On the bima of Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick are participants in the May 17 Interfaith Ride of Discovery, from left, Harriet Golub, B’nai Shalom president; Lee Livingston, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County; Morad Abou Sabe, former president of the Islamic Society of Central Jersey; Gabriela Sadote Sleppin, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Middlesex County; the Rev. Thomas Walsh of St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in East Brunswick; Rabbi Aaron Benson of the East Brunswick Jewish Center; and B’nai Shalom’s Cantor Kenneth Gould.
Photo courtesy Martin Hewitt
One of the buses ridden by the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian participants during the ride, parked outside the Islamic Society of Central Jersey in Monmouth Junction.
Photo by Debra Rubin
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May 26, 2009
In an afternoon devoted to music, discussion, and food, hundreds of Jews, Muslims, and Christians discovered they had more in common than what divided them.
The participants in the May 17 Interfaith Ride of Discovery traveled from Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick to St. Bartholomew Catholic Church in East Brunswick and ended at the Islamic Society of Central Jersey in Monmouth Junction.
Many participants rode together in buses draped with large banners bearing a star of David, a crescent, and a cross.
The event was the result of an initiative proposed last year by Rep. Rush Holt (D-Dist. 12), whose district includes parts of Monmouth, Middlesex, and Mercer counties.
Speaking at the panel discussion at the mosque, Holt said he expected the ride would be a first step in an ongoing process, a sentiment that was echoed by representatives of all three faiths.
“We are the most religiously diverse country in the world,” he said. “What makes this country so great is its nonestablishment of religion.”
This allowed many religions and cultures to flourish, he said.
“During my 10 years representing central Jersey, I have tried to get to know its people,” said Holt, who said he attended a Quaker church. “Despite a high level of integration, there is a high level of intolerance here in New Jersey and around the world. I want to elevate the dialogue and build respect with the idea that we are all together.”
Holt said similar interfaith events will take place in Mercer County on May 31 and Monmouth County on June 14.
The Middlesex ride was jointly sponsored by the religious institutions and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.
Council director Gabriela Sadote Sleppin told the crowd at B’nai Shalom that interacting with Muslim and Christian colleagues as part of the year-long event planning “soon became a surprising, gratifying, and unifying experience.”
“With the three faiths sitting at the table, you can imagine how much learning went on,” she said. “We went from being spectators and participants to partners and, most importantly, to being members of a joint community highlighted by common goals of strong ethics and family values shared by all three faiths.”
The ride began at B’nai Shalom with remarks from Rabbi Robert Wolkoff of Congregation B’nai Tikvah in North Brunswick and Rabbi Aaron Benson of the East Brunswick Jewish Center.
B’nai Shalom’s cantor, Kenneth Gould, performed a program of cantorial music and taught the gathering a song appropriate for the occasion, “Shalom, Salaam.”
“To stand on the bima as I did and look out at Muslims, Jews, and Christians as people of faith and as one people, it was incredible,” said B’nai Shalom president Harriet Golub. “When I heard people singing with Cantor Gould, we were one community. It was food for my soul.”
At St. Bartholomew’s, the Rev. Thomas Walsh spoke before a musical program.
Riaz Siddiqui, chair of the religious committee at the Islamic society, said the day showed “the things that unite us are greater than those that divide us.”
Imam Hamad Ahmad Chebli speaks during a panel discussion at the Islamic Society of Central Jersey; looking on are, from left, Rep. Rush Holt, the Rev. Thomas Walsh of St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, deacon Joe Livingston of St. Bartholomew, and Middlesex federation president Lee Livingston.
Photo by Debra Rubin
Federation president Lee Livingston observed, “We all want the same thing — peace, to be able to earn a living, food. Everything else is commentary.”
Deacon Joe Livingston of St. Bart’s said the journey demonstrated that “we are no longer Christians, Jews, and Muslims, but friends who will work together to solve our common problems.”
Barbara Krutzel of St. Bart’s said she particularly noticed the desire of Jews and Muslims to bridge the rifts caused by the Middle East situation. “It came through at every point of the program that they were really trying to get past that, to try and know each other on a different level as individuals,” she said.
Indeed, Imam Hamad Ahmad Chebli urged Jews and Christians to think of the mosque as their home.
When the call for evening prayers was sounded during the program, he invited everyone to come into the sanctuary to observe. Most took him up on his offer — including several men wearing kipot — all removing their shoes in accordance with Muslim tradition. They watched respectfully as lines of men in front and women behind them fell to their knees in prayer and immediately afterward engaged them in conversation.
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