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Butler Students Participate in Multi-Faith Build
August 8, 2006Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
 Multi-faith students help raise a roof for a new house in Indianapolis.
This summer students from Butler University Hillel participated in the House of Abraham, a unique project of Habitat for Humanity. The project is designed to bring together participants of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths to collectively build a house for a neighbor in need. After nearly a year and a half of planning, the group convened in July to build a home for a young single mother in downtown Indianapolis.
“The sense of community was really cool,” said Julie Kselman, a Butler University senior. “It was so neat; all these people coming together, to do something like putting a roof on a house.”
In addition, each Habitat for Humanity project includes time for religious prayer and spiritual reflection. Butler University Hillel, a participant in the Soref Advancement Initiative with approximately 60 Jewish students, offered its succah as a neutral interfaith prayer space.
“We offered the use of our succah during one of the planning sessions,” said Rabbi Aaron Spiegel, director of the Butler University Hillel. “At first the group was like, ‘Huh, what’s that?’”
Butler Hillel students erected the traditional succah, with a dirt floor and an open ceiling, alongside the building site, decorating it only with their banner. The succah was used for prayer by all the participating religious faiths. It also served as a respite from the heat.
“It was so hot and sunny out there,” said Butler University senior, Irene Berman. “I thought it was great that our succah could give the participants a shady and tranquil place for reflection.”
The group of nearly forty House of Abraham participants was also joined by Israeli students from Mar Elias University in the Galillee. The Israeli students, all Christian and Muslim, were spending the summer studying at the University of Indianapolis. It was the first time the students had ever worked on an interfaith service project and they hope to raise enough funds to bring Habitat for Humanity to Israel and build houses for Israelis in need.
Rabbi Spiegel also saw the project as an opportunity for his students to meet Israelis who were not Jewish.
For Kselman it was her first time meeting Israelis from different faiths.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with Israelis, but they were all Jewish,” she said. “The students I met from Mar Elias University were all communications majors from Nazareth and they spoke a little English, many of the girls wore crosses.”
“As students will do, they found out they had a lot in the common. They have the same aspirations, the same career goals,” said Rabbi Spiegel. “To spend four hours together, swinging a hammer, talking about life, you can’t help but realize we’re not so different.”
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