Our Mission
Building Lasting Relationships Across Religious, Cultural, and National Traditions Through Friendship, Learning, and Sustained Presence
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Our Story
AAbraham’s Bridge was founded in 2021 to give institutional form to relationships that had been cultivated over decades through scholarship, teaching, and international engagement.
Long before the organization existed, those relationships brought together Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars, clergy, educators, and civic leaders across the Middle East and beyond. Over time, they grew into a network built on mutual respect, shared learning, and long-term collaboration.
Today, Abraham’s Bridge continues to strengthen that network by creating opportunities for universities, religious communities, and civic institutions to learn with one another, work together, and invest in the next generation of leaders.
Our Mission
Abraham’s Bridge cultivates relationships of trust and shared learning among Jews, Christians, and Muslims by facilitating sustained dialogue and study, ongoing mentoring of current and emerging leaders, and partnering with universities, religious communities, and NGOs across the Middle East and beyond.
Our Principles
Relationships at the
Center
We begin with people. Our work grows out of specific friendships and trusted partnerships with scholars, clergy, and community leaders, and our strategies are built to serve and strengthen those relationships.
Seeing Each Person as Neighbor and Partner
We meet people first as neighbors, not as representatives of a position or camp. We look for partners in whom friendship, integrity, and a desire for understanding can grow, whatever their background or convictions.
Shared Learning Across Traditions
We take Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources seriously and invite others to do the same. Study, teaching, and careful reading are central to our work; we expect to learn from our partners as much as they learn from us.
Learning With, Not Over, Others
We do not come as experts delivering solutions from above. We bring our experience and scholarship into honest conversation with the experience and insight of our partners, allowing the work to be shaped by what we discover together.
Local Responsibility, Shared Support
We know that change has to be carried by those rooted in their own communities. Our role is to accompany and equip through presence where possible, and through sustained contact when distance is unavoidable, so that local leaders can carry the work forward in ways that fit their context.
Clear-Eyed Hope in Hard Places
We refuse both naïveté and cynicism. We acknowledge grief, conflict, and unfairness as they are, while still acting from the conviction that trust, conscience, and faith can open paths toward reconciliation that are not visible at first.
Leadership
Abraham’s Bridge is led by scholars, educators, and professionals who share a long-term commitment to strengthening relationships across religious and cultural traditions.
Our leadership brings together experience in scholarship, teaching, international engagement, and institutional partnership. Together with our Board of Directors and the Institute for Abrahamic Relations, we work to create opportunities for sustained learning, thoughtful dialogue, and enduring collaboration among universities, religious communities, and civic institutions.
As the organization grows, we remain guided by the same conviction on which Abraham’s Bridge was founded: meaningful understanding is cultivated through trust, shared learning, and relationships sustained over time.
The people behind Abraham’s Bridge
Kurt Richardson
Founder, President
Kurt founded Abraham’s Bridge after decades of scholarship, teaching, and relationship-building across the Middle East. His work has focused on creating enduring partnerships among universities, religious communities, and civic institutions committed to shared learning across traditions.
Erik Richardson
Vice President
Erik supports the organization’s strategy, communications, and institutional partnerships. His work focuses on building sustainable systems that enable long-term collaboration among universities, religious communities, and civic organizations committed to deeper understanding across traditions.
Board of Directors
Abraham’s Bridge is guided by a Board of Directors whose members provide governance, strategic oversight, and stewardship of the organization’s mission. Drawing on experience from academic, religious, nonprofit, and professional communities, the Board helps ensure that Abraham’s Bridge remains faithful to its purpose while supporting its long-term growth.
Looking Forward
Abraham’s Bridge exists to cultivate relationships that endure. Every partnership, educational exchange, and conversation grows from that commitment.
As our work continues, we are expanding opportunities for students, scholars, religious communities, and civic institutions to learn together, travel together, and build the trust that makes lasting collaboration possible.
We invite you to explore the work already underway and discover how these relationships are taking shape across the Middle East and beyond.