Members of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis will offer a full menu of Jewish study opportunities at the inaugural “Sweet Tastes of Torah: A Community Night of Learning,” Feb. 6 at Temple Emeth, 1666 Windsor Road in Teaneck. Music and munchies also are on the bill.

“At a recent meeting, we were discussing the state of adult education in the community,” said NJBR President Rabbi Randall Mark of Wayne. Recently, regional learning initiatives including the Jewish Learning Project at the YJCC in Washington Township lost their funding.

“We thought we should do something broadly based,” said Mark. “Being a collection of pulpit rabbis, and having human — but not financial — resources, we thought of a one-night event to make use of those resources.”

Responding enthusiastically to a committee headed by Rabbi Benjamin Shull of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley, nearly 30 of the organization’s members and their congregations signed on.

Mark, who leads Shomrei Torah, the Wayne Conservative Congregation, is to lecture on divisions within Judaism, challenging participants to judge whether internal discord is a source of strength or weakness. Shull will lead a session entitled “Is Barbie Jewish?” a look at beauty and American Jewish identity in the 21st century based on the short award-winning documentary “The Tribe.”

The Reform and Conservative pulpit rabbis who largely comprise the NJBR talked up the [event] and created a buzz, said Mark, who expected many preregistrants before the Feb. 1 deadline. Advance registration costs $10; admission at the door will be $18. Sweet Tastes of Torah even has a Facebook and Twitter presence.

“We have more than 25 classes being taught by members of the NJBR, and topics range from the serious to the not-so-serious,” said Nickie Falk, project coordinator. “This will give congregants from various synagogues the opportunity to learn from rabbis other than their own.”

A concurrent session is planned for elementary school-aged children, who will be admitted free of charge. “That will help us reach a broader segment of the community,” said Shull. “It was important to us that this event would have a cultural and social aspect as well.”

The planning committee included the members of Shull’s own weekly study group: Rabbi David Bockman, formerly rabbi of the Bergenfield Jewish Center; Rabbi Leanna Moritt of Tenafly, who runs an outreach project for intermarried couples; and Rabbi Gerald Friedman of Temple Beth Sholom in Park Ridge.

“It is important for us to convey to the community that we’re excited about this one-time event,” he said, “but our hope is to inspire study throughout the year.” Based on evaluations of the upcoming program, the committee hopes to offer ongoing initiatives.

Registration begins at 6:15 p.m. Sessions are to commence following havdalah at 6:50. Desserts afterward are to be provided by Kosher.com, a co-sponsor of the event along with the UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey. The evening will conclude with a performance by Migdal Oz, a Jewish funk, rock, jazz, and rhythm-and-blues band.

To view the full program and register, click “Sweet Tastes of Torah” at the UJA-NNJ site, www.ujannj.org. The rain date is Feb. 20.

During one of his High Holiday sermons this past year, Rabbi Ben Shull invited members of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley to help the congregation learn more about Islam.

“I started talking about the [proposed] mosque and culture center at the tip of Manhattan and my observations about it,” said the religious leader of the Woodcliff Lake synagogue. “I said I would be appreciative if members of the congregation could assist me in forming a committee to help explore the intricacies of this issue.”

The committee, he said, would look at Islam in the world today — not only abroad but in the local area as well. Eight people volunteered.

Rabbi André Ungar, left, Rabbi Ned Soltz, and Rabbi Ben Shull

Would-be committee members were “fairly passionate” on all sides, said Shull, noting that some believe that Muslims constitute a threat, while others see Muslims as a mistreated minority. The committee met several times before deciding “what and who” to put before the congregation, he said. The resulting program — A Shabbat to Consider What Every Jew Should Know About Islam — will take place on May 13 and 14 and will feature presentations by Rabbis Ned Soltz and André Ungar.

“Having both rabbis was OK with both sides,” said Shull, referring to the divide between those who “are more skeptical and those more willing to dialogue. We discussed the possibility of bringing in a Muslim speaker to dialogue with us,” he said, but it was not clear who should be invited.

“I had hoped we would bring this to the fore more with the rabbinic community,” said Shull, indicating that questions such as who to speak with and what to say should be tackled communally. “Given the large and growing Muslim population here, it’s something we should be doing. We have yet to tackle it as an organized rabbinic community.”

Some groups that have reached out to Muslim speakers “feel a bit burned,” he said, noting that some of those Muslims who have been invited “had questionable ties.” For example, said the rabbi, when he held a pulpit in Florida, the founder of an Islamic think tank at the University of South Florida was later found to be raising money for Islamic Jihad.

“We’re not dealing effectively with this,” he said, “but maybe there’s no easy answer.”

Shull said Soltz — a Reform rabbi who lives in Teaneck and is part-time religious leader of a New York Reconstructionist synagogue — has spoken twice on the subject at the North Jersey Board of Rabbi’s “Sweet Taste of Torah” program. The rabbi has been asked to discuss the tenets of Islam, how it developed, and “its basic faith fundamentals.” Ungar, rabbi emeritus of the Woodcliff Lake synagogue, is charged with comparing and contrasting Islam and Judaism.

“I’ve always been interested in Christianity and Islam and in the relationships of [those religions] to Judaism,” said Soltz. After the Sep. 11 attacks, he added, he intensified his study of these subjects, developing a presentation on the issue.

“I began my own process of study and understanding,” he said. Using as his sources the Koran and Hadith (a compilation of Muslim texts) as well as late rabbinical and responsa literature, he will explore Islamic views of Judaism and Jewish views of Islam.

Soltz said he will explore what Jews were able to achieve, and not able to achieve, under Islam, “letting texts and historical interpretations speak for themselves.”

“I’ll mention the status of Jews as dhimmis,” non-Muslims living in Islamic countries, he said, but he will also raise the question of whether Jews fared better under Islam than Christianity. In addition, he will explore the rabbinic conclusion that Muslims are not idolators, looking at the halachic implications of that decision.

Calling Islam “one of the daughter religions of Judaism,” Ungar pointed out that there are many similarities between the two religions.

“The monotheism is almost identical,” he said, as is a commitment to ethical values. In addition, “many of Islam’s ritual traditions are patterned on our own,” he said. “The great difference is the fact that we are a religion focused on one people, and while we want to set an example for the world in ethical and spiritual values, we don’t want to convert it.”

Islam, on the other hand, “is meant to be universal, and the theological hope is to make the world Muslim, as it was supposedly meant to be.” Also, he said, while conversion should ideally take place through persuasion, if need be, Muslims believe it can be done by military force.

“There’s also the question of determinism, a strong element in Islamic philosophy,” he said, citing the belief that everything that happens is the will of God. “Human freedom plays a minor role, while we are committed to human choice.”

Ungar said that “with the political events happening today, knowing the ‘other’ is very necessary.”

The program is free and open to all interested members of the community. For more information, call the temple office at (201) 391- 0801 or visit www.tepv.org.