Why support The Interfaith Center of New York ?
According to NYPD data, hate crime incidents in the city increased by 64% between 2018 and 2019. Elected leaders and diverse clergy standing together at the Mayor’s press conference yesterday made it clear that the attack on people observing Hanukkah in Monsey, NY is one of five acts of antisemitic violence in and around our city in the last two weeks.
In a climate of vitriol and polarization, one approach to fighting hate is to stand with diverse faith neighbors and make sure bias crimes are prosecuted. This is what we did yesterday at the Mayor’s Press conference and last week and too many times this past year.
Another way, adopted by ICNY, is to strengthen the bonds of trust across faith traditions in NYC to create communities of resilience inoculated to bigotry and violence.
How does ICNY do this?
The Interfaith Civic Leadership Academy gives selected diverse religious leaders with civic engagement, advocacy, and community organizing training. Past ICLA fellows have developed their own community-based projects that impact the city. They include Haitian Creole translation workshops for counselors of domestic violence survivors in the Haitian immigrant community and Know Your Rights training based in Hindu and Buddhist temples for faith leaders of the Nepali and Tibetan communities of Woodside, Queens. The application for a new cohort of ICLA Fellows will be available beginning in January 2020.
Help us continue this transformative work for our communities and city as a whole.
Join Our Mission! The Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY) works to overcome prejudice, violence, and misunderstanding by activating the power of the city’s grassroots religious and civic leaders and their communities. |