Synopsis
Seeking a way to promote mutual respect among people of widely divergent beliefs, journalist/filmmaker/activist Ruth Broyde Sharone takes on grass-roots interfaith engagement as her personal and global mission, vividly recounting her rollicking "adventures and mis-adventures" along the way. A captivating memoir and colorful overview of the interfaith movement, considered a "primer" in interfaith engagement, MINEFIELDS & MIRACLES garnered endorsements from more than 30 global leaders of many faiths, including H.H. the Dalai Lama. "The world needs more narratives of how faith can be a bridge of cooperation, rather than a barrier of division. I deeply thank Ruth Broyde Sharone for sharing her inspiring stories of bridge-building around the world," writes Eboo Patel, Founder & President, Interfaith Youth Core. Ruth's "wake-up call" occurs during her college years. After detailing her first painful encounter with religious discrimination, Ruth goes on to describe her courageous sojourn alone as a 21-year-old traversing the length and breadth of Latin America. Few young women were allowed that freedom. She emerges from that trip strongly identifying with the Latin American people and culture, and with a keen desire to explore the rest of the world. First a journalist, then a documentary filmmaker, Ruth travels in Europe and later spends 10 years making films in Israel, where she encounters the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a conflict that continues to haunt her even when she returns to the States. Ruth explains how, after marriage and motherhood, she is transformed into a passionate interfaith advocate--often at her own expense. She joins forces with a Black female minister to organize interfaith pilgrimages to the Middle East. Following 9/11 she is invited to screen her award-winning film, God and Allah Need to Talk, at the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions gathering in Barcelona, Spain. In Barcelona she experiences her first taste of "interfaith paradise," which inspires her to intensify her interfaith activities around the globe. Brimming with photographs of her journeys--from California to Argentina, from Africa to India, from Italy to Green Bay, the book also includes historical photos of the remarkable individuals from around the world who participated in the first Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893. Says Pulitzer Prize winning author Jack Miles, "Readers will instantly connect with this open-hearted, often touching, occasionally hilarious, and always disarmingly personal account of inter-religious adventures and misadventures." Through Ruth we begin to understand the inner life of the peacemakers and boundary-crossers who walk among us--many recruited by Ruth as she travels and speaks extensively in churches, mosques, synagogues and universities. Yes, there are minefields along the way--and Broyde Sharone describes them clearly, seeking to learn the causes. She describes the miracles, too, as when 250 people representing 13 religious communities gather in 2011 in Los Angeles to celebrate a Festival of Freedom Seder, honoring the promise of the Arab Spring. "We are now at the tipping point," Broyde Sharone declares at the end of her compelling book. She offers vivid and concrete examples of the expansion of the global interfaith web and inspires us to view the "other" and "the stranger" as friend and fellow traveler. "Ruth is a master storyteller, traversing the world, making films, weaving webs of connection, and inspiring us to do the same. She epitomizes what people mean when they ask us to become the change we want to see in the world. Read her book." -Rev.Paul Chaffee, Editor, "The Interfaith Observer" A set of questions for discussion is included at the end of the book.
About the Authors
A passionate interfaith leader, documentary filmmaker, journalist, and author, honored internationally for her contributions to cultural education, peace and justice, Ruth Broyde Sharone served as Co-Chair of the Southern California Parliament of the World's Religions (SCCPWR) for 10 years. She is an inspirational public speaker and travels frequently to college campuses to present interfaith programs including her award-winning documentary GOD AND ALLAH NEED TO TALK. Her riveting interfaith memoir, MINEFIELDS & MIRACLES: Why God and Allah Need to Talk, is considered "a primer on interfaith engagement," and was endorsed by more than 30 religious leaders including H.H. the Dalai Lama. The memoir won top awards in three literary competitions. She is also a co-author of the 2018 best-selling Amazon book, 21ST CENTURY VOICES: Women Who Influence, Inspire, and Make A Difference. A strong believer in the arts as a powerful vehicle for interfaith engagement, Ruth created THIS IS WHO WE ARE, an interfaith musical celebrating our cultural and religious diversity and produced an album entitled INTERFAITH: The Musical. Invited twice to address UN roundtables in Geneva, Switzerland, Ruth has pioneered interfaith pilgrimages to Egypt, Israel and Turkey. In 1991 she co-founded FESTIVAL OF FREEDOM with an African-American Minister. Participants of diverse religious, racial and ethnic backgrounds were invited to share their faith stories as they retraced the steps of the Exodus, from Egypt to the Sinai to Jerusalem. FESTIVAL OF FREEDOM was highlighted on CNN World News in 1994. Ruth worked on staff of the global Parliament, serving as a Partner Cities Associate in the U.S., Latin America, Australia, and the Middle East. She initiated major interfaith events at the Bangladeshi and Moroccan Embassies in Washington, D.C. and was invited to present her unique interfaith programs in Spain, Mexico, England, and Italy. In 2013 she was inducted into the Martin Luther King Advisory Board at Morehouse College in Atlanta and in 2015 she received a special commendation as an interfaith leader from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Ruth was invited to teach a class called Interfaith Activism and Beyond at the Academy of Jewish Religion California (AJRCA), the first course of its kind at the rabbinical seminary. Ruth was also a regular correspondent for The Interfaith Observer, an on-line interfaith monthly, where she published more than 70 articles.
Leah Broyde Abrahams is a sociologist by training and a gregarious collector of stories by avocation. After a successful career conducting market research and program evaluation for diverse organizations in both the public and for-profit sectors, Leah now combines her natural affinity for people with the professional interviewing skills she honed as a researcher to help individuals articulate and preserve their family stories. Over the past decade, she has produced more than two dozen memoirs in book or video format for clients in the U.S. and abroad through her publishing company, Mixed Media Memoirs LLC, established in 2004. Leah has always been the "go-to writer" for work colleagues, family and friends. Two events stimulated her active interest in personal history. The first was an opportunity to produce a series of oral history "how-to" manuals for teachers in grades K-12. The three grade-appropriate manuals were distributed and used by public and private schools in Northeastern Wisconsin, and an archive to store the children's projects was also established by UW-Green Bay. Professional training and experience in interviewing on sensitive topics, volunteer work in the community with people of all backgrounds and cultures and passion for people and photography allow Leah to offer a highly enjoyable experience - and a polished, professional end product - to her clients. Her books have won endorsements from notables such as Mother Teresa, His Highness the Dalai Lama, Pulitzer Prize-winners Joseph J. Ellis and Jack Miles, Emmy-winner videographer Ken Burns, Helen Gurley Brown, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan magazine. A number of her books have won national recognition and awards. After earning a B.A. in Psychology at Northwestern University, Leah, a Chicago native, completed an M.A. in Medical Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a co-chair of the Life Story Professionals Northeast and has held leadership positions in a variety of community non-profits and interfaith projects. Leah loves traveling - to clients, to new places, to see the world - and always has a camera on hand to record these experiences. Her fine art and travel photographs have won recognition in international competitions and she has had several one-woman shows.
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