Daughters of Abraham Book Club

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, seen locally on WMHT-TV at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, has a feature this week on the Daughters of Abraham Book Club.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jewish, Muslim and Christian women gather together once a month to talk about the books they've read -- not the latest bestsellers -- but works that focus on the Abrahamic faiths. Known as the "Daughters of Abraham," this interfaith book club was the brainchild of Edie Howe, a lawyer turned divinity student, who established the reading group in an effort to foster a better understanding of the commonalities and differences found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the aftermath of 9-11.

Betty Rollin looks at how the "Daughters of Abraham" helps its members learn more about each of the three religions -- and also establish better insights and relationships among themselves. According to Howe, "I believe it is very important for Jews, Christians and Muslims to learn about each other. If you look in the world today there is profound misunderstanding and there is an enormous amount of prejudice and this book group is my undertaking to try to reduce that to the extent that I am able."

Albany Catholic realizes that not everyone will rise at 6 a.m. to watch the show, or will know how to program their video recorders, so we offer this link to the transcript of the show. No need to thank us now.