Ep. 160 Haroon Moghul and Yelena Lembersky: How Does Religious Identity Help and Hinder Our Spiritual Growth?

Steve discusses how religious identity might get in the way of a more genuine faith life with Haroon Moghul, author of "Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of a Muslim Future." Haroon Moghul is an Account Director at Unitas Communications, where he helps international clients tell their stories. An award-winning journalist and opinion columnist, Haroon's essays have been featured by The New York Times, NPR’s Fresh Air, CNN, NBC News, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian, among many others. He’s also appeared on all major US news networks as an expert commentator on Islam, the Muslim world, and U.S. foreign policy, has dedicated years to interfaith engagement, and has spoken at universities, conferences, think tanks, houses of worship, bookstores, and libraries on five continents. Heather chats with Yelena Lembersky, an architect in Boston who immigrated from the USSR with her mother in 1987. Her memoir "Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour" discusses the dramatic events that lead up to their departure from the Soviet Union and Heather and Yelena pick up where the memoir ends--with Yelena's committment to raise her children within the Jewish tradition that Yelena herself was not allowed to explore as a youth. Yelena graduated with a double Bachelors in Art and Science from the University of Michigan. She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pursue her Masters of Architecture at MIT. Yelena has also published a monograph on her grandfather's art, "Felix Lembersky: Paintings and Drawings."