Newswise — A diverse group of Syracuse University students from different faith traditions will spend their Spring Break in a unique way, by traveling to Turkey to study how Muslim, Christian and Jewish peoples have co-existed in the region throughout history and continue to today.

The group of 18 students will chronicle their experience through written journal entries, audio clips and photographs posted on a special website, http://hendricks.syr.edu/turkey.

The website is now live, offering background on the trip, the group's itinerary, and information on the students—seven Muslim, six Christian and five Jewish—and the individuals accompanying them: the Rev. Thomas V. Wolfe, dean of SU's Hendricks Chapel; Muslim Chaplain Ahmed Kobeisy; Lowell Lustig, executive director of SU's Hillel; the Rev. Kelly Sprinkle, Protestant chaplain; and Ginny Yerdon, Hendricks Chapel's special events coordinator. The group will leave for Turkey on Thursday, March 8 and return to Syracuse on Friday, March 16.

The idea for the trip—"Three Faiths, One Humanity: Interfaith Travel Study Experience to Turkey" —was conceived by Wolfe. "We want to put a human face on the issues of how diverse faith communities have historically shared and continue to share life together," Wolfe says. "On campus and beyond, we hope our experience will increase awareness of the three faith traditions' contemporary issues and spark renewed dialogue towards understanding and cooperation."

Student selection for the trip began nearly a year ago. To be considered, students were required to write essays outlining their connection to their own faith commitments and how they imagined drawing from that to participate in meaningful interfaith dialogue. Preparation for the trip has included visits to religious sites in Syracuse representing each faith tradition, lectures from SU professors on the history of the region and contemporary Turkey, and discussions with members of the Syracuse Area Middle East Dialogue group.

The students accepted into the program are well formed in their own faith traditions and yet are curious about people of other faiths, and thus become each other's teachers, says Wolfe.

"This curiosity leads them to explore deeper connections with those individuals," he says. "A participant needs to be able to stand next to a person of another faith with genuine respect. We seek to accomplish in the program what cannot be accomplished in other areas of our globe."

The weeklong itinerary includes tours of mosques, churches, synagogues and other sites in Istanbul and Izmir that have significance within the faith traditions. The group will visit the Sulemaniye Mosque and surrounding charitable hospitals and kitchens that serve the Jewish, Christian and Muslim poor of Istanbul. Group members will also meet with interfaith groups and members of each faith tradition to hear their perspectives on how they co-exist with members of different faith traditions.

"In short, this trip is not designed as a short-term, feel-good experience in 'getting along,' but it's an invitation to the hard work of continuing dialogue, cooperation and respect that is a lifetime experience," Wolfe says. "We believe working together to become a people of faith who model increased understanding has the potential to make a human statement about living in a religiously diverse world."

Wolfe wants students to come back from the trip inspired to work for change. "We expect students will bring home their knowledge and experience and become agents of transformation in Syracuse and any community in which they will live and work," he says. "This experience of diversity contributes to developing skills that generalize to any diverse environment."

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