Over the course of twenty years, the ICJS has done a great deal of asking and receiving, searching and finding, knocking and opening. Season after season we dig into our programs with the conviction that the most exciting excava-tions are in front of us, and today our efforts are animated with an ever-greater sense of urgency. At the ICJS we pursue an educational vision that will both sustain a vital connection to the wisdom of our ancestors and challenge us to live in creative tension with our differences. Your gifts to the "Open-ing Doors" annual fund (an unprecedented $240,000!) have truly opened doors for creative programs, events, and educa-tional opportunities for the Baltimore community. Thank you so very much for your support this year.

    Our big news! Up until now, the ICJS has pursued its work on the move. We dreamed of a place where Christians and Jews would find themselves equally at home, a place where we could offer hospitality, a place to learn and practice the discipline of the interfaith encounter, host scholars and clergy from distant lands. Now we are fast approaching the day when the dream will be reality, as you can see for yourself when you look across Dulaney Valley Road from the entrance to Goucher College. If construction proceeds on schedule, the ICJS will move into our new quarters by the end of next summer.

    The building itself will be named "The Bunting-Meyerhoff Center" after two families whose dedication to the work of the ICJS has sustained our organization from the very outset. The library on the second floor will honor Charlie Obrecht and David Hirschhorn, two remarkable individuals whose vision has shaped the heart and soul of the Institute.

    The monies we are raising for the ICJS Capital/Endowment Campaign are not limited to paying for bricks and mortar. We are generating an endowment that will sustain top-quality Jewish and Christian scholars. In recognition of the need to develop curricular resources that can be used in other settings around the country, we hope to add a highly skilled educator to our staff in the not-too-distant future. We are garnering funds to support innovative educational ventures with visiting clergy, scholars and educators. We hope to continue our inquiries into Islam and to find new venues in which to learn. We are forging a creative partnership with Goucher College and look forward to new collaborative opportunities with other colleges, universities, and seminaries in the region. We are welcoming our first seminary intern, Ben Weiner, from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and look forward to ex-panding this initiative to other seminaries in the years to come. You will hear more about these developments in the months to come, and we hope that you will join our efforts to build a firm foundation on which the ICJS can stand.

    All of these labors grow out of the conviction that the prospects of our city, our nation, and our fragile planet are tied to the healthy and vitality of our religious communities. We need to break the patterns of ignorance, distrust, and hostility that have all too often shaped the political and cultural landscape. We hope that you will join us as we ask, seek with us as we find, and knock with us until the doors to unanticipated blessings open.

Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher M. Leighton
Executive Director