Intergenerational Interreligious Friendships: Leadership Legacies of Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Howard Thurman

The paper examines the friendship forged by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal Movement, and Howard Thurman, Christian mystic and social reformer, beginning in the 1950s when Schachter-Shalomi was a graduate student at Boston University and Thurman was serving as the dean of Boston University’s Marsh Chapel. The paper argues that interreligious friendships are central to the leadership styles and practices of both religious leaders and examines the legacies of friendships among other religious leaders trained in Thurman and Schachter-Shalomi’s intellectual lineages at Boston University and Hebrew College respectively and beyond. The paper also gives particular attention to the influences of Schachter-Shalomi and Thurman on two pairings of contemporary Jewish-Christian friends: a senior rabbi and mid-career United Methodist pastor/academic, each with deep ties to Hebrew College and Boston University respectively, and a pair of their students, each now emerging into prominent national religious leadership positions.