About us

The Jerusalem Interfaith Center works to make religion part of the solution to conflict, rather than a driver of it.

We advance interfaith diplomacy by working with religious leaders, scholars, and institutions to engage faith traditions seriously—textually and theologically—so they can serve as sources of accountability and reconciliation.

Based in Jerusalem, we develop ideas, build networks, and shape religious discourse in ways that advance intellectually grounded interfaith diplomacy that is serious enough to matter and capable of shaping real-world responsibility.

What We Do

The Center's initiatives include content development, field and capacity building within the Jewish world, and the promotion of long-term connections with leaders of other faiths. The Center is recognized by religious and political leaders and organizations nationally and globally.

In short, the Jerusalem Interfaith Center advances intellectually grounded interfaith diplomacy that is serious enough to matter and capable of shaping real-world responsibility.

THE MAIN INITIATIVES OF THE JERUSALEM INTERFAITH CENTER ARE:

The Interfaith Diplomacy Think Tank

Ideas are the underlying infrastructure of human action. To shape behavior and society over time, we must engage the world of ideas—where religious beliefs, thought, and tradition play a central role. Our goal is to drive a paradigm shift rooted in the core ideas that motivate people, through original research and insight.

Our Think Tank is the main vehicle for this effort. It comprises prominent rabbis and academics, and is the production floor for the ideas that infuse our interfaith work, field-building efforts, and connections with other faith leaders.

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The International Interfaith Diplomacy Fellowship

The International Interfaith Diplomacy Fellowship serves as a professional home and global network for rabbis, educators, and communal leaders committed to advancing interfaith engagement in line with the Center’s vision.

The program offers opportunities for deep learning and meaningful engagement, including dialogue with religious leaders in Israel and worldwide, lectures, writing and publishing initiatives, and the development of educational programs. Through these activities, fellows gain the tools, knowledge, and networks needed to lead impactful interfaith work in their communities.

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The Jewish-Muslim Fraternity Project

Can religion shift from being a source of conflict in the Middle East to part of the solution? At the Jerusalem Interfaith Center, we believe that Islam and Judaism can move beyond competing narratives and embrace their shared heritage as complementary parts of a common story.

While many interfaith efforts have focused on Islam and Christianity, the Jewish-Muslim encounter has been largely overlooked. We aim to fill that gap by fostering a profound respect between the two faiths, recognizing the value and legitimacy of each other's religious identity.

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The Abrahamic Movement

The Jerusalem Interfaith Center is a proud founding member of the Abrahamic Movement, a global grassroots movement rooted in the spirit of the Abraham Accords. Our mission is to build sustainable bridges of dialogue, cooperation, and peace among the descendants of Abraham and followers of the monotheistic faiths, while promoting a future of stability, respect, and mutual acceptance.

The global movement was founded by leaders of local Abrahamic initiatives across the Middle East, East Africa, and South Asia. This foundation stems from the realization that the Abraham Accords are only the beginning of a journey—one that requires a deeper narrative, a bigger vision, and concrete implementation on the ground. We work to build a new Abrahamic identity—a bridging identity of partnership, reconciliation, and hope—where the figure of Abraham serves as a unifying symbol.

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The Israeli Field Building Program

As of 2024, the Center has been leading an internal field and capacity building process with over 20 partner organizations. By connecting leading actors, fostering collaboration, and investing in professional excellence, the Field Building Project transforms a fragmented landscape into a coordinated ecosystem with meaningful influence on Israeli society and beyond.

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WHY WE DO IT

THE POWER OF RELIGION IN CONFLICT

Religion is one of the driving forces of humanity. Regardless of personal faith, one cannot ignore the decisive impact of religious identities on global politics. However, modern conflict resolution theories are rooted in Enlightenment-era philosophy and focus on factors such as power, interests, and influence to explain conflicts (and, presumably, to resolve them). In most cases, religious feelings, beliefs, and identities are treated in these theories only as manifestations of the desire for power, or ignored altogether.

Slide 1

WHY WE DO IT

DE-MYTHIFYING CONFLICT

While these theories offer valuable insights from a certain viable standpoint, we argue that long-term reconciliation must go through the religious dimension. This is especially true in cases where the conflict has been mythified. Meaning, it is no longer driven (only) by conflicting interests over the distribution of land or resources, but even more so by a conflict of identities, myths, and symbols that renders it insoluble by classic conflict-resolution theories.

Slide 1

WHY WE DO IT

RELIGION AS PART OF THE SOLUTION

This is especially relevant to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Trying to solve them by ignoring religion has already been tried and failed. The collapse of these attempts (such as the Oslo Accords) brought about a rise in extreme and violent religious forces. Ignoring an essential part of a problem does not make it disappear, but rather makes it grow to the verge of explosion. Religion is one such essential part, and since it is part of the problem, it must also be part of the solution.

Who We Are

Rabbi Dr. Yakov Meir Nagen

President

Rabbi Dr. Yakov Nagen is the President of the Jerusalem Interfaith Center. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Yeshiva University, rabbinic ordination from RIETS, and a PhD in Jewish Philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

For 25 years, Rabbi Nagen served as a senior educator at Yeshivat Otniel. A prominent advocate of religion as a means for promoting peace, he has been a leading figure in interfaith dialogue, particularly between Judaism and Islam, for two decades.

Rabbi Nagen is the author of ten books and numerous articles on Jewish spirituality, Talmud, interfaith relations, and other topics. He was also featured in Tablet magazine as one of the ten “Israeli Rabbis You Should Know”.

Rabbi Dr. Aharon Ariel Lavi

Chief Executive Officer

Rabbi Dr. Aharon Ariel Lavi is the CEO of the Jerusalem Interfaith Center, which works with religious leaders worldwide to make religion part of the solution to global challenges. He was also the founder of Hakhel, the Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora, and MAKOM, the Israeli national umbrella organization of intentional communities (both projects were awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize by the President of Israel).

Lavi holds rabbinic semicha and academic degrees in Economics, Geography, History, and the Philosophy of Ideas. His PhD dissertation explored the migration of ideas between US Jewry and Israeli society. A 2024 Harvard Divinity School postdoctoral fellow, he continued to research Jewishly inspired community building at Bar-Ilan University’s Weisfeld Ma’ayan Institute in 2025. He is a published author on Jewish economic and environmental thought, community building, international religious affairs, and more. He also teaches Jewish economic thought and community building in academia.

Outside of his professional life, Lavi is an avid mountain biker, racer, trainer, and trail builder. He lives with his wife, Liat, and their five children in the community they founded together in Shuva, on the Gaza border.

Rabbi Mordechai Bar-Or

Senior Research Fellow

Mordechai Bar-Or is the founder and director of KOLOT, a study center (Beit Midrash) dedicated to developing Israeli leadership rooted in Jewish ethical values and creating a renewed mission for the State of Israel. Mordechai served as a personal adviser and Rabbi to President Shimon Peres and taught key political and financial leaders in Israel.

From 1983 to 1989, he directed “Gesher” seminars in Safed and later headed the Jewish studies program at the Pelech High School for Girls in Jerusalem. Mordechai co-founded Elul, the first joint study center for religious and secular Israelis, and served as its co-director until 1996, earning the prestigious AVI CHAI prize for his work. His leadership journey also includes authoring the book V’heye B’racha (published in June 2022) and working on “Blessings of the Descendants of Abraham,” a new vision and methodology for addressing the Jewish-Muslim conflict.

Bar-Or’s career has spanned decades of service in educational, leadership, and interfaith initiatives, contributing to the Jewish community’s role in modern Israeli society.

Strategic Principles

Ideas Have Consequences – Content Development

Ideas are the underlying infrastructure of human deeds. Hence, if we want to impact human and societal behavior in the long run, we would be better off aiming to influence the world of ideas. Religious beliefs, thoughts, and traditions are key in this context. Our goal is to drive a paradigm shift anchored in the core ideas that motivate people to act, through original research and insights.

We are not reforming our religious principles to align with external values, nor do we encourage or expect our non-Jewish partners to do so. Instead, we bring forward new and creative thinking rooted in our traditional sources and create the intellectual infrastructure for a paradigm shift.

Collaboration Driven Impact - Field and Capacity Building

Inducing an impactful social change process rests on two pillars: recruiting and training social change agents and networking them. The interfaith field in the Jewish world is still nascent. Yet, it already includes many significant organizations, each doing its own unique work and bringing value to the field and to society at large. While most of the leaders, activists, and organizations in the field know each other and have crossed paths in the past, they were never brought together in an orderly manner. Hence, the field lacks coordination, some efforts are duplicated, and it does not realize its full potential.

Connection Before Correction – Interfaith Diplomacy

The path to the mind goes through one’s heart. One of the primary reasons for religion being part of the problem of social tensions is the lack of trust between adherents and leaders of different faiths. While deeper rectification can only be achieved in the world of ideas, one of the most significant steps should be establishing deep, long-term, and trust-based relationships with influential non-Jewish partners worldwide.

About us

What We Do

THE MAIN INITIATIVES OF THE JERUSALEM INTERFAITH CENTER ARE:

The Interfaith Diplomacy Think Tank

The International Interfaith Diplomacy Fellowship

The Jewish-Muslim Fraternity Project

The Abrahamic Movement

The Israeli Field Building Program

Who We Are

Strategic Principles

Ideas Have Consequences – Content Development

Collaboration Driven Impact - Field and Capacity Building

Connection Before Correction – Interfaith Diplomacy

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