Our guest this week is Ed Kessler, founder of the Woolf Institute.  Based in Cambridge, it combines teaching, scholarship and outreach, focusing on Jews, Christians and Muslims, to encourage tolerance and foster understanding between people of all beliefs. He tells us about their important recent study “How We Get Along” - the largest known study of diversity in the UK, and how this was received on publication.  This leads to a conversation about the importance of the workplace as a place of encounter - ie. often the only place where we meet those who are different - and how this may be impacted by the changes to working patterns arising as a result of the pandemic.  

We talk about virtual encounters and virtual travel, and whether this is creating different inequalities than before.  Ed gives us a fascinating insight into the design of his workplace - the Woolf Institute - and how he envisages the workplace of the future.

Are we - as faith groups and a wider society - afraid of the ‘other’ and only looking out for ourselves?  

Ed also provides an insight into how the pandemic and lockdown has impacted on other faiths and we discuss how intra-faith relations in the Jewish community have evolved too. 

Ed gives us an insight into what an academic does to relax - and how many pages of a book does he read a day?  

You can find out more about the Woolf Institute here: https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/

Find us on Twitter: 

@JewKnowWhat

Ed - @kessler_ed

Leo - @WFCKeego

Charley - @RabCharley

Rebecca - @RSingerman or @KingstonLibShul

Find out more about Liberal Judaism, the home for your Jewish story here: https://www.liberaljudaism.org/

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