ICNY’s Ebulletin for June is here.
Message from ICNY Executive Director
Dear Friends,
A week ago Monday as part of our prisoner reentry work, The Interfaith Center of New York and our Circles of Support partners hosted Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a death-row defender who has secured relief for dozens of condemned prisoners. Stevenson spoke before a packed house at St. Philip’s Church in Harlem. Click here for more information about his conversation with a panel of men and women regarding reentering the community in Harlem.
As part of our ongoing advocacy work for religious freedom, ICNY is organizing several letters from religious leaders around the city supporting the Handschu/Raza settlement between the NYPD and Muslim New Yorkers whose rights were violated by spying and undercover work done on mosques and Muslim student groups over the past decade. These letters from ICNY, The Micah Faith Table and others, support the settlement and urge the Judge on the case to make additional strengthening steps.
In addition, on May 12, Muslim Advocates led a coalition of 15 of its allies (including ICNY) to file an amicus brief in support of a New Jersey Muslim community whose proposal to build a mosque was rejected by the Township of Bernards. The Islamic Society of Basking Ridge (ISBR) argues that the Township used one standard for churches, and a different and more stringent standard for the mosque. News coverage by MSNBC is available here. The entire brief is online here.
Continuing the bi-annual tradition of the Rabbi Marshall Meyer Retreat for Social Justice, on July 7th we will be holding a one-day event at the Ganesh Temple in Queens for Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Bahá’í, and Buddhist youth to speak out and share their views about religious diversity and the future of New York. Please share this event with youth directors and youth leaders in your community. The program info is here.
Finally, with our partners at Union Theological Seminary, the Interfaith Center is now preparing for the third meeting of the Religious Worlds of New York summer institute for teachers. On July 11th, we’ll be welcoming 25 teachers from throughout the United States, for a three-week program to foster innovative K-12 teaching about religious diversity. Teachers will be joining us from 12 states and Washington, DC – from down the block in Bay Ridge and Bushwick, and across the country in Santa Rosa, CA, Columbus, OH, Camp Lejeune, NC, and elsewhere. We can’t wait to introduce them to the religious life of New York!
Best Wishes,
Rev. Chloe Breyer
Executive Director
The Interfaith Center of New York
