The Curiosity of the Normal

Last week, through no intention or effort on my part, I was quite visible in a CBC report covering an event I attended in Winnipeg. The event, somewhat grandiloquently titled “World Religions Summit: Interfaith Leaders in the G8 Nations” was an annual gathering associated with the G8-G20 meetings.

These meetings are held annually, always in the country where the G8-G20 meetings are held. This was the first time I was invited. Invitations, I learned, are somewhat happenstance – all of those invited and in attendance are active within a religious organization, but with very few exceptions, all were invited as individuals and were invited to be delegates of the cohort from the nation or continent in which he/she lives. Thus, while I may have been identified because of my leadership in both IJCIC and the Board of World Religious Leaders – 2 international bodies, it was made clear that I was invited as a part of the United States delegation and not as a representative of either of those two groups.

The attendees were, to a person, a thoughtful group and were committed to expressing the role of the world’s religions in helping to formulate values which should inform economic policy in the world at this time. It isn’t a stretch to see why such a discourse has meaning in these times of international economic uncertainty, how serious and thoughtful religious leaders can express concern with the implications of any policy on their far flung constituencies, and why there is potential impact with world religious leaders coming together to add care and compassion to meetings which wavere between protest and photo opportunities.

One might be a stickler on a few details. The meetings I attended were thoughtfully organized, the preparatory work done with considerable care, and the program suggestive of the depth of the challenges before us. But one might ask why this “summit” was held in a different city and some days before the actual meetings of the G8-G20. As an annual event, I was surprised to learn that there was very limited connection of these discussions with those of the predecessor conferences or any assessment of the impact of those meetings. I was particularly struck to learn that there is symbolic but no formal connection with the G8-G20 meetings, nor was there to be a meeting of delegates of this summit with the targets of the meeting. Of course, all of these issues are resolvable, and a first time attendee should be restrained in expressing judgment.

Which brings me to the few minutes of “visibility” throughout Canada. I would say “fame” but the story I am about to relate is one of a visual image and not of personal fame.

During the first day of the conference, I happened to be sitting and talking with the Saudi Assistant Secretary for Islamic Affairs. As you would expect, he was attired in his recognizable Saudi robes; as you might expect, I was in a suit, yarmulke atop my head, and looking quite rabbinic. Just at that time, the press came by and we represented too good an image to pass up – an imam and rabbi together at an international interfaith meeting. So the cameras rolled, the flashes flashed, and the two of us continued our conversation – which, I assure you, was far from politically motivated. By the next morning I learned that we were the lead image in the CBC coverage of the event – so much so that we appeared twice in the report.

It was only when the Imam and I reflected on the coverage that the real irony became clear. It is poignant and not a little sad that what the press found interesting and newsworthy was that a rabbi and an imam were talking about each others families, careers, education and professional roles – exactly the topics one discusses at conferences and meetings all over the world with colleagues new and old, near and far. How sad and ironic: our simply talking, that most normal of everyday activities, was newsworthy because the press assumes that an imam and rabbi cannot or will not do that. I assure you- we can, we do…. And we must.