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*
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, Temple Beth El, Stamford, CT*
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, Temple Beth El, Stamford, CT*
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
Andrea Hodos, Sinai and Sunna Project,
Los Angeles
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
Pax
Christi Metro New York
Pax
Christi Queens
Rabbi
Jason Klein, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
& Jewish Reconstructionist Communities, Philadelphia, PA, Rabbi Deborah
Waxman
Romemu, NYC, Rabbi David Ingber
Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Senior Fellow, Clal:
The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership
The
Shalom Center, Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Society for the Advancement of
Judaism, NYC, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, LCSW, Jewish
Board of Family and Children’s Services*, NYC
Haydee Zambrana, CEO, Latin Women in Action, Inc
Haydee Zambrana, CEO, Latin Women in Action, Inc
*for identification purposes only
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