ITAI’S HISTORY

Founded in 2004, by Joseph Puder, the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI) began as an affiliation with the American Jewish Congress in Philadelphia, PA.  In 2005, ITAI formed its own independent identity as a non-profit 501c3 tax-Exempt organization.  On the advice of the Late Sister Rose Thering, PhD, of Seton Hall University, Joseph Puder recruited Presbyterian Church USA pastor, Rev. Dr. William Harter.  Harter and Puder subsequently recruited a team consisting of mainline Protestant pastor and Catholic clergy and scholars.

Between 2005-2013 ITAI, held numerous weekday lunch symposiums with mainline Protestant and Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, on the topic of Middle East Realities, and discussions on the anti-Israel resolutions brought up in mainline Protestant churches.  Both Harter and Puder presented their views and solicited questions.

Simultaneously, ITAI focused on bringing together Middle Eastern Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy and scholars to discuss Arab-Israeli Peace and how to end radical Islamist terror.   In 2007, ITAI held a symposium in Philadelphia that included distinguished Muslim scholars to discuss how to overcome Islamic radicalism.  The panel included Dr. Sherkoh Abbas, President of the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria; Ali Alyami, PhD, a Saudi Arabian Sunni-Muslim scholar; Dr. Tawfik Hamid, an Egyptian medical doctor Sunni-Muslim scholar and reformer, and author of “Inside Jihad,” and Iranian Shiite-Muslim writer, film producer and human rights activist, Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi.  Joseph Puder served as moderator.  

Throughout the period mentioned above, an ITAI team consisting of Joseph Hakim (Lebanese Orthodox-Christian, Joseph Puder, (Israeli-Jew), and Sherkoh Abbas, (Syrian Kurdish Sunni-Muslim), spoke at Churches (mostly mainline Protestant) and synagogues, on Middle East Realities, and concluded that the wider Middle East should look like Israel, a democracy with the rule-of-law, where religious freedom and human rights are sacrosanct.

ITAI resumed its activities in January 2000, following a hiatus of six years.  Due to the Covid 19 restrictions, ITAI held ZOOM meetings monthly with exciting speakers including Dr. Tawfik Hamid; Sherkoh Abbas; Egyptian native Hussein Abu Bakr Mansour; Arab-Israeli Muslim activist and Likud Member, Dema Taya; Colonel Kenneth Brier (Gulf War) and governor of an Iraqi town (Safwan) Saudi border town; Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer, President of the London Center for Policy Research; and Jonathan Schanzer, PhD, VP at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and author. Other guest included Israeli, and American opinion makers, and an active military officer on tour in Iraq, Maj. Samuel Waltzer.