By Abraham Joshua Heschel

No religion is an island;
There is no monopoly on holiness.
We are companions of all who revere God
We all rejoice when we walk in God’s way.  

  No religion is an island;
We share the kinship of humanity,
The capacity for compassion.  

God’s spirit rests upon all, Jew and non-Jew 
Man or woman, in consonance with their deeds.
The creation of the first humans, Adam and Eve, promotes peace.  

No one can claim:
My ancestry is nobler than yours. 
Have we not all one Creator?
Are we not all god’s children? 

Then let us help one another overcome hardness of hearts,
Opening minds to the challenges of faith. 
Let mutual concern replace remnants of mutual contempt,
As we share the precarious position of being human. 

There is no monopoly on holiness; 
There is no truth without humility.
Let those who revere the Lord speak one to the other.
Let all human beings reflect the image of God in their deeds. 

 

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Polish-American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century.