Rabbi Daniel Fellman, Rev. Canon Natalie Hall, create new interfaith study group

It was a family trip to Florida that first moved Rabbi Daniel Fellman of Temple Sinai to organize a program focused on social justice.

“In Montgomery, we stopped in at the Equal Justice Initiative, and I was so moved by it, so blown away by it, that I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do something.’”

The desire to “do something” led to a partnership with Church of the Redeemer’s the Rev. Canon Natalie Hall and the creation of the interfaith study group “Justice and Freedom: God’s Story in Pittsburgh.”

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A May 2026 joint trip that will include a bus ride from Atlanta to Birmingham is planned at the conclusion of the 11-session course.

Fellman said he and Hall had a specific goal as they planned the course and eventual trip.

“We decided it was a great opportunity to get people together to talk about justice issues,” he said.

The monthly classes are centered on the Hebrew Bible, many with guest speakers from across the social justice, religious and political spectrums.

Hall said the emphasis on the Hebrew Bible was intentional.

“The Hebrew scripture is shared scripture,” she said. “I think studying the Hebrew scripture together, in depth, as a shared scripture, is critically important for what it means to consider freedom and justice — and justice in Pittsburgh.”

Beginning at a common starting point has helped foster a sense of unity, Fellman said.

“I think once the conversations unfold, commonalities come flying out,” he said. “Getting everybody to sit down at the table and be willing to take this on requires a certain degree of effort, but once you get past that, overwhelmingly, it’s been a positive response.”

Hall is clear: Unanimity is not always the desired result. Instead, she said, the hope is that collegial and personal relationships will develop, allowing for the possibility of disagreement, while maintaining community and relationship, something she and Fellman are able to do.

“Just the simple act of gathering together as a diversity of people in a room to talk about significant, substantive things is a success in itself,” she said. “That’s a magnificent outcome.”

She hopes participants will develop relationships deep enough to enable them to determine when and where action is appropriate.

The idea, she said, is to discover where there are areas of pain, suffering or misunderstanding, so the group can work together and attempt to resolve those issues for the sake of justice.

And while the academic design of the course is worthwhile, Fellman said, the work outside the classroom also matters. To that end, he said, one of the first things they asked of the participants was to share contact information with each other and set up a time to talk outside the classroom.

It’s a worthwhile endeavor, Hall noted.

“There’s not much you can do until you know your neighbor’s name,” she said.

“Real success is measured by whether you get together with someone different from yourself outside of this room. Did you get together for coffee? Did you take a walk? Did you have a meal together? A real conversation? Did you consider the questions that we have together in this setting outside of the room?”

The concerns for justice, Hall continued, are universal and shared across denominations, neighborhoods and cities.

“I work most with Episcopal and Lutheran churches; however, I interact with Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, etc. It’s a wonderful diversity of people and the strands of concern regarding the justice needs of our neighborhoods and country are all around.”

The course attempts to use a biblical perspective as mooring for those justice concerns, she explained.

If turnout is any indication, people are interested.

More than 60 people have registered, split fairly evenly between members of the Jewish and Christian communities, which Fellman said shows the need for the class.

“We’re living in times when the national debate is being geared toward fear and distrust,” he said. “We try to assuage that and instead say, ‘Let’s get to know our neighbors and work together.’”

And while both he and Hall wish they lived in a world where this course wasn’t necessary, Fellman said both recognize the challenging times in which we’re living.

“I feel very fortunate to have a partner like Natalie,” he said. “Those kinds of partners are rare. We’re having fun. It’s been fun to wrestle with back and forth. We’re pretty open that sometimes we agree and sometimes we don’t. There are places of overlap and places where we’re widely different. But there’s a way to disagree as friends, and that goes against the current trend of how we operate.”

The course, Hall said, encourages people to learn what their neighbor thinks and believes, and also understand what they’re feeling.

“In my estimation,” she said, “that rarely results in breaking community. Instead, it results in building community with responsibility, with understanding, grace and a sense of friendship.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.