The History of the

Milwaukee Area Interfaith Youth Forum

After September 11, 2001, the Milwaukee Association for Interfaith Relations, a program of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, facilitated four interfaith dialogues.

At one of the dialogues, a Catholic youth minister and a Muslim physician (who also worked with teenagers) began to talk; soon an idea occurred to both of them at the same time: "We should organize an interfaith dialog with our teenagers!"

By January, adults from the Muslim, Catholic and Jewish communities began a series of meetings. They made a commitment to bring young people into the group that eventually became known as "The Milwaukee Area Interfaith Youth Forum."

The purpose of the group was:

To strengthen interfaith understanding

To reduce misinformation

and

To promote peaceful relationships among all people.

So the planning began for an event called, "Sons and Daughters of Abraham." Eighteen teenagers - six Muslims, six Catholics and six Jews - and their adult leaders met every month from June to November for planning and training. Their goal was to present a day-long program on the similarities and differences among Judaism, Catholic Christianity, and Islam. On November 3, 2002, the event was hosted by the Islamic Society of Milwaukee; three teenagers facilitated the day, three did a presentation about their faith, and twelve served as table leaders.

During the second half of that day, the teens met in small groups to plan programs at their "back-home" settings - activities that would continue to spread the spirit of interfaith community building.

Some of the groups planned presentations with their own congregations, and some planned events open to all the teenagers from all three faith groups. There were puppet shows and “holiday packets” and even an interfaith pot luck supper. Youth of all faith groups were invited to “Muslim Midnight Bowling,” to a Friday night Sabbath worship service, and to an interfaith picnic, held at a park.

We met at the Jewish Community Center to celebrate all of our projects, to continue our developing relationships, and to plan events for the future.

One of the projects imagined by a group of youth was a wall, decorated with the symbols of different faith traditions.

A year later, that idea still lingered… even though it never happened. So the Interfaith Youth Forum planned a retreat for teenagers of eight different religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikh, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i and Hinduism. Over forty youth and adults gathered at St. Matthias Catholic Parish in Milwaukee on March 28, 2004 to hear about each other's traditions and to paint and decorate a wall with images that honor all their faiths.

The Interfaith Youth Forum began planning a series of "Interfaith Youth Cafés" in 2005. Based on the “Knowledge Café” model, these provide an environment designed for fun and learning, with music and food and flowers. Each café has several tables; each table is devoted to one particular faith tradition. Young people share their knowledge about their own faith, and answer questions. After twenty minutes of sharing, the first round is over, and everyone gets up, stretches their legs, and has something else to eat or drink before the second round begins.

You can still see the Interfaith Peace Wall, and you can still attend an Interfaith Youth Café.

For more information,

contact Dr. Lisa Calderone-Stewart:

Lisa@tomorrowspresent.org

or contact Judi Longdin at longdinj@archmil.org.

“We’re all humans under one God. It’s just nice knowing that you have some friends in a different community, so that all of us can become one community.”   

--- Quote from a Catholic youth participant

“We need more unity now, especially with everything that has happened in the last year (referring to September 11th). We see that young people who are going to be leaders tomorrow are already taking that step and doing things now. It’s important that adults see that we really care about the future.”    

--- Quote from a Muslim youth participant

“Here, we take it for granted that a group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims can get together without hostility.  But you know that’s not the case in many parts of the world. So if for nothing else, we are here today so that our children don’t hate to grow up in a world as violent as ours and with as much hatred as ours.”         

--- Quote from a Jewish youth participant