Guest Post: Susan Katz-Miller and Dalia El Ariny

What do you think of when you hear the word “interfaith”? 

Perhaps your town gathers people of different religions for an annual Thanksgiving service. Or, maybe you get together more regularly, for community service in a soup kitchen. Or, you may have attended educational programs, with representatives of different religions on a panel talking about their commonalities and differences. 

But for interfaith family members, “interfaith” is our everyday context. We do interfaith engagement fulltime.

Growing Up Interfaith

Both of us, Susan and Dalia, grew up in interfaith families. Susan grew up with a Jewish parent and a Protestant parent. Dalia grew up with a Muslim parent and a Catholic parent. We grew up in different countries (the U.S. and Italy) and in different generations (boomer and Gen Z). We chose different professions (journalism and academia). And yet, we immediately bonded over our common experiences as interfaith kids. 

We both experienced the benefits and challenges of religious difference on a daily basis. And through our embodied 24/7 interfaith lives, we developed specific skills for reaching across religious boundaries. We learned that two seemingly incompatible things can be true at once. We learned to listen, discuss, and yes, sometimes disagree, while trusting that love would not be lost over such disagreements. We learned to think through differences together, to be curious, and to ask (a lot of) questions. 

At the same time, part of our common experience has been frustration with interfaith organizations that wanted to do interfaith engagement, dialogue, bridge-building, and peacemaking, but did not necessarily want to hear from interfaith families or from people who practice more than one religion. At times, we have felt like outsiders and disruptors in interfaith organizations. And we have been met with fear and confusion rather than open arms. 

Building Our Toolkit

As a result of all these experiences, we set about creating this project together: “Interfaith Work and Interfaith Families: A Toolkit.” The aim of the Toolkit is to spark a conversation between interfaith organizations, interfaith family members, and the academics who study us. We include a frank discussion of the historical barriers to collaboration, the benefits of working together, and the practical actions organizations can take to acknowledge and learn from the experiences of interfaith families. We include stories about facing those barriers, but we also include encouraging examples from organizations already moving in new directions and lifting up the voices of people from interfaith families and individuals who practice more than one religion.

From the beginning of this collaboration, we invited feedback from all three sectors (interfaith organizations, interfaith families, and academics). So far, this feedback has been very encouraging:

“…a vital contribution to the interfaith movement, by helping educators and organizers collaborate effectively with the growing number of people who identify with multiple faith traditions.” Dr. Henry Goldschmidt, Director of Programs, Interfaith Center of New York

“By offering practical strategies for fostering inclusion and collaboration, it serves as a crucial starting point for advancing interfaith dialogue and social cohesion across both physical and symbolic borders.” Prof. Dr. Francesco Cerchiaro, Nijmegen University, The Netherlands

“The section on practical actions will be most helpful for me as an interfaith practitioner, and I will use it when planning future events. Thank you so much for creating this helpful resource.” Sophie Mitchell, Programmes Coordinator London Communities at Faith & Belief Forum.

Our plan now is to turn the Toolkit into a living, evolving, growing document, where new resources and inspirational stories are continually added. We are currently embedding the Toolkit in a website where we will add anecdotes contributed by interfaith organizations, interfaith family members, and academics. So please do email us with your examples of how interfaith families have been included in your organization’s work. Or, email us examples of how they have they been excluded and why we need to collaborate as we move in new directions. Susan can be reached at beingbothbook@gmail.com. Dalia can be reached at elarinydalia@gmail.com.

We also plan to develop a map to highlight where this work is occurring across the globe. So do write us to nominate your interfaith organization. Or, if you are (or you know) an academic studying interfaith families or multiple religious practice, send us a sentence with a name, academic title, and the research topic. We want to be a hub for interfaith happenings around the globe, and we want our toolkit to be a more inclusive reflection of the world’s interfaith landscape.

Conclusion

We know that many people in the interfaith engagement sector have been feeling exhausted and discouraged, for multiple reasons. And people involved in this sector have tended to skew towards older, rather than younger. By acknowledging and working with interfaith families, and multiple religious practitioners, we hope to contribute to a more diverse and multigenerational movement as we help to inject new energy and new ideas into peacemaking efforts. Most importantly, we look forward to working with you to make our vision happen. 

About the Authors

Journalist Susan Katz Miller is the author of Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family (2015), and The Interfaith Family Journal (2019). Follow her on bluesky @susankatzmiller.  Reach her at beingbothbook@gmail.com.

Dalia El Ariny is the founder of MyMixedHeritage and a PhD candidate in anthropology at SOAS University of London. Her research explores how adults from interfaith backgrounds construct belonging through everyday interactions with multiple religious traditions. Reach her at elarinydalia@gmail.com.