This Week Rabbi & Biblical Scholar to Address Roots of & Response to Antisemitism

This Week Rabbi & Biblical Scholar to Address Roots of & Response to Antisemitism

Two Moscow churches and a campus ministry at the University of Idaho will sponsor a virtual panel discussion Wednesday, May 19, on the Christian roots of antisemitism and the ways in which all people of faith can respond to it. The Zoom seminar will begin at noon and is open to the public with advance registration.

The panelists will be Rabbi Tamar Malino, rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Spokane, where she also serves Congregation Emanu-El, and Kurt Queller, a recently retired faculty member at the University of Idaho and a scholar of the Gospel of Mark. Tracy Simmons, executive director of Spokane Faith and Values (FāVS), will moderate the discussion.

The panel is prompted in part by vandalism at the Temple Beth Shalom and the Holocaust Memorial in Spokane earlier this year. Members of the Moscow Interfaith Association seek to call attention to the rise in harassment, vandalism and violence directed against Jews in the United States. 

Emmanuel Lutheran Church and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, both of Moscow, are joining with the Lutheran Campus Ministry at the University of Idaho, to organize the panel.  It follows “teach-in and preach-in” events observing Yom HaShoah, the date of remembrance of the Holocaust.

“The Moscow Interfaith Association invites the community to join us in expanding the conversation about the continued threat to the social fabric posed by vandalism, harassment and violence against our Jewish siblings,” said the Rev. Mary Beth Rivetti, priest associate at St. Mark’s.

Malino is Spokane’s first female congregational rabbi. Ordained in 2001 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, she previously served as congregational rabbi at temples in New York City and in the San Diego area.

Queller, a professional linguist, taught courses in linguistics and languages (German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese), as well as Bible as Literature, at UI.  Besides linguistic research, he has published on the Gospel of Mark. He is a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church. 

 Simmons is an award-winning religion journalist and instructor of journalism at Washington State University.

The seminar requires advance registration at this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIocOCtrj8sGd3za4gvx3vEpAhWakQCa7Mz 

After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.