The Interfaith Center of New York would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and warm wishes to two extraordinary people who have made a tremendous contribution to Interfaith work over the past year. In the summer of 2011, ICNY was fortunate to meet Hannah Shirey (pictured, left) and Nomi Teutsch (pictured, right), who had just begun their Faiths Act Fellowships with The Tony Blair Faith Foundation at UNITED SIKHS.
Over the course of the year, Hannah and Nomi worked to mobilize a diverse set of New York City faith communities to take inspired action on the Millennium Development Goals. ICNY worked together with Hannah and Nomi on many projects, and came to recognize both these young women as intelligent, articulate, and passionate individuals who are concerned about the welfare of people throughout the world.
Since September 2011, Hannah and Nomi took on a variety of creative interfaith campaigns and events, including:
- The Spring of Solidarity, a season of multi-faith action that brought together 10 diverse NYC congregations.
- Interfaith Diwan at the Manhattan Sikh Association (in collaboration with ICNY, as part of Prepare New York), an opportunity for people of all faiths to learn about Sikhism by experiencing Sikh worship and practice.
- Interfaith Women’s Social Justice Book Group, a group of 9 women from 5 faiths who have been reading about and discussing social justice issues since January of this year.
- Debate in the Neighborhood (in collaboration with ICNY and IDEA).
They were also involved in:
- Occupy Faith
- Prepare NY
- The UN Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief
- Connect Faith
- and supporting interfaith initiatives around the city
Accomplishments:
- 2,000 people mobilized
- 1,800 hours spent in multi-faith action
- Raised almost $10,000 for sustainable anti-malaria and anti-famine projects in Sierra Leone and Kenya, respectively while building relationships across communities.
Hannah is committed to interfaith action as a meaningful method of social change. She plans to continue working in New York City at the intersection of advocacy, minority religious rights and coalition-building. Hannah graduated Magna Cum Laude from Colgate University in 2011 with a BA in Anthropology and Middle East and Islamic Civilization Studies. Her email address is shirey.hannah@gmail.com.
In the fall Nomi will be exploring the intersection of interfaith work and women’s empowerment in Israel/Palestine as a fellow of the New Israel Fund. She is inspired by her Jewish tradition to be a peace-builder and work to repair the brokenness of our world. Nomi graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University in 2011 with High Honors in Philosophy. Her email address is nomict@gmail.com.
Now that Hannah and Nomi’s fellowships are drawing to a close (on June 29), we at ICNY would like to publicly acknowledge their wonderful accomplishments, and to personally thank them for their kind and caring friendships. We keep faith that our paths will continue to cross, and we look forward to watching your brilliant futures unfold!
