The Israeli government signed a three-year, NIS 2 million ($563,000) matching grant this week with the Modern Orthodox Ohr Torah Interfaith Center to support and expand the group’s Jewish-Muslim diplomacy and partnership programs that are aimed at countering Islamic extremism. 

The funding agreement comes amid shake-ups in the Muslim world, with the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, the growing international influence of Qatar and the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran. All of these developments were on display this week during President Donald Trump’s visit to the region.

Rabbi Aharon Ariel Lavi, managing director of OTIC, said his group takes a hard-nosed, no-nonsense approach to this interfaith diplomacy.  

“We don’t do fluff. Our business is not kumbaya, peace and love, let’s get rabbis and imams, sing songs together. We don’t do that; that’s ineffective. That’s actually counterproductive in many ways,” he said. “We do interface diplomacy, which ties into strategy. We know to identify the ideas in Islamic theology that are promoting radicalism and hindering any kind of stability, and we know how to deconstruct them, how to interpret them in different ways and how to explain them.”

The OTIC project is meant to promote people-to-people and faith-based diplomacy and connections in the region, said Lavi.

“Organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood present themselves as… the representatives of the entire Muslim population,” said Lavi. “You can say, ‘OK, so let’s have this full-fledged war,’ or you can say, ‘No, let’s try and cut, to the extent possible, the connection between radical Islam — Shiite and Sunni alike — and as many parts as possible from the rest of the Muslim world.’”

Increasing numbers of moderate Muslim religious leaders from different countries who hear about OTIC by word of mouth are reaching out to them to take part in the programs since the project began in January, he said.

“[We are finding] more people who want to work with us, who want to talk to us, who want to learn with us,” Lavi said. “They’re not doing us a favor. Nobody’s doing anyone a favor in this business. We need them, and they need us — 95% of the people murdered by radical Islamists are Muslims, not Christians and not Jews.”

Based in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, OTIC includes the Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and the Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity, which research Jewish teachings on world religions and minority relations and train religious leaders in interfaith engagement.

The regional mandate of the program is in 24 countries throughout the Muslim world, including the Abraham Accord states, the Balkans, Turkey, Morocco and Ethiopia, said Lavi.

The study programs are done “very respectfully,” with rabbis, professors and experts in Islam, including himself, who can quote Muslim thinkers who counter radical interpretations, he said.

OTIC said the funding will expand its efforts to convene major interfaith events and strengthen its presence at key global forums, such as the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington last February and the G20 Interfaith Summit in South Africa this summer. It will also go towards expanding its content development work, regional seminars with Muslims, online study groups and social media presence. This month, Muslim-Jewish meetings were held in Cyprus, twice in Germany — including one with women — and one is planned for Morocco.

Recent OTIC efforts include a tour of the Gaza border during Pakistani Sufi leader Peer Syed Mudassir Shah’s historic visit to Israel and the signing of a Jewish-Muslim declaration in Washington, inspired by the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate — the official declaration of Vatican II that describes the Church’s relations with non-Christians including Jews and Muslims. Follow-up events are planned, including a major interfaith conference in the UAE later this year, said Lavi.

In addition, the first of a series of live online lectures in Arabic to teach Arabs about Judaism will begin on Friday with about 260 people registered from countries ranging from Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Emirates, Lavi said.

Lavi emphasized the importance for OTIC in tying into governmental strategies as it works not only with the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation, but also with the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism and the Ministry for Strategic Affairs, to make sure its efforts are aligned with Israel’s diplomatic efforts.

The long-term goal, said Lavi, is to create a paradigm shift among Muslim and Jewish religious leaders together with various partners.

“If you don’t understand the religious convictions and religious motivations behind different actors in the region, how they operate, how they see the world…how they read the Quran…then you’re simply not in the game,” he said. “You’re playing one game, and they’re playing a different game, and those two games are not in the same field. It’s a different conversation. So we want to also educate diplomats, educate the professionals who are in this field that you need to really understand religion. You can’t fix this by the stroke of a pen on a piece of paper.”