "other than native American religions, they are really the one large indigenous American community.  They are certainly very interested in Jews and Judaism.  It is always a little bit tricky entering into conversations with a supercessionist tradition (which teaches about religion that) yours is obsolete and theirs is really the full revelation."

A specific issue that has come up between Jews and Mormons in the latter's belief in posthumous conversions, which has resulted in some Jews looking up their dead ancestors in Mormon genealogical records and finding them listed as having been converted to the Church of Latter Day Saints.

After protests from some Jewish groups, the Mormons "agreed to desist doing that with the victims of the Holocaust, but they have continued doing that with other Jewish figures - Ben Gurion, Golda Meir," Edwards said.

Turning to Jewish communal relations with Islam, the AJC rabbi said whereas there have been some ongoing contacts with Muslims from Turkey, Bosnia, India, Pakistan and other areas outside the Arab world, dialogue with Muslims who also are Arabs has been quite problematical.

"We have had instances where relationships had been developed-apparently quite friendly and collaborative-and then we later found out that to other audiences and other venues statements were being made by these same people which were not only anti-Israel but even anti-Semitic-gross characterizations."

In such cases, he added, "you have to ask 'who am I really talking to here?  Am I being used?  Are we part of their cover when they want to appear moderate?'  Are they talking to the American Jewish Committee, but over there talking another way?  That has unfortunately happened a few times and has made us cautious in finding partners."

The worldwide Baha'i movement has a special relationship with the Jewish community because its worldwide headquarters are in Haifa.  But the group, which grew out of Islam, tends "to stay out of politics," Edwards said.  "They build beautiful buildings; they are for peace; they plant lovely gardens; they are lovely people, but it is not so much a political conversation."

The rabbi suggested that especially on the West Coast, which is the focus of much immigration from Asia, the American Jewish Committee should be building relationships with Buddhists, Hindus and other Asian religious groups.

"Immigration these days is not the same as it was with our grandparents, which was a one-way immigration-coming here from Poland-and they knew they were never going back.  That is not the case today.  People go back, back and forth, and they keep in touch with friends and relatives back home.  So to build a relationship with the Indian-Hindu community, let's say, has implications beyond just interreligious dialogue, which is important for its own sake ... There are channels of communication that open up."

Besides Edwards, ordained as a Reform rabbi; the AJC's interreligious department has two other rabbis:  AJC's international director for interreligious affairs, Rabbi David Rosen, based in Jerusalem, has Orthodox smicha.   Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, the national director for interreligious affairs, was ordained in the Conservative movement and later served for many years as a Navy chaplain.

He said while the non-Orthodox movements have been receptive to dialoguing with other religious groups, there is resistance  to it among some, but not all, Orthodox rabbis in part based upon halachic opinions issued by such towering 20th Century Orthodox figures as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik.

Feinstein had opined interreligious dialogue should be avoided, while  Soloveitchik had suggested  that it should be restricted to non-theological subjects, Edwards said.