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Emouna: Teaching Religious Leaders How To Lead In A Democracy

By Bill Echikson, EUPJ Brussels Director

A Roman Catholic priest plays tennis with a rabbi. A Protestant minister discusses the merits of meditation with a Buddhist monk. In one role-playing activity, an imam acts as a rabbi and a priest simulates the part of a battered woman, attempting to understand her pain.

These are just some of the surprising moments of a nine-month-long French interfaith programme called “Emouna”.

This video gives a brief overview of Emouna in English

Launched four years ago, Emouna is the brainchild of London’s Leo Baeck College and France’s first female rabbi, Pauline Bebe. “My own family history provided inspiration,” Rabbi Bebe explains. “Christians saved my family during the Holocaust and my parents raised me in an environment of openness and tolerance.”

Rabbi Pauline Bebe

After the 2015 terrorist attacks rocked the French capital, creating the ground-breaking Emouna programme was her response to the violence. Rabbi Bebe teamed up with Mohammed Azizi, an imam, and Thierry Vernet, a priest, and with the help of Frédéric Puigserver from the prestigious Sciences Po, Emouna was born.

In Hebrew, “Emouna” means trust, loyalty, spirituality, adherence, and commitment through acts. All branches of Judaism and all denominations and sects of the other faiths are represented. The curriculum teaches religious leaders how to lead in a secular Western democracy. Religious leaders discuss subjects ranging from biotechnology and abortion to laws about professional secrecy, how to support the faithful in prison or hospitals, and, of course, the challenge of radicalisation.

A group of religious leaders during a recent Emouna workshop

Since no other comparable programme exists, Rabbi Bebe is expanding Emouna. In Belgium, the Universite de Louvain just finished its first year, graduating 30 religious leaders. Amsterdam University offers the course in Dutch. Talks are underway with Italian universities and Columbia in New York. All told, Emouna counts 200 graduates.

In the coming academic year, COVID-19 will force the courses to move online, although Rabbi Bebe is eager to restore traditional classes. She believes the personal contact among religious leaders is crucial to success.

Traditional, face to face classes are ideal, butcurrently, everything is held online

After graduation, alumni events continue the interreligious dialogue and exchange. The goal is not to get an agreement, only understanding. “Some of our students are for abortion, for example, while others are against,” says Rabbi Bebe. “At Emouna, they can still become friends and work together.”

This article was originally published in The Times of Israel.

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