SMU’s Perkins School of Theology and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Dallas sponsored a lecture on faith and society yesterday night in the Hughes-Trigg Theater. The featured speaker was Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, who was promoting his new book, “You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right.”

Rabbi Hirschfield is a rigid supporter of multicultural respect for all religions, claiming to have renounced all delineations of people into categories of good and evil. His ultimate goal is working to build bridges among people of different faiths and those with no faith at all.

After an introduction by Perkins director Gary McDonald and JCRC chair Alan Greenspan (no relation to the Federal analyst), Rabbi Hirschfield gave an anecdote of how he first came to write his book, noting that the person who persuaded him wasn’t exactly who he was expecting.

“Every person who had approached me thus far [to write the book] was usually a Jewish male between 30 and 50,” Hirschfield said to laughter from the audience.

It turns out that the person who asked him was Howard Yun, a first-generation Korean-American who had learned of Rabbi Hirschfield’s teachings about cooperation and compromise during a fight with his wife, an eighth-generation Episcopalian. He was so impressed by the Rabbi that he tracked him down and persuaded him to write the book. Hirschfield wasn’t too keen on writing a book at first, as he had a very different idea of how teaching would be more prevalent and helpful in America.

“This country could use less people who want to write books and more people who want to talk with others,” Hirschfield said. This drew heavy applause from the audience, a mix of people across the spectrum of religion, race and age.

Rabbi Hirschfield proceeded to explain his views on the recent “polarization” of faith and politics, noting that holding such secular and radical beliefs was harmful for the global cultures to better cooperate. He also said that those who chose more apathetic views and lifestyles in opposition were also futile, citing that those who chose that path would likely live “lonely lives.”

He then gave examples of the diverse conditions he had endured while preaching his message.

“Five Muslims, two Christians and a Jew went to Egypt. I promise this isn’t a Catskills joke,” Hirschfield said to raucous laughter.

The trip ended up in a Muslim family’s lower-class household, surrounded by secret service police and radical Muslim dignitaries. With only one poster in the room of radical Hamas leaders proclaiming extremely anti-Semitic propaganda, Rabbi Hirschfield had something of a minor revelation.

“If my Muslim host hadn’t told me what that poster said, I would have probably left right there,” he said. “I have found that we can talk to anybody of any religion or faith as long as we’re really honest with each other. Inside this house we had some of the most honest conversations between each other’s faiths in that house.”

Hirschfield continued his story of how people could be fully immersed in their traditions and still fully respect others’ faiths. His amusing and emotional story of a particular cab ride from New York City to Syracuse was another highlight, as his cab driver turned out to be a very pro-Christian man with crucifixes, “Jesus Loves You” stickers and Bibles everywhere in the cab. The rabbi said that upon entering the cab he felt he was in a “rolling church,” and that the driver, who had long hair and a grizzled, worn demeanor, was “checking me out from the moment I entered the car…or more particularly, the cap on my head.”

After honestly answering the cab driver’s questions of their differences in faith, the driver was profoundly shocked by his honesty and told him of his past history, including his four years of sobriety after more than 30 years of alcohol and drug abuse. The driver then became very emotional when he said that his pastor had proclaimed his wife of 21 years to “not be the right one for him” because she wasn’t “saved.”

Hirschfield called the driver “double-blessed” for his faith in the Christian religion and for the fact that his wife had stayed with him through his years of alcohol and drugs and after he was saved four years ago. The driver was driven to tears by this, and hugged Hirschfield as he left the cab at his destination.

“A rabbi doing marriage counseling for a saved Christian in a taxicab: only in America,” Hirschfield said jokingly.