Mark Braverman (born 1948) is an American psychologist and Jewish activist for Palestinean rights. He is the executive director of Kairos USA. 

The following is a transcript of Dr. Braverman's contributions to The Jim Forest Institute's online conference, "The Experience & Practice of Mutual Respect Across Faiths."

JUDAISM & CHRISTIANITY: A BRIEF HISTORY OF CONVERSATION & CONFLICT

The relationship between Jews and Christians or Judaism and Christianity—Judaism and the church—began in the 1st century in Roman-occupied Palestine with a Jewish conversation that was happening at the time. I'm oversimplifying this, but it's really true in its essence.

The conversation was about whether one worships God on one mountain in a house that you built for God or whether creation and God's love are for everyone. The conversation was about whether God chooses one family, one tribe, one people as his special people, devoted to his worship, or whether, as was made clear on the day of Pentecost, the power of the Spirit is truly in the Spirit, and it is for everyone. And those distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, male and female, as Paul said, are dissolved. This is the issue for humankind throughout history, up to the present day. So in the crucible of the 1st century, where we had this conversation between Jews, spearheaded by this charismatic, radical, rabble-rousing, grassroots organizer—Jesus of Nazareth—that conversation is continuing, and we have to confront this for the sake of humanity, for the sake of creation itself.

So what does the Bible record? This story begins in Luke chapter 4, where Jesus initiates his ministry in a synagogue, on the Sabbath, in Nazareth, and what happens to him? He unrolls the scroll of Isaiah. Jesus was always quoting Scripture. And he announces that the message of his ministry and the message for humankind has to be about social justice. That was the whole theme of his ministry for those three years, until that last week in Jerusalem.

What happens to him? His fellow Jews in the synagogue basically decided that he has to die—and they try to kill him and throw him off a cliff. For what? Not for quoting Isaiah. Isaiah was read in the synagogue on a regular basis. It was because he broke the rules and committed the unpardonable sin of talking about prophets and people in Syria and in Lebanon—outside the boundaries of Palestine, outside of the boundaries of us. Jesus spent his whole ministry dealing with that.

He talks to the woman in at the well, and she says, “Why are you talking to me? I’m a Samaritan.”  And he says, “You worship on one mountain, we worship one another.” But remember that he says “The time will come, woman, when we will not worship on any one mountain. But we will worship in the Spirit.

And then later, he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, where he asks and answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?” This is the whole story.