RI Humanities

  • ABOUT
    • HISTORY & MISSION
    • STAFF & BOARD
  • GRANTS
    • GRANTMAKING
    • RI CHARG (with RISCA)
    • FEATURED GRANTS
    • RECENT GRANTS
  • INITIATIVES
    • RI CIVIC HEALTH INDEX
    • CULTURE IS KEY
      • Culture is Key: Advisory Committee
      • Culture is Key: Pilot Projects
    • RHODE TOUR
    • EXPANSION ARTS
    • INITIATIVE ARCHIVE
      • CATALYZING NEWPORT
      • PELL HUMANITIES INITIATIVE
      • (PRESS)ED Podcast Series
      • PULITZER SERIES
      • RI Arts and Culture Research Fellowship
      • XIX: Shall Not Be Denied
  • GET INVOLVED
    • DONATE
    • PARTICIPATE
    • CELEBRATE
      • 2022 Celebration Honoree & Speaker Information
    • ADVOCATE
  • CALENDAR
  • NEWS
    • Humanities In Context

In Their Own Words: Rabbi Wayne M. Franklin, 2018 Honorary Chairs’ Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities

October 20, 2018 By RI Humanities

October 20, 2018 — At the 2018 Celebration of the Humanities, over 300 community and business leaders, scholars, artists, and government officials gathered in Providence to honor this year’s awardees. The Celebration’s theme – BRIDGE – is about the power of the humanities to link diverse communities, increase access to culture and education, span understanding of the past and imagining the future, connect to societal challenges, and strengthen the ties between information, awareness, and democracy. Each of this year’s honorees do this with great dedication, talent, and skill.

Read on for remarks from Rabbi Wayne M. Franklin, leader of interfaith dialogues and 2018 recipient of the Honorary Chairs’ Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities – the third installment of a four-part In Their Own Words series.


Thank you to Rhode Island Council for the Humanities for this Award. It is a great honor for me to be recognized as a bridge builder along with the other distinguished honorees tonight, who are doing extraordinary work in our community.

I want to acknowledge and thank the members and my friends at Temple Emanu-El, and all of my colleagues and members of our staff, who support me in my work. All of them enable me to engage in the bridge building activities I’ve enjoyed doing for so many years now. I especially want to thank, my wife, Anne, for all your loving support and appreciation for this work that I do.

I also want to acknowledge and thank all my many partners in interfaith dialogue, here in Rhode Island and elsewhere; one does not dialogue alone. Interfaith dialogue requires people who are deeply committed to their own religious faiths, but who share open minds and open hearts. Meaningful dialogue is possible among people who are eager to learn from one another and who are interested in understanding one another. Dialogue requires mutual respect, rather than trying to convince others of the correctness of one’s position. I have been blessed and enriched to meet and learn from many wonderful people who share my interest in building bridges of understanding.

In the late 18 – early 19th century, in Ukraine, there lived a Hasidic Rabbi named Nahman of Bratzlav. In one of his best-known teachings, he said: “The whole world is a very narrow bridge, but the most important thing is not to be afraid.”

The journey through life can be precarious, as we all know. In that sense, our road through life can feel like a very narrow bridge. We never know what lies ahead, or what might topple us from the bridge. Many people fear that if they engage with people whose beliefs differ from their own, they may become unmoored from their foundations and be compromised in their faith. But I like to think that bridge building can make us more secure, and less likely to experience calamity.

When we build bridges between ourselves and other people, and between our own community and the communities of our neighbors, we build understanding and respect. I believe that in understanding others, we come to appreciate our own beliefs even better. I sincerely believe that greater understanding among people helps make us all more secure and less fearful of what others might say about us or do to us.

Thank you for recognizing those of us who are bridge builders; the bridges we build help us overcome our fears of all that’s different and unfamiliar. I hope that our collective efforts will continue to lift up and affirm the human spirit, so that we can traverse the bridge of life with confidence, in harmony and in peace.

latest tweets

  • "The humanities serve as tools to stand up for democracy at this moment." Read the 12th issue of our… https://t.co/dlDGeYd53d June 5, 2020 6:00 pm
  • "Engaging history and culture is not just about reflection and understanding but about action." Read more at:… https://t.co/OxR7zWgfg8 June 3, 2020 8:35 pm
  • Explore the Digital Public Library of America. In addition to 37,136,118 images, texts, videos, and sounds from acr… https://t.co/H3xczefx9E May 29, 2020 3:13 pm
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Archives

GRANTMAKING FY2015 – 2019
2021 HIGHLIGHTS
40th ANNIVERSARY REPORT

QUICK LINKS

Board of Directors Login
Grant Archive Digital Library
Donate to the Council
Credits

MAILING LIST

Want to be the first to hear about all the humanities related news and updates? Get on the list!
JOIN

CONNECT

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

CONTACT

  401-273-2250

  401-454-4872
  131 Washington St., Suite 210
      Providence, RI 02903

Copyright © 2023 Rhode Island Council for the Humanities · Website design & development by //DESIGN AGENCY//