Jack Moline is president of Interfaith Alliance and a Conservative rabbi. He is a member of Good Faith Media’s strategic advisory board.
- What story, verse or passage from your faith tradition’s sacred texts has significantly influenced / shaped your life?
Psalm 147:2-4: “Builder of Jerusalem, gatherer of Israel’s dispersed; healer of shattered hearts and binder of their wounds; numbering the stars and calling each by name.”
If I am to act in God’s image, that’s what I must do: Support the Land, gather my community, comfort the brokenhearted, tend to the wounded, take in the big picture and value every individual.
- Who are three people (other than your family) who have shaped your life and worldview? And why?
Prof. J. Allen Hynek was my astronomy teacher at Northwestern University who taught me the meaning of awe.
Rabbi Benzion Bergman was my liturgy teacher in seminary who taught me depth of theology in prayer.
Marc Gary is my best friend of 50 years who provides me with a model of goodness to which I constantly aspire.
- List three of your “desert island” books, movies or TV shows.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon is just the best novel I ever read. Plus, it is long and would therefore take time to read and reread.
Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman because of its provocative vignettes about the nature of time and life in vivid imaginary worlds.
The complete 2016 World Series. If I were stranded on a desert island, I would want to know that dreams really do come true, no matter how long you have to wait.
- What is one of the most critical issues people are facing today?
Fear of change. It drives everyone’s retreat into communities of comfort and willful blindness to others.
- What are a few of your hobbies?
Watching and listening to comedy masters. Small gadgets and electronics. Obsessing over online skill games (no role-playing!). Photography when I have the time.
- If you could freeze your life into an already-lived 10 seconds, what would they be?
I need 20 seconds.
Half the time I would be watching the sunrise over the Sinai Desert from the mountaintop reputed to be where Moses received the 10 Commandments. I was swept away with the beauty of the moment.
The other half I would be attending the birth of my first-born (the only one for whom I had a bird’s eye view). I was aware of the life force in every cell of my body simultaneously.
- Our tagline at Good Faith Media is, “There’s more to tell.” What’s your “more to tell”?
Every time I think life can’t get any better, it does – and it is always in unanticipated ways.
So, I am pretty sure that any day now I will again have more to tell, somehow connected to what has come before. Check in with me if you want to know exactly what it is!
Reflection and resources at the intersection of faith and culture through an inclusive Christian lens.
