Dozens of leaders in Rochester’s faith community are reaching out to take a stand against anti-Semitism.
An open letter to the Rochester community representing more than 60 people from a variety of religions is a call to action following ongoing anti-Semitic violence on New York City and other areas around the country.
A co-author of the letter is Sister Susan Nowak, a Catholic nun who is also a professor of religious studies at Nazareth College.
Nowak is concerned about what she sees as an increase in anti-Semitic and other acts of intolerance across the nation.
“How do we all work together to look at this ideology, look at this attitude, this dehumanizing attitude, this movement toward violence. How do we take what each of our traditions has to say and put it into action,” Nowak said.
Hava Leipzig Holzhauer is executive director for Nazareth’s Konar Center for Tolerance and Jewish studies. She said it’s important for everyone to do a self-evaluation about how they treat other people.
“What are we teaching in the classroom, what are we saying in our sermons, what is the conversation at our dinner table, how are we interacting with people we run into in the grocery store?” Holzhauer asked.
The interfaith authors behind the recent letter calls for an outreach in the Rochester community looking for ideas on how to spread a message of caring and concern.
