Dear Friends and Supporters,
In
honor of The United Nation's International Day of Peace, Project Kesher
would like to share with you the recent activities of just one of our
180+ Jewish women's groups
In
the early morning hours of August 24, a nationalistic group in Ukraine
attempted to burn down a mosque in Simferopol, Ukraine. In
response, Alina Verhofskaya, Project Kesher-Ukraine's regional
coordinator in Crimea, drafted an open letter to the people of Ukraine
condemning that act and all other xenophobic activities. Project
Kesher-Ukraine circulated the letter nationwide gathering several
hundred signatures of prominent community leaders and activists.
PK-Ukraine's letter states: "We
would like to express our deep concern with the religious intolerance
towards the Crimean Muslim community, as well as with the negative
stereotypes, hostile acts, and violence against communities - which are
spreading wider and wider - based on their religious faith, their
ethnicity, or their so-called racial origin.
We
also recognize the strengthening of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in
different regions of the world, as well as the appearance of racist
movements, which are violent and defend racism and discriminatory ideas
towards the Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities. The history of humanity
is full of horrendous tragedies that happened because the principle of
equality between all peoples had been violated, and we are disturbed to
note a rise in the number of such "practices" in different regions of
the world."
On
September 14, representatives from PK-Ukraine, World Union for
Progressive Judaism and the Euro Asian Jewish Congress (of which
PK-Ukraine is a member) delivered the letter to Emerali Ablayev, the
Chief Mufti of Crimea who expressed his deepest appreciation for this
very visible statement of solidarity. At the meeting, the
parties discussed the importance of deepening interfaith dialogue and
designing future opportunities for cooperation to deter hate crimes and
foster an inclusive, diverse society. The Chief Mufti was
interviewed on radio, television and in the press where he hailed
PK-Ukraine for reaching out to the Muslim community and organizing
others to do so too.
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 Save the DateApril 7, 2011Project Kesher's
Annual Benefitat TheTimesCenter in NYC |
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