Interpersonal Accounts of Jewish and Muslim Friendship
“How they died is a testament to how they lived their lives…”
Cordoba House’s Executive Director, Naz Ahmed Georgas, joined hands with Rabbi Joshua Stanton of Manhattan’s East End Temple and the Anti-Defamation League of NY/NJ in a special event on October 23rd, to stand against hate and discrimination and pay tribute to the 11 Jewish Americans who were violently killed on October 27, 2018 in a horrific act of terror at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
Speakers represented a variety of faiths leaders, individuals from the diplomatic and government agencies, including Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance; and Deputy Counsel General of the Consulate General of Israel New York, Israel Nitazan. CLAL President Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Senior Pasteur for the Park Avenue Church Reverend Kaji Dousa, Associate Rabbi of Lab Shul Emily Cohen and Editor of Muslim Community Report, Sheikh Musa Drammah were also present.
Naz Ahmed Georgas delivered the following address to the assembled guests:
Rabbi Josh Stanton, esteemed guests, and friends,
It is an honor to be present with you here tonight to share this sacred moment. This evening I stand here to grieve – not as a Muslim neighbor who has come to “support the other,” but as a member of the family of East End Temple and as a friend to the Jewish communities of New York and beyond.
I come here every Sunday morning along with my three children and the children of many other Muslim families here in New York to an Islamic School weekend program which I founded years ago. Our school was founded on the Islamic values of compassion, pluralism, and inclusion – and being located here at East End facilitates this mission greatly.
Members of our Cordoba House community also come here for Frida weekly Jumma congregational prayers often joined by the Rabbi and members of the synagogue, for question-and-answer sessions about the topic of the sermon.
It is also here at East End Temple where our Cordoba House teens have gathered week after week in dialogue and friendship with Jewish teens, about common challenges and they face in New York – followed by a teen production facilitated by our respective music directors.
And it is here where I have found a friend in Rabbi Josh and the others in the leadership of East End Temple to dream together and support one another through multiple exchanges to accomplish our shared vision.
So when the Pittsburgh shooting happened, it was a personal tragedy for our community members – not only because we share programmatic space with East End Temple, but also because we have discovered that it is not just us adults who interact with each other but our children also play, study, and interact with one another in common schools on a daily basis.
Rebekah Shore’s (Co-President of East End Temple) daughter Sarah attends not just the same middle school as my son Isa, but was also in the same homeroom in 7th grade. We discovered this when my son Isa was invited to Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah, and Rebekah recognized my name on the invitation and I recognized her on the RSVP.
Another example of a friendship that has made the Pittsburgh tragedy a personal one for me is the one that I share with Miri kubovy. MIri is a Professor of Classics and Jewish Studies at Hunter College and is in the audience among us tonight. Miri does not attend synagogue, but she is here tonight because I do. Miri’s home though is a synagogue in itself. Miri and I know each other because my older son and her grandson have been the best friends since middle school and, even though they are in separate high schools now, the two boys continue to meet regularly. And Rabbi Josh, if you do not find me available to join you here at the temple during Rosh Hoshannah, its because my family and I are at Miri’s home celebrating the holiday with her and her family.
So having narrated the deeply personalized nature of this tragedy, I would like to remind myself as I remind others that tonight is about paying tribute to the 11 souls who lost their lives during the October 27th tragedy at the Tree of Life synagogue. As Rabbi Josh mentioned at the beginning of this evening, there are no words to express the sadness of this tragic incident, however there is a saying in our tradition that gives me comfort. The saying is that a human being is resurrected in the same state in which they die – and those who died in the embrace of communion with God, last year in Pittsburgh was a testament of how they lived their lives.
May God then, for whose sake they lived and died grant them and their families’ peace from His eternal presence in the highest of paradise. Amen.
– Naz Georgas, Executive Director of the Cordoba House.
