Just over a month ago, the Orthodox Conundrum released an episode of this podcast entitled, Confrontation 2022: Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Its Questions, with Rabbi Pesach Wolicki. Pesach discussed why he believes that his work has value, what kind of pushback he’s received, whether he’s providing an opening for missionary activity, how he justifies speaking in churches, and more. 

Today’s episode is, in some ways, a follow-up to that episode. Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen is one of the leading advocates of Jewish-Muslim dialogue - a discipline which offers great opportunities, at the same time that it creates new questions and serious challenges. In this conversation, Scott asked him about how he talks to Muslims about Israel, whether he avoids the question of sovereignty over the Holy Land, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount altogether or whether he’s willing to confront it with them head on, if this dialogue is truly mutual, to what degree large Islamic terrorist organizations like ISIS, al Qaeda, and Hezbollah are representative of the wider Muslim population, how he answers Muslim misconceptions about Jews, what he hopes to achieve, and much more. Given the political reality in which Israel finds itself, the success of Rabbi Nagen’s work is potentially of vital importance for the future of the entire Middle East.

Please listen to and share this podcast, and let us know what you think on the Orthodox Conundrum Discussion Group on Facebook.

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Music: "Happy Rock" by bensound.com

Photograph credit: Dida Mulder