Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein and Idolatry: An Interreligious Conversation

At the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, a session was devoted to the question of idolatry. The session featured an interreligious panel of scholars discussing Alon Goshen-Gottstein (ed.) Idolatry: A Contemporary Interreligious Conversation (Academic Studies Press, Boston, 2023). Thinkers of different religions reflected on the challenge of idolatry in religion today, based on similar reflections offered by about 20 thinkers, featured in this book. Participants in the panel were Werner Jeanrond (Lund University), Jawad Qureshi (Zaytuna Institute), Jeffrey Long (Elizabethtown College), Nick Adams (University of Birmingham), Catherine Cornille (Boston College), Kurt Anders Richardson (Institute for Abrahamic Relations) and Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Elijah Interfaith Institute). This is the first video, featuring Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, offering an introduction and overview of the topic and the discussion.
Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading figures in interreligious dialogue. He is founder and director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute since 1997. His work bridges the theological and academic dimension with a variety of practical initiatives, especially involving world religious leadership. A noted scholar of Jewish studies, he has held academic posts at Tel Aviv University and has served as director of the Center for the Study of Rabbinic Thought, Beit Morasha College, Jerusalem.
The Elijah Interfaith Institute is a multinational organization dedicated to fostering peace between the world’s diverse faith communities through interfaith dialogue, education, research and dissemination. Our unique programming generates interfaith dialogue at the highest levels, bringing together world religious leaders and renowned scholars the world over, through research projects, public conferences and community-based initiatives.