Ellington

Sophomore Aaron Lerner’s vision of a safe space for all faiths and cultural backgrounds came together Thursday at the first meeting of Bridges, a new interfaith registered student organization (RSO).

Bridges meetings are about “all the religions coming together and building bridges of dialogue,” Lerner said to about 70 people in attendance.

A spectrum of faiths were represented at the meeting, from all the major religions to the minority faiths, such as Coptic Orthodox from Egypt and Baha’i, the largest minority faith in Iran.

The theme of the Thursday discussion was serving others. A series of student representatives from different student organizations and faiths spoke of the importance of service in their respective traditions.

Sophomore Teresa Schaut, a member of the Baha’i Student Association, said that she will definitely attend future Bridges meetings. She said she enjoyed the positivity of the discussions, which she hopes will unite diverse students to do good work for the community.

“Understanding, communication and education are the foundations of unity,” Schaut said.

Omar Abdelbadie, vice president of Bridges, said he is committed to interfaith education and dialogue because religion is a large part of the lives of many UW students and it just doesn’t “get enough attention.”

Bridges is a space where people can unite despite their faiths, Abdelbadie added.

Lerner, who is Jewish, pushed for this interfaith medium because of a personal experience he had.

In high school he was concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East, which directly affects his relatives who live in the region. To understand the conflict, he began to study Islam and have discussions with Muslims to create a “dialogue of understanding.”

Lerner said he hopes to “change religion to a positive force.”

Bridges will collaborate with the Interfaith Youth Core, a national organization that promotes religious pluralism, on its “Better Together” campaign. The RSO will choose a social-justice issue that it will focus on for the year. With different perspectives, Bridges members will discuss how to resolve this issue and will plan to take action through some sort of community service.

“The concept is that we [of various backgrounds and faiths] are better together,” Lerner said.

The focus of the “Better Together” campaign will be chosen at the RSO’s first business meeting this Thursday; the top candidates, which were chosen by the RSO’s leadership, are anti-slavery, global hunger and micro-loans.

Reach reporter Rebecca Lee at news@dailyuw.com.