Friday, September 22, 2017

Greater Boston Interfaith Organization

1700 people attended an interfaith service at Temple Israel on August 18th, in response to the tragic events of Charlottesville, VA, and the night before a controversial rally on Boston Common by alleged White supremacists. At the event, organized by the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, Governor Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh joined Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders to denounce racism and anti-semitism and to call for a shared commitment to peace and justice.

In the program for the event, Boston area religious leaders issued a joint statement on “the horrific events in Charlottesville,” expressing outrage at the “hate-mongers” and imploring our political and religious leaders to “call out this behavior instantly, unequivocally—to decry it with instinctive, full-throated condemnation.”

The service included prayers, songs, and calls to unity, love and strength by Sarah Higginbotham (First Church Cambridge), Elaine Zecher and Cantor Roy Einhorn (Temple Israel), Hajja Ashaki Taha-Cisse and Qari Muhammed Nabil Mustafa (ISBCC), Rev. Mariama White-Hammond (Bethel AME), Shaykh Yasir Fahmy (ISBCC), Rev. Nancy Taylor (Old South Church), Rabbi Or Rose (Center for Global Judaism), Liz Walker (Roxbury Presbytarian Church), Rev. Oscar Pratt (St. Katharine Drexel), and Rabbi Matthew Soffer (Temple Israel Boston).