“Jewish and Islamic Eco-Theological Practices,” Claremont Graduate University

The Arab/ Jew dichotomy is one of the most vitriolic and inaccurate divisions that dictate both international policy and quotidian behavior across the globe. Monolithic institutionalized categories, such as Jew, Arab, Muslim, white, perpetuate divisiveness, racism, government-sponsored terrorism, and ecological calamity. Moving beyond socially imposed binaries, my presentation will illuminate possibilities of inhabiting the fertility of often seemingly contradictory, interstitial terrain. By illuminating the intersections of history, geography, ethics and symbiosis between biodiversity and ethnic diversity (particularly North African and Middle Eastern Jews and Muslims), I will explore how we can transform our individual and collective habitual capitalist-consumer-driven behavior through a historical and contemporary commitment to biomimicry and biophilia, love of life. It will demonstrate how to engender this psychological metamorphosis—how to put theory into action in our daily lives.