Based in Jerusalem, the IEA has 29 ongoing groups.  Stolov says that they are not an interfaith organisation in the regular sense.  For IEA, interfaith dialog is a tool that they use to build better relationships between people.

Stolov talks about how when the encounters began seven years ago at the height of the intifada, the Jews involved had never met had never met Muslims before, and vice versa – they only information they had about each other was via the media, whose chief message was that the other group only wanted to kill them. By the end of the encounter weekend, many strong friendships had been formed.

Related posts:

1. Interfaith Encounter Association
2. Wellington Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace in the Middle East – audio
3. Audio: Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's interfaith mission to Iran

Its principals are:

• Equal representation of all faiths in the IEA;
• Gender equality in the decision making processes and activities of the IEA;
• Outreach to individuals and communities from all faiths, age groups, walks of life, and levels of society;
• Outreach to individuals and communities across the religious-secular and political spectra;
• Continual recruitment through committed activists on the local and regional levels;
• Implementation of interactive programs that effectively change outlooks and attitudes, such as extended weekend seminars and ongoing study groups;
• Continual development of new models for effective encounter; and
• Ongoing evaluation of all strategies and programs.

You can subscribe to their reports which are issued occasionally – they make interesting reading, and are proof that goodwill and spiritual intent can conquer prejudice, and together we can make a better world.

Dave

Related posts:

1. Audio: Yehuda Stolov on how to run an interfaith encounter
2. Michael Lerner on the Saudi interfaith dialogue
3. Interfaith dialogue: Is it all a waste of time?