Meet 9 Interfaith Women Leaders Who Want to Bridge Religious Divides in America

The co-founder and Executive Director of Resetting the Table, Weintraub’s work focuses on “building dialogue and deliberation across political divides.” She acknowledges the divides are acute. Ordained as a rabbi, Weintraub is undaunted by conflict: she also founded Encounter, a nonprofit that brings Jewish leaders to Palestinian areas to make connections, learn and work for peace. She notes that in the United States, Israel has become such a polarizing issue that many rabbis avoid speaking about it with their congregations. Her organization creates toolkits, trainings and workshops for clergy, community leaders, educators and journalists. RTT is training a national network of facilitators skilled in leading difficult conversations. Weintraub is optimistic – but realistic about her timeline: I think we are at the beginning of building a 25-year cathedral; there is a long way to go,” she told JewishBoston. “Polarization has been on a forward march for decades in our country, and it will take decades of work to overcome and transform.”

Bailey, an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is the founder and executive director of Faith Matters Network, an organization that “catalyzes personal and social change by equipping community organizers, faith leaders, and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability, and accompaniment.” She’s shaping a new category of what she calls “movement chaplains” who, not unlike hospital or military chaplains, offer individuals involved in social justice movements with spiritual and emotional support. She’s also helped organize “People’s Suppers” – meals focused on encouraging safe, respectful dialogue among diverse participants – all around the nation. She spoke about her work in a conversation with Krista Tippett last year. For more, including reflections on her recent book, read her interview with the Rev. Alexis Vaughan of IFYC.

An attorney and Tennessee native, Ali understands the dangers of political polarization firsthand. After being appointed as an economic commissioner by her home state’s Republican governor in 2012, Islamophobic conspiracy theorists accused her of wanting to indoctrinate Tennesseans in Islamic law. She went on to become the founding president and CEO of Millions of Conversations, an organization aimed at fighting the “hate-industrial complex with empathy and understanding.” Through research, public campaigns and community panels and conversation, Millions is helping Americans learn about each other and span divides skeptics thought could never be bridged.

Mathews and Jones are in the business of culture change. Both built careers at the intersection of public health and faith, focusing on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the South and how Black religious communities can destigmatize the disease. Mathews is Executive Director of the COMPASS Gilead Faith Coordinating Center at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where Jones is a professor – and the one who helped bring in a game-changing $5 million grant from Gilead Sciences. “Faith leaders have this long legacy of social justice advocacy in fighting for people’s human rights, but we also have to push them on HIV, unfortunately, because for the past 40 years many faith leaders have been silent,” Mathews said. Mathews and Jones have seen how religion can perpetuate stigma and pain, but they believe religion can be part of a solution as well. It’s a true multifaith effort, and one they expect will save lives.