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Exploring Hizmet Values
Bridging Interfaith Dialogue and Addressing Global Challenges
What can a movement rooted in Islamic values teach us about service, dialogue, and building bridges across faiths and cultures? Hizmet, a transnational initiative inspired by Islamic teachings, emphasizes education, humanitarian service, and interfaith cooperation, and—often translated as “service”—seeks to foster peace, social justice, and a culture of encounter in an increasingly divided world. In this presentation, Dr. Ori Z. Soltes will draw on his extensive expertise in theology, philosophy, and interreligious studies to explore how Hizmet’s core principles offer timely responses to today’s global challenges by promoting dialogue and inspiring collaboration across difference.
Dr. Ori Z. Soltes is a teaching professor in the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, where he teaches across the disciplines of theology, art history, philosophy, and political history. Formerly the Director and Chief Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, he curated over 80 exhibitions and co-founded the Holocaust Art Restitution Project, which addresses issues of Nazi-plundered art. Dr. Soltes has delivered lectures at leading institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art, and has appeared on CNN, the History Channel, and the Discovery Channel. With nearly 300 articles, essays, books, and exhibit catalogues to his name, his publications include Between Thought and Action: An Intellectual Biography of Fethullah Gulen, Fixing the World: Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth Century, and Our Sacred Signs: How Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source.
Sponsored by the Niagara Foundation of Minnesota, the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies at the University of St. Thomas, and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at Saint John’s University.