InterFaith in Outer Space A Series of Events in Honor of the Fifth Anniversary Interfaith House Wednesday, March 4 through Sunday, March 8 Brown University’s Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life and the Multifaith Council announces a series of events from Wednesday, March 4, through Sunday, March 8, celebrating the fifth anniversary of Interfaith House and its receipt of the Alexander George Teitz Memorial Award from the Touro Synagogue Foundation of Newport, Rhode Island. All events are on the Brown University camps and are free and open to the public. A full schedule of all events. Featured events include: Wednesday, March 4, 7:30–9:00 p.m., List Art Building 120, 64 College Street “What Does It Mean to Be American?: An Afghani-American Woman’s Journey" A lecture by Nobel Prize Nominee Maryam Qudrat, an activist and spokesperson in the Afghan-American and Muslim communities. Thursday March 5, 7:00 p.m., List Art Building 120, 64 College Street Panel Discussion with Brown Alumni Working in the Field of Religion, Panelists: Laura Geller ‘71, Jewelnel Davis ’79, Greg McGonigle ‘00, David Coolidge ’01, and Nathan Schneider ‘06 Moderator: Missy Daniel, Editor of PBS's Religion and Ethics and NewsWeekly The panelists will discuss issues of religion in the academy, and the larger challenges of religious literacy and co-existence in society. The Alexander George Teitz Memorial Award from the Touro Synagogue Foundation of Newport, Rhode Island, will be presented to Interfaith House members. Interfaith House, now in its sixth year, is a residential space within Brown’s Campus Life Division. Established by students and advised by Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life, it fosters creative discussion and interreligious dialogue both for the religious/spiritual and nonreligious/spiritual, as well as all inquirers. By cultivating conversation and friendships in its hallways—collectively losing sleep in late-night conversations—Interfaith House creates both within and beyond its walls, a stronger sense of multivalent community. Since its inception, Interfaith House has become a model for similar university residential living space and has been featured in Inside Brown, the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, and PBS’s Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly. Because of its innovation in religious dialogue on a university campus, the Touro Synagogue Foundation of Newport, Rhode Island, honored Interfaith House with the Alexander George Teitz Memorial Award for Religious Freedom and Tolerance. The first awardee with the late Claiborne Pell, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island; other recipients include Robert Satloff, executive director, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Judge Fausto Pocar, president, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY); Benjamin B. Ferencz, prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials; the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF); and the World Peace Foundation Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The award was first presented this past summer during the annual reading of President George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, affirming that the new republic would “give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” Touro Synagogue, dedicated in 1763, is the oldest synagogue building standing in the United States. The Rev. Janet Cooper Nelson, chaplain of Brown University, accepted the award on behalf of the Interfaith House members. On Thursday, March 5, following the “InterFaith in Outer Space” panel discussion, members of the Touro Synagogue Foundation will present the awards to the students themselves. The Teitz Award citation noted that Interfaith House: “Provides shared living quarters for undergraduates with widely varying belief systems, in order to teach students how to “manage the extremes and the nuances of dialogue among people of different faiths, people of wavering faith, and people of no faith at all; Cultivates spiritual and philosophical understanding in dorm rooms, in hallways, and in late-night conversations; Deepens religious literacy for all by fostering creative discussion and inter-religious dialogue among both believers and non-believers; and Gives hope for the next generation by providing a place where a devout Jew and a devout Muslim can live together, become friends, and pray together in the same room, one toward Mecca and the other Jerusalem.” “InterFaith in Outer Space” has been organized by the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life (OCRL) and the Multifaith Council. The program sponsors are OCRL, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of Institutional Diversity, and the Office of Campus Life and Student Services. Image: Interfaith House members during a retreat.