Breaking Bread Together event brings law students together at first multi-faith gathering

One February day in the middle of a tumultuous winter, a unique event of hope and peace took place at Robson Hall: law students ate lunch together.

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim law students, to be specific. Together. Breaking bread, talking about, how their faith gets them through each day, where to find the best places to study, Professor Irvine’s Property Law class. A Robson Hall classroom was filled with laughter, smiles, the beginning and deepening of friendships, and searches for napkins, cutlery and extra plates.

It was the Dean of Law’s idea, according to three students in leadership roles from each group: Meseret Alem Bowles (3L), Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF); Emily Kalo (1L), Jewish Law Students’ Association (JLSA); and Yomna Eid (2L), Robson Muslim Law Students’ Association (RMLSA).

A Manitoba student chapter of the Canadian national organization Christian Legal Fellowship has existed at Robson Hall for a long time, but for the first time in known memory, a Muslim Law Students’ Association, and a Jewish Law Students’ Association were officially formed last fall – unbeknownst to and independently of each other.

When first Eid and then Kalo independently approached Dr. Richard Jochelson, Dean of Law, about forming their respective group in November and December of 2024, he immediately saw an opportunity for growing community and finding common ground. Here, for the first time in the law school’s history, were the three Abrahamic faiths forming student groups to support others of their respective beliefs. Why not bring them together?

Dr. Richard Jochelson, Dean of Law, welcomes Christian, Jewish and Muslim Law Students’ Association members to an inaugural gathering between the three groups. Photo: Christine Mazur

A Welcoming Space

“When the idea for Breaking Bread Together emerged, it struck me as a powerful opportunity to embody the very best of what legal education can offer—a space to foster connection across difference, grounded in shared values and mutual respect,” said Jochelson. “At its core, the legal profession demands more than knowledge; it requires an ethic of collegiality. We are called to engage with one another through dialogue, empathy, and principled disagreement. This event reflected the kind of professional culture we strive to cultivate at Robson Hall: dialogue, listening, shared purpose and freedom to disagree without making each other invisible.”

“I think that it made a lot of sense for our groups to come together, not only because of the clear historic ties, but also the shared values all of us as law students [have],” said Kalo. “We’re pursuing law degrees because we’re passionate about the justice system or international law, human rights, all of these different value points, but fundamentally we also have our own identity-based values. It’s clear in conversations that the three of us have had but also in terms of our religions that there’s clear community values and identity values that are ties. [This event is] an opportunity to get together and really dive deep into not only our passion for law but also our passion for our communities and our identity.”

When she first came to Robson Hall from Ottawa, Eid said she felt doubly isolated – not just as an out-of-province student, but also what seemed like the only Muslim in her class. Now in her second year, she recalled, “In first year, I only met one other Muslim at Robson – and that was by chance. I saw Humaira Jaleel, our MLSA Visible Minority Rep, speak at an event about her work with Healthy Muslim Families to support the Muslim community, and I remember feeling a quiet sense of relief – like, okay, I’m not the only one here. Everybody at Robson has been incredibly friendly, and I have made great life-long friends, but when religion and spirituality are a big part of your life, you can’t help but miss that deeper connection.”

The CLF has always welcomed students of different faiths, creating a space where religion is valued and embraced at Robson Hall. Eid explained, “Even before our group was formed, the CLF created a welcoming environment for Muslim students to connect with others who were grounded in their faith.”

Last year, Eid didn’t feel it was the right time to start a Muslim student group with so few students, but this year, she was surprised to find there were many Muslim students across all years. “We had the numbers to form a proper group and have an executive team. This year felt like the right time to start it.”

The group now has 12 active members.

When the JLSA was ratified as an official student group, Kalo said they needed to identify priorities in terms of what the group hoped to achieve over each year, and noted that building relationships was number one.

“That was something we spoke extensively to Dean Jochelson about,” she said. “That’s why when the CLF reached out, it was the perfect kind of kick-starter to doing that – the idea that fundamentally, we hoped Robson can be a place for interfaith relationships to really thrive and grow and not just on a superficial level but on a concrete level where conversations can be had and disagreements can even be shared but fundamentally that relationship is maintained.”

With each being in a different year of law school, the three student leaders didn’t know each other before organizing the event they called, “Breaking Bread Together”.

Bowles shared the perspective of the Christian Legal Fellowship on being asked by the Dean to organize a welcoming get-together. “As the host of this initiative, CLF is honoured and privileged to be the peacemaker as we’re directed by our faith. CLF executive members are looking forward to continuing this partnership into the future and continue welcoming students of all faiths. I personally wish to also commend many of the CLF members that have welcomed the Muslim and Jewish students to Robson Hall long before this initiative came into existence. It goes to show the values that CLF holds.”

“Meseret reached out to myself and Emily, sharing that the Dean suggested this event,” said Eid. “We all came together to start planning, and the faculty kindly sponsored the event.”

“Laurelle Harris, the Director of Equity and Transformation, played a key role in supporting our group during our early stages,” said Eid. “When our group first started in November, I met with her to touch base, share the concerns Muslim students were feeling, and explain why this group was so important for the law school community.”

“She mentioned that the Jewish student group had just been created and was surprised that both groups hadn’t existed before,” Eid added. “She said if Emily hadn’t started the Jewish group, she would have suggested it herself — both groups were long overdue at Robson.”

Fostering Conversations

 “The hope is that through fostering this relationship, [we can] create a brave space where, when necessary, we can have these conversations and come at it from a place of mutually trying to understand one another,” said Bowles.

“I think all of us independently and in our communities are having these conversations but I think part of the desire to do something like this was a desire to have those broader conversations to share different perspectives,” said Kalo. “As lawyers, we’re trained to critically think […] and recognize perspectives other than our own but also we’re taught that law is not just […] about the strict law and the word on the paper but it’s also a human practice and there has to be empathy and relational aspects to it. The hope is that as we develop these relationships those conversations can be had, not only more naturally but also more honestly. We’re friends, we’re law students and colleagues and it doesn’t feel like two sides of the aisle coming together – it just feels like law students coming together.”

When thinking about current world events, Eid shared how deeply it affected her and others and recalled not having anyone to talk to about it. “It would just occupy your mind. I remember going to class and hardly being able to focus because of what’s happening in the world. It contributed to that isolation I was mentioning. So having a group rally around you and provide a forum to express those concerns on your mind, while also serving as a platform to communicate students’ needs and aspirations within academic circles, was significant.”

The Dean has been clear about his position of the law school not issuing any particular position on any conflict happening in the world currently between different faiths, and has weathered out a storm of public comment as a result.

The three law students support his position and understand the reason for not making any statements on behalf of the law school regarding taking any sides. “He’s been very honest and quite clear about that position,” said Kalo, “but also that that position is not meant to shut down dialogue and conversation, it’s actually meant to foster it and allow us to talk about these things and not feel like we’re being stifled on either side or in either way by the institution.

“That’s been reiterated to us, obviously acknowledging that there’s lines when it comes to racism or discrimination that won’t be crossed, and that the university does have a hard stance on those things,” she added, “But that in terms of politics, the nature of being in law school is also being able to talk politics and discuss those things.”

Eid agreed that not having difficult conversations with fellow law students would only do a disservice to everyone. “We should have a safe intellectual space to freely express our differing views, civilly and professionally, and it’s okay to agree to disagree,” she said. “Most media portrayals of religious groups focus on the differences among us, but I believe, and this is why I founded the group, that there are more things that connect the three Abrahamic religions than what differentiates us.”

“Beyond the clichés of the usual interfaith dialogue, we don’t intend to focus on specific religious beliefs when we meet,” she continued. “This is more about being law students grounded in religion, connecting that to our profession, and learning how to engage with people of different faiths in our careers while promoting cultural awareness. The richer, more intellectual conversations happen when we recognize the similarities upfront.”

Laurelle Harris, K.C., Director of Equity & Transformation and the Internationally Trained Lawyer Program with Dr. Richard Jochelson, Dean of Law. Photo by Christine Mazur

The students shared that Laurelle Harris had been doing listening circles with law students with the goal of bringing the separate groups of students together as a “Robson Hall” community. “Creating these different safe spaces for independent communities to come and share, but also then creating intersectional opportunities [is] the ultimate vision,” said Kalo. “That’s also the vision that we have when we’re talking about our three groups working together […] having intersectional opportunities to embrace our faiths and communities and cultures. That seems at least to me the direction that Robson is ultimately trying to go in as well.”

At the event itself, about seven JLSA, 12 RMLSA, and 8 CLF members attended. The Dean did a land acknowledgement and said a few words about the importance of supporting each other and promoting acceptance. Then, while waiting for the food to arrive, students from each group were invited to answer each other’s questions about how aspects of their respective faiths influence or motivate their legal studies and how they envision their career paths.

The conversations that were held over the meal are their own private business, but they can safely be speculated to have ranged from how their faith gets them through each day, to finding the best places to study, to Professor Irvine’s Property Law class.

The students plan to make this gathering an annual event. Further, a new faith-based committee is being formed within the Manitoba Law Students’ Association (MLSA), aimed at advocating for faith communities and promoting inclusivity within student life at Robson Hall.

Story submitted by Faculty of Law.