Student Highlight: Yoni Altman-Shafer, MTS ’26
Government
When I came to Harvard Divinity School, it became clear that RPL was the best place to be for people who are interested in the application of religion beyond the textbook and house of study. My interest has always been in how religion intersects with the lives of people today.
It’s been great to be amongst like-minded peers and faculty and staff who understand the significance of this time that we’re in right now and how we can lend our studies to the concrete application of building peace in the world. In my undergraduate studies, I continually felt that my peers were always looking at the Middle East from a very Western perspective. There is this belief that religion is something you open up once a week and put back after worshipping. Religion isn’t just part of life. It is life itself. If you have that understanding, I think you could do a lot more meaningful work with the people who live in these places and be a better learner and listener. With CRPL, I spent much time thinking about typologies, both structural peace and structural violence. I think it is relevant to the study of international relations and to the study of religion.
My experience at the RPL is really twofold. One is being in the CRPL program, in the government track. Working with the government fellow, Karen Owens, was incredible because of how she was able to bridge both being an educator and her work in the U.S. government. I also benefited tremendously from Hussein Rashid’s expertise and life experience in how religion can apply to public life. He’s been a mentor for me, and I’m very grateful for it.
The other part of my experience is serving as a graduate assistant under Hesham Elnagar, Curriculum Specialist for Religion and Public Life. It was so rewarding to learn how educators learn from our materials, use them, and introduce them in their own classrooms. RPL continues to help educators by providing resources for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and future religious scholars.