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Mostly Cloudy Interfaith service held to combat hate, antisemitism
In anticipation of Holocaust Remembrance Day, religious leaders, politicians and residents gathered at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sea Cliff on Sunday to promote a dialogue of diversity and combat the rise of anti-Semitism that is spreading through Nassau County, New York and the rest of the country.
According to a 2022 report by the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents, which includes defamation and destruction of private property as well as physical assaults, jumped by roughly 23 percent in 2021. In that same year Nassau County alone saw 32 reported incidents of anti-Semitism.
Roughly 30 congregants from both St. Luke’s and Congregation Tifereth Israel in Glen Cove gathered to pay tribute to the millions of lives lost in the horrors of the Holocaust. Leading them in prayer were Reverend Jesse Lebus of St. Luke’s and Rabbi Irwin Huberman of Tifereth Israel.
Huberman explained that he and Lebus came up with the idea over lunch, which they do together once every month. Huberman said that they believed a shared service would be a good way to help break down the barriers between people practicing their different faiths, as well as help combat the hate and racism that is seemingly endemic in the United States.
“We thought that it would be an important gesture if the observance of Holocaust Memorial Day was not just limited to the Jewish tragedy,” Huberman said, “but that it can be expanded as a learning tool in modern times, to reflect Sea Cliff’s collective opposition to hatred and prejudice.”
Huberman emphasized that while the Holocaust claimed the lives of approximately 6 million Jewish people, a further 10 million people with mental disabilities, of Slavic and Romani descent and members of the LGBTQ+ community were also brutally killed by the Nazis. He added that it was important to acknowledge that bigotry and racism is never limited to one minority group, but is frequently used with “other” people of many different backgrounds who are just trying to live peaceful and happy lives.
He also led the congregation in the singing of a song entitled “Yitgadal Veyitkadash,” which tells the stories of Holocaust survivors and their children. Huberman explained that the song tells the stories of some of those who lost their lives in the Shoah, the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, while the chorus is a recitation of a traditional Hebrew mourning prayer.
Also in attendance were New York State Assemblyman Charles Lavine and Nassau County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, who addressed the gathered crowd on the importance of combating hatred with kindness and protecting the rights of one’s neighbor.
DeRiggi-Whitton, who is Catholic, spoke the next day about how she had grown up with many Jewish people in her community and how proximity and openness with others was an important aspect of breaking down the walls of hatred used to divide people. She made comparisons between the United States’ current situation and pre-Nazi Germany when economic hardship and global issues enabled Nazism to spread, adding that hatred is “a phenomenon that can grow if we’re not careful.”
“Although we’re different in many ways, we’re also more alike than different, probably even as far as religion goes,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “Caring about our families and our communities is such an important part of all religions.”
Lavine, who is Jewish, attributed the increase in anti-Semitism to the actions and words of former President Donald Trump, who he accused of enabling hatred through his vitriolic language and leading many who harbored racist and bigoted views to feel justified in expressing them. Lavine said he blamed Trump for spending his presidency dividing Americans, when the country’s strength comes from its diversity and inclusiveness.
“We as Americans are composed of every distinct ethnic, nationalistic, religious and non-religious threads imaginable,” Lavine said. “It is the combination of all those threads that makes us an incredibly powerful nation.”
Huberman said that many of the attendees had approached him and said they hoped he and Lebus would hold another similar interfaith event soon, and that they were planning to do so. He said that their goal was to “build on the momentum and continue to expand on these ideas.”
