Photo: Dome of the Rock mosque, Jerusalem. Photos by Rev. Manish Mishra-Marzetti.
FROM REV. MANISH – UUJME DELEGATION UPDATE - January 13, 2026
I love being here, and it is hard being here. This is what I can say about Jerusalem. Jerusalem poignantly reminds me of my ancestral hometown of Lucknow, India: there is profound beauty and potential around every corner and the city’s lived reality is fraught.
Lucknow, as the once Islamic cultural capital of India, is a pluralistic intersection of language, cuisine, poetry, architecture, music and more. The food, language, and art has historically been a syncretic mix of Hindu and Muslim cultural traditions, one that I have always found deeply beautiful and inspiring. Muslims and Hindus have lived side-by-side for centuries in Lucknow and at their best learned from one another and thrived together.
Yet, this is not the whole story. With the rise of Hindutva (muscular and militaristic Hindu nationalism) throughout India, local government in Lucknow is controlled by Hindu nationalist politicians and local Muslims have to live under the political radar and with the reality of fear. Politically, Muslims are reminded at every turn that their well-being and livelihoods are precarious; they should not cause a fuss and should be grateful for whatever their current second-class citizen status brings them. It’s awful and deeply disappointing to one who loves the beauty of Lucknow’s pluralistic and syncretic traditions.
India has been much on my mind as I navigate the streets of Jerusalem, experiencing a similar pluralistic beauty and also, unfortunately, the failed realization of pluralism’s potential. It is heart achingly disappointing, most especially as one realizes that the right seeds – the right ingredients – are all there.
In a single day this week, our delegation visited the third holiest site in all of Islam, the Al Aqsa Mosque; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites in all of Christianity; and, the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. All of this within easy walking distance of one another. These sites hold immense physical beauty – Al Aqsa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are hands down the most physically beautiful mosque and church I have ever visited, and the Western Wall holds its own unadorned yet powerful beauty.
That physical beauty is complemented by the beauty of the people visiting these sites who are devoutly engaged in prayer and reflection – individuals bringing their hopes and dreams to these unique places of pilgrimage. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all deeply engaged in profound spiritual reflection, mere steps from one another. My pluralistic heart immediately recognized the cultural and spiritual potential in this. How powerful it would be to share these longings of the heart with one another – to bridge difference and find commonality through our similar and parallel human yearnings! It should be possible to do this, and yet the lived reality here is something else.
The government of Israel severely restricts when and how Muslims can visit Al Aqsa. As foreign guests we were able to visit the mosque on our day of choosing, but it was a mosque that was relatively empty due to the stringent regulation of Muslim pilgrims to this site. Outside and beyond the mosque, heavily armed Israeli army and IDF forces permeate Old Jerusalem, reminding all that they are being monitored and that anything untoward would be met with violence. In the Jewish Quarter, near the Western Wall, we saw signs and merchandise uplifting Donald Trump’s muscular and militaristic politics – celebrating him and the MAGA movement. I learned that similarly minded muscular and militaristic Jews hold prophetic anticipation of the future construction of the Third Temple of Jerusalem; yet, realizing this vision by necessity would require the razing of Al Aqsa Mosque in order to build the Third Temple on that same site.
A local Jesuit priest who grew up in apartheid South Africa described the lived energies of Jerusalem as “dark” (heavy, fraught); an environment in which the kind of pluralistic inter-religious engagement that I cherish is virtually absent, he shared.
Still, I believe. I know in my heart that we can find commonality and that our differences can be a source of beauty and strength. I know this because I have experienced it. It is possible, even today, to hold a higher and deeper vision of our shared humanity – one that refutes and transmutes the fear and hatred-based nationalisms and fundamentalisms that would have us lunging at one another’s throats. We can do better.
Beauty and possibility remain our pluralistic calling.
May we hold that prophetic vision together.
With much love, Rev. Manish
Photo: Inside view of Dome of the Rock.
Photo: Columns inside Dome of the Rock mosque.
Photo: Another view inside Dome of the Rock.