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Building Bridges
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Remembering September 11, 2010: Responding to Islamophobia
Remarks of Dr. Enid Bloch
Organized by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (WNY Chapter), held at Masjid An-Noor Mosque, 9/11/2010. Co-sponsored by the Islamic Society of Niagara Frontier, North Presbyterian Church, the Network of Religious Communities, and Westminster Presbyterian Church, for the purpose of “Showing Solidarity with our Muslim Neighbors.”
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I am a member of Congregation Havurah, but I am speaking today just as an individual Jewish person.
No one knows better what it is like to be the victims of prejudice than Jewish people.
We know about the burning of books.
We know about the burning of synagogues, and of the Torah.
We know about the burning of people.
So many, many people, both Jewish and not Jewish.
I myself was born in 1941, the year the Holocaust began. One of my earliest memories is that of my father showing us where we would hide if the Nazis came. We were safe in America, but my father thought the threat was very real, so I did too.
Another early memory was formed in the local movie theater. Those were the days before television, and we watched newsreels in the theater to learn what was happening in the world. In 1945, when I was four years old, the concentration camps were opened up.
I will never forget the films of piles upon piles of naked, starved bodies, thousands of bodies. German people living nearby were forced to come into the camps to see what they had ignored, the horrors taking place right at their own doorsteps.
And I remember holding up my little fists, clenching them in the darkness of the theater, and swearing to myself that I would never become the kind of person who could allow such things to happen.
I resolved I would never stand silently by, as had those Germans, but would always speak out in the face of prejudice, bigotry, and injustice toward any human beings.
I have tried to keep that promise.
I am not alone. There are many other Jewish people who have made similar promises to themselves.
To our friends and neighbors in the Muslim community, I want to say that we stand with you, today and every day, as we join in affirming the dignity and beauty of all human beings. |
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| Islam for Jews
from JPS | from Amazon | in Arabic
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The Empty Chair / The Still Empty Chair - honoring the memories of Cantor Susan Wehle and the others who died in Flight 3407
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"The place you are called to is where
your deep gladness meets the world's great hunger." - Frederick Buechner
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can... Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can..." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
"In a controversy, the instant we feel anger,
we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves." - Abraham Joshua Heschel
"An enemy is one whose story we have not heard." - Gene Knudsen-Hoffman
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." - Albert Einstein
"A group of monks once asked their Zen master how it was that he was always able to feel compassion for other people.
His response: What 'other' people?" -
Buddhist koan
NEW "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi
 - cropped.jpg)
by Kalysha Rourke - 3rd Grader, Charles E. Riley Elementary, Oswego, NY 13126
(with permission from her mother Nicole)
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Building Bridges in WNY is pleased to partner with JData.com, a resource for strengthening the Jewish education system. |
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Three Faiths Exhibit
Link to Changemakers
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