Leading the Tri-Faith Walk are Janet Haag, left, executive director of Fellowship in Prayer, and the Rev. Robert Moore, center, executive director of Coalition for Peace Action.
Photos by Virginia Luppescu
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June 9, 2009
Carrying a banner decorated with stars of David, crosses, and crescents, nearly 100 Jews, Christians, and Muslims marched together in Trenton during the Tri-Faith Walk on Sunday, May 31.
Cosponsored by the Coalition for Peace Action and Fellowship in Prayer, the 3.7-mile walk was the second of three events inspired by Rep. Rush Holt’s (D-Dist.12) statewide initiative to promote religious understanding and appreciation of diversity.
Perspectives on peace was the theme of the day. Participants met at the first stop, the Masjidut Taqwa Mosque, where Imam Abdul-Malik Ali stated that “Islam is based in peace.” He outlined the Five Pillars of Islam and tried to dispel misconceptions about the religion. “Our biggest challenge,” he said, “is getting people to know who we are rather than what people say we are.”
Rabbi Adam Feldman of The Jewish Center in Princeton and vice-president of the Princeton Clergy Association, said he thought the imam set just the right tone.
“I’m always amazed at the similarities between Islam and Judaism,” he explained, “especially when it comes to charity and prayer.”
Feldman, who was part of the original planning group on interfaith dialogue that led to the events, said that the goal is not only to educate the participants, but to get them to talk to each other between presentations.
The next stop was the New Jersey State Museum, where Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum of String of Pearls Reconstructionist Congregation in Princeton led the group in song and explained the significance of “shalom.”
The rabbi, who was ordained a year ago, said she had taken a course on Islam in rabbinical school and made a promise to her professor to “leap into interfaith work” as soon as she became a rabbi.
During the Tri-Faith Walk stop at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton are, from left, Imam Abdul-Malik Ali, Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, and Deacon Chris Cox.
Kirshbaum said that although she couldn’t make her presentation in a Jewish house of worship — there are no longer any active synagogues in Trenton — any area can be turned into “a sacred space” by two actions. “One is by singing,” she explained, “and the other is by bringing in an object of value, in this case a Torah scroll.”
Feldman fielded questions from the audience, ranging from requests for information on the different types of Judaism to the holidays on which it is appropriate to wish friends a “happy” day. He reassured the group that as long as they don’t wish friends a “Happy Yom Kippur,” it’s okay.
Car horns beeped and passers-by cheered as the group proceeded to the third and final stop, Trinity Cathedral. Liz Lacey-Osler, a Unitarian Universalist from Doylestown, Pa., said she was heartened by the responses of the onlookers. “I love the idea that just by being seen, we are sending a clear message to the community.”
Deacon Chris Cox continued the peace theme by conducting a brief service using passages from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Participants then sat down to a pot-luck dinner. The Rev. Robert Moore, executive director of Coalition for Peace Action, asked the group to sit with “someone you don’t know” in order to continue the exchange of ideas. “We are a part of a miracle this afternoon,” he said. “We have become better people today, not just through our faiths, but by joining together into a community of conscience. By coming together in our diversity, we have learned what it means to be Americans.”
Michele Alperin of Princeton said the interfaith event could serve as a model for dialogue within the Jewish community itself.
“I’ve seen a lot of division within the Jewish community,” she explained. “Maybe listening to different perspectives and then discussing them over a nice meal would be a way to unify us as well.”
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