On May 22, 2019, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin and Imam Abdullah Antepli sat down at the annual convention of the Rabbinical Council of America, in Stamford, CT, to discuss the current state of Muslim-Jewish relations. Instead of dancing around the hot-button issues, they directly addressed the issues of Zionism and Israel and the parallel and opposing narratives harbored by Muslim and Jewish communities regarding the past 70+ years in the Middle East. They also discussed Imam Antepli’s work for the Muslim Leadership Initiative of the Shalom Hartman Insititute, which brings out a cohort of Islamic leaders every year to Jerusalem to discuss the Zionist narrative and provide a deeper understanding of both sides. The Imam and the Rabbi further explored what progress is currently taking place in North America in improving relations between Muslims and Jews and what further are necessary for the future.

Imam Abdullah Antepli is on the faculty at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and at Duke’s Divinity School, where from 2008-2014 he served as the university’s first Muslim chaplain, one of only a handful of full-time Muslim chaplains at U.S. colleges and universities. He is also a Senior Fellow on Jewish-Muslim Relations at the Shalom Hartman Institute and Co-Director of its Muslim Leadership Initiative. 

Rabbi Daniel Korobkin is the rabbi of the BAYT, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Thornhill, Ontario, and is the President of the Rabbinical Council of America.