Date: October 1, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
P. Adem Carroll 646-251-0402 iamourhaj@aol.com
Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub 646-296-4226 syweintraub@gmail.com
Let us not bind them on any altar!
On the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShannah, (this year on September 25-26) Jews worldwide read the story of the Binding of Isaac, which describes the Patriarch Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his beloved son, Isaac, to the Almighty.
On Eid al-Adha, which this year coincides with Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement, on Oct. 4), Muslims worldwide will celebrate the Feast of the Sacrifice, marking the willingness of Ibrahim to offer his beloved son, Ishmael, to Allah.
But in both cases, the punchline is “Don’t harm your child!” –
because God is not a God of death but of life.
So this year, we join in the middle of these holidays to affirm:
No child — Jewish, Muslim, or any other — should face death, destruction, and despair.
Let us heed our shared Creator.
There is only One God and One Humankind.
Signed by Jewish, Muslim, and Other American Organizations, Schools, Community Centers, Houses of Worship, and Leaders:
Imam Shamsi Ali, Spiritual Leader, Jamaica Muslim Center (Queens, NY); President, Nusantara Foundation
Imam Samir al-Raey, Chaplain, Baruch College
Linda Sarsour, Executive Director, Arab American Association of New York
Arab American Family Support Center, Brooklyn, NY
Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies, Lee Sherman, President/CEO
Lisa Attias, Unitarian Universalist Church of Queens
Brotherhood Synagogue, NYC, NY, Rabbi Daniel Alder
Congregation Beth El, Sunbury, PA, Rabbi Nina Mandel
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Rabbis J. Rolando Matalon, Marcelo R. Bronstein, and Felicia L. Sol
Cordoba Initiative
Dawood Mosque, Brooklyn, NY
The Dialogue Project, NYC
Flushing Interfaith Council (Queens, NY)
Naomi Paz Greenberg, Flushing Interfaith Council*
Chaplain Rabia Terri Harris, Scholar in Residence, Community of Living Traditions, Stony Point Conference Center
Hesham El-Meligy, Founder, Islamic Civil Association; Co-founder, Muslims for Liberty
The Interfaith Center of New York
Islamic Center of Long Island, Westbury, NY
Islamic Circle of North America
Stephanie Ives, Director, New Israel Fund NY /TriState
Rabbi Steve Gutow, Jewish Council on Public Affairs
J Street NYC
Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives, Brooklyn, NY, Rabbi Ellen Lippmann
Rabbi Serge Lippe, Brooklyn Heights Synagogue*, Brooklyn, NY
Masjid Omar ben Abdel-Aziz, Imam ‘Abdul ‘Azeem Khan (Jamaica, Queens, NY)
Muslim Community Network
Muslim Progressive Traditionalist Alliance
Imam Muhammad Musri, President, Islamic Society of Central Florida
National Disaster Interfaith Network
Partners for Progressive Israel
Rabbi Jason Klein, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College & Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, Philadelphia, PA, Rabbi Deborah Waxman
Romemu, NYC, Rabbi David Ingber
The Shalom Center, Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Society for the Advancement of Judaism, NYC, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
Temple Beth El, Stamford, CT, Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, LCSW, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services*, NYC
*for identification purposes only
