Madrasa-Midrasha Student Grants
Haas Summer Interreligious Research Grant
Each year the Madrasa-Midrasha Program offers summer research grants for students working on interreligious projects related to Judaism and/or Islam, funded through generous support by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
- Grants typically range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects.
- Student(s) must be in the GTU MA or PhD degree program focusing on Jewish Studies and/or Islamic Studies and/or have registered for a course with the GTU's Center for Islamic Studies, Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, or Interreligious Chaplaincy Program during the current academic year.
- Proposed projects must be interreligious, or relevant to interreligious work. Projects that address both Judaism and Islam will be given priority.
The deadline for 2023 has been extended and is now April 15th and proposals should be sent to Madrasa-Midrasha Program Director Dr. Mahjabeen Dhala (mahdhala@gtu.edu).
Women Standing Up and Standing Out: An Examination of the Female Impact in Judaism and Islam
Raya Hazini
When looking at Abrahamic religions, our society places Judaism and Islam on opposite ends of the spectrum. By looking at how women played a significant role in the formation of these religions, my research will show how Judaism and Islam are more similar than different. I will examine the social structure of women, the impact that women from other lands contributed to the growth of the religions, the morality of their stories and the impact they made within the religious community to show that not all women were subjected to male rule (qawwamun), and that there were those who sometimes spoke out against it. Through sharing these women’s stories, I will highlight their devotion to God (HaShem /Allah) and how they are remembered. A close examination of women’s roles within these religious traditions will reveal that women had a bigger role than previously acknowledged.
Raya Hazini holds a BA in Religious Studies from CSU Sacramento and an MA in Religious Studies from Cardinal Stritch University. Her personal religious ancestry comes from Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam and five generations ago her family became part of the Bahá’í Faith. As a fifth generation Bahá’í, she wants to honor her ancestry through her work. Born and raised in California, Raya loves to be outdoors on her paddle board.
Justice in the Abrahamic Faiths: A Scriptural and Comparative Study of Justice in the New Testament, Hebrew Bible, and Qur’an
Omar Naisan
The purpose of this project is to explore the theme of justice as it appears in each of the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths. It is designed to present a multifaceted understanding of the Christian concept of δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosunē), the Jewish concept of צֶדֶק (tsedeq), and the Islamic concept of عدل (ʿadl) independently and comparatively. This research project will present a sample of 6-8 important verses from the New Testament, Hebrew Bible, and Qurʾān, which represent the essence of each scripture’s concept of justice in their respective faith tradition. These verses will be the foundation upon which the theme of justice will be explored, but they will not be the only passages that are used. This project will traverse several more pertinent verses in each scripture regarding the notion of justice and engage with the major secondary commentaries. Ultimately, this project will be a brief yet immersive study of the Abrahamic scriptures, focusing on the concept and virtue of justice.
Study of Fetus Development in Islamic and Jewish Religious Resources
Faisal Azar
The research aims to enhance the knowledge of fetus development in the light of Islamic and Jewish religious resources as a natural event. There are few works of literature on similar biblical and quranic historical events. Quran verses and sayings of the prophet Muhammed will be collected and Biblical and Talmudic passages. The research is to open a new dimension in interreligious study and dialogue. Moreover, the research will find a common perspective in Islam and Judaism on fetus development and how these religions have discussed this natural event to help believers comprehend a biological process as a sign of the divine when creating humans. Passages in these sources would be collected stating and resembling the fetus's development process. This method helps to bring all scattered verses and narrations into a single document about the fetus's growth and hence helps the reader find all related literature at once.
Interreligious Peacebuilding through Promoting Holistic Justice: Exploring Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Muslim Women Grassroots Models of Holistic Interreligious Peacebuilding Joint Initiative
Raphael Mkuzi
One of the protracted conflicts in the world today that seem to defy the efforts of experts in conflict transformation and peace building is Israel-Palestine conflicts. Peace building treaties have been signed and collapsed over the years and hope for a new future has been flashing on and off. Most often, the focus has been the high ranking peace building meetings involving international diplomats and using top-bottom approaches. Perhaps, few have tempted to investigate the presence of bottom-up approaches to peacebuilding: efforts taken by the local communities. In this regard, this project endeavors to explore the ground efforts to peace building that get less publicity on the international media, yet there are evidence of tremendous positive fruits from these seemingly insignificant efforts. Jerusalem link is one of such organizations comprised of Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Muslim women in Hebron; model project where complicated and multifaceted conflicts are discussed on face to face encounter. It’s an organization that demonstrates how interreligious dialogue through social economic issues can effect positive change in the society.
Raphael D. Mkuzi is a third year PhD Candidate in the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion (HCSR) at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, where his concentration is in the area of Comparative Religion. He also takes courses in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Originally he comes from Malawi, Africa, with an academic background in interreligious dialogue and peacebuilding between Muslims and Christians. He did his Advanced Masters degree in Systematic Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. His current research interest is on the theme: Interreligious Peacebuilding through Promoting Economic Justice in the Context of Malawi, Africa.
The Unrecognized Purge: Recovering the Muslim Narrative from a Joint Jewish-Muslim Experience
Laura Anne Miller
Historically, both Spanish Jews and Muslims have been victims of forced Christianization and eventual exile from the peninsula. Whereas Spain has officially apologized for its genocide against Sephardic Jews and granted dual citizenship rights for Jews with Sephardic ancestry, no analogous actions have been taken vis-à-vis the descendants of Spanish Muslims. I intend for my research to shed light on how the Muslim experience in sixteenth-century Spain mirrored the Jews’ earlier experience, and why it is necessary to holistically understand the Christian European origins of modern Islamophobia and antisemitism if both are to be defeated. Antisemitism and Islamophobia are both diseases of (Christian) Europe; Muslims should be at the forefront of fighting antisemitism, and Jews should be at the forefront of fighting Islamophobia. Andalucía is arguably the only place in the world that has passed permanently out of Dar al-Islam. These days, as Giles Tremlett notes, Andalucía (especially Granada) is heavily marketed to tourists as “Moorishland,” a type of “orientalism-with-tapas.” Yet Andalucía lacks a living indigenous Muslim population – a 400-year-old tragedy that was, for all intents and purposes, a cultural genocide, but has not been officially recognized as such.
Laura Miller is currently a doctoral student in Islamic Studies (History and Culture). She is studying Spain’s Muslim population from 1492-1609, in order to understand how Spanish Muslims went from being the rulers of Al-Andalus to a racialized Morisco minority, which culminated with their expulsion from Spain in 1609.
Art, Spirituality and Chaplaincy: Exploring the Engagement with Art in Self-Care and Patient Care
Sakinah Alhabshi & Mia Trachtenberg
Our research focused on two main areas: how hospital Chaplains used art and creativity in engaging with patients, as well as how they leaned on it to cultivate their own self-care and resilience. While some of our findings showed how Chaplains directly connected to their Jewish and Islamic traditions through Hebrew song, melodious recitation of the Qur’an, appreciation of the Creator and Creation (nature-based reflection, poetry, etc.), other explorations of art and creativity were more open / secular in nature – playing creative games, water-color expressions of their inner emotional and spiritual state, free-flow and prompted prose/poetry writing.
A notable value we realized was that when artistic expressions were facilitated by a Chaplain, in a non-judgmental, accepting and spiritually-reflective approach, it seemed to allow for more freedom and creative empowerment for the patient. We look forward to sharing more of our findings and inviting Chaplains onto a panel webinar in the Madrasa-Midrasha program this Fall.
God’s Co-Creators: Spirituality, Childbirth and Mothering
Jennifer Springsteen
Do motherhood, caretaking and nurturing practices and traditions give women a role as co-creator?
To answer that question, I hoped dispel that the Fall in the Old Testament meant a lifetime of penance for women. Rather, that motherhood is seen by both Jewish and Muslim women and men as a blessed act. A privilege.
I researched articles, books and sacred texts, interviewed women, and read literature and poetry. While none of my research uncovered the language of “God’s Co-Creator,” what I kept hearing again and again was the essence of co-creating; it was a feeling that motherhood deepened a connection with the Divine no matter the technicalities or beliefs of how the women (Eve, Mary, Hagar, myself) were impregnated. Playing a role in creation binds us to God, leads us to love unconditionally, and presses our hearts with gratitude.
I learned semantics are important. No human or animal can truly know the mystery behind the source of all creation. Yet the miracle of conception and birth, all the knowledge one gains caring for a child continue to interest our humble, spiritual selves.
Perhaps that is why we listen for truth in the words of poets.
Jewish Influence on Women’s Dress and Fashion in Egypt
Reem Kosba
This research examines the contemporary fashion system in Egypt and the rising second generation of designers in the post-Arab Spring period. I look at the changing nature of dress in Egypt in the century between 1850 and 1950 as a time characterized by political, economic, and cultural transformations, prompting gradual yet major alteration in dress among urban populations, mainly in Cairo. There is no trace of a local mass fashion industry akin to or competing with Euro-American ones, at least not before 1930. During that period, Egypt adopted the industrialization of textiles on a large scale characterized by the cultivation of long-staple cotton as part of a broader national movement against British imperialism. Therefore, it is worth centering the role of department stores and the printing press as platforms for marketing and selling Western imported clothes, which served as an arbiter, classifier, and educator of taste and style.
Blacks and Jews: A People of Displacement
Nosizwe Breaux-Abdur-Rahman
This series of essays will examine the black/African Muslim and Jewish diaspora experiences, alongside their historical significance and impact on each group’s plight for self-determination. The implications of a shared diaspora experience, yet different socio-political and economic outcomes, will be explored through current-day relations between black/African American Muslim communities and Jewish communities. The first essay will introduce the historicity of blackness as a fluid concept and signifier. The next part of the first essay will define and examine diasporic frameworks and the historical significance of the African and Jewish diasporas. The second essay maintains that blacks and Jews are historically diasporic populations while delving into a closer examination that reveals points of convergence and divergence. The third and final essay probes further into the points of convergence, which have created bonds of empathy and solidarity, and points of divergence, which have caused underlying tensions and sometimes led to conflict and estrangement. These essays intend to promote inter-and intra-religious and cultural introspection and discourse among black/African American Muslim and Jewish communities.