Ungerlieder joins Jewish trip to find unity in heart of Islam

By Toshio Suzuki

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Morocco is a Muslim country—98.7 percent Muslim, according to the CIA's Web site. Earlier this summer, into the heart of Islam is exactly where one Oregonian and a contingent of Jewish leaders went to discover world music and contemplate forgiveness.
The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership hand-selected about 20 people from across the country to participate in The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music and colloquium. Sharon Ungerlieder of Eugene made the cut.
Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, vice president of CLAL and one of three U.S. speakers at the colloquium, said Ungerlieder typified the ideal candidate because she is "deeply, passionately committed to her own community and to the human community as well."
The human community is exactly what the festival in Fez is about. Established in 1994 as a sacred music festival, the colloquium was added in 2001 and has since gained recognition from the U.N. as an event that promotes religious diversity with sacred music and open discussion.
Ungerlieder said open communication within Judaism is essential to its survival and that it is this same challenge of "taking God public" that affects the interaction among several religions.

"Basically, what's going on in the world, the challenge of the Middle East, it's all about the same thing" said Ungerlieder. "Where can we all agree and where can we all agree to disagree."
As a member of Temple Beth Israel in Eugene and a University of Oregon Hillel founder and board member, Ungerlieder appreciated all of the unique opportunities being designated a CLAL leader at the Fez Festival supplied.
In particular, Ungerlieder recalled a rooftop dinner at the exclusive Hotel La Sultana in Marrakech, Morocco, where group members discussed "the globalization of the soul," and what it would take for more understanding between Jews, Muslims, Christians and others.
For Hirschfield, the CLAL trip was all about growth: "Jewish growth, spiritual growth and human growth," to be exact. "Love your immediate family, which in this case is the Jewish community, and your human family as well," he said.
The speakers before Rabbi Hirschfield included two women, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who had each lost daughters to violence. The Palestinian woman pledged forgiveness while the Israeli woman completely startled festival organizers and vehemently blamed her own state's aggression for the death of her daughter.
For the first time in a long time, Hirschfield said he was nervous to speak in front of a group. "To invite a rabbi to come to a Muslim country to speak in front of 700 people about forgiveness," said Hirschfield, allowing himself to trail off and imply that it was enough of a challenge already.
Of course, though, the rabbi calmed himself and presented his one resounding message to the festival: "Each of us wants an apology and each of us needs to offer one."