Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2011

Burton Visotzky

In the stepped-up dialogue between American Jews and American Muslims, Burton Visotzky is in many ways the guy making things happen, quietly and off-camera, while others take high-profile bows. Visotzky, a rabbi who serves as the Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at

the Jewish Theological Seminary, creates, organizes and participates in a stunning array of interfaith activities that, over time, have helped transform the sound of Jews and Muslims talking together from a pin drop to a cacophony.

This year, Visotzky, 60, was deeply involved in the aftermath of the Park 51 controversy over the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero, and during the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. When Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Park 51’s original leader, went underground due to threats on his life last year, Visotzky hosted Rauf’s wife, Daisy Khan, at the JTS sukkah, where he rounded up a gaggle of Jewish leaders to offer their public support. This past spring and summer, Visotzky helped organize “Our Better Angels,” a series of pre-10th anniversary public gatherings at St. Paul’s Church near Ground Zero that brought Jews, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs together for dialogue, music and study of each others’ texts. Visotzky also organized and hosted a tour of the National September 11 Memorial led by its architect, Michael Arad, for leaders of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities.

“The news media like conflict,” he said in one interview. “But there is an enormous amount of Muslim-Jewish dialogue going on, and much of it has been initiated by Muslims reaching out — in some ways around Israel, but in some ways also trying to reach Israel through the American Jewish community.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.