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\nNew York – Free Yemen Eye<\/p>\n
Faith Leaders, Educators and Local Elected Officials Unite for World Interfaith<\/p>\n
Harmony Week Commemoration in Long Island<\/p>\n
The bitter cold weather was no match for local leaders and youth with hearts burning to<\/p>\n
advance peace and unity.<\/p>\n
More than 100 people gathered on February 7 at the Plainview Jewish Center in Long Island.<\/p>\n
Participants commemorated World Interfaith Harmony Week, designated by the United<\/p>\n
Nations General Assembly as an observance celebrated each year during the first week of<\/p>\n
February.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s event, hosted by the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center, brought together faith<\/p>\n
leaders, educators, and public figures to promote interfaith harmony. Co-hosts included<\/p>\n
the Shanti Fund and Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), an<\/p>\n
international peace group in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social<\/p>\n
Council and the UN Department of Global Communications.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The event began with opening remarks from the host and co-hosts and statements from<\/p>\n
local elected officials, including New York State Senator Steven Rhoads and Supervisor<\/p>\n
Joseph Saladino from the Town of Oyster Bay.<\/p>\n
“HWPL does such amazing work and its mission is something that we should all try to take<\/p>\n
to heart, because to me, interfaith harmony is really the only solution that will solve many<\/p>\n
of the problems that we have,” Senator Rhoads said. “The world will divide us in a million<\/p>\n
different ways if we allow it, but the one common theme that we have, the one thing that<\/p>\n
unites us all, is our common belief in something greater than ourselves, and that’s exactly<\/p>\n
what HWPL is focusing on.”<\/p>\n
The gathering was divided into several different segments. Following welcoming remarks, a<\/p>\n
Hindu leader addressed the issue of religious persecution and provided practical steps for<\/p>\n
the community to take to protect the right to religious freedom. All participants stood for a<\/p>\n
moment of silence and prayer for victims of persecution and violent extremism.<\/p>\n
Jewish, Muslim and Sikh community leaders spoke about the significance of interreligious<\/p>\n
harmony and peace from the perspective of their own religious traditions and scriptures.<\/p>\n
Two educators emphasized the importance of teaching the youth core values, including<\/p>\n
empathy, unity and understanding, to create young ambassadors for peace.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our schools, we engage in many activities and programs such as \u2018No Place for Hate,\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Unity Day,\u2019 and \u2018Start with Hello.\u2019 We also have embedded a civics rubric in all of our social<\/p>\n
studies classes so students have a measurement by which they can judge themselves,\u201d<\/p>\n
said Dr. Mary O\u2019Meara, superintendent of schools for the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central<\/p>\n
Schools District.\u201cWe have created shared learning experiences for our school community through<\/p>\n
workshops on inclusivity, conducting equity walks, hosting community forums and<\/p>\n
attending events like today\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
The youth themselves played a key role in the program by participating in several cultural<\/p>\n
performances. Young people from the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center danced and sang<\/p>\n
traditional hymns. A fan dance team named after South Korea\u2019s national flower also graced<\/p>\n
the stage with a show promoting unity and harmony.<\/p>\n
The event was a significant one for HWPL, which received a certificate of recognition from<\/p>\n
New York State Assemblywoman Rebecca Kassay for their role in organizing the interfaith<\/p>\n
harmony week event.<\/p>\n
HWPL New York Branch leaders and Mr. Surinder Chawla from the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh<\/p>\n
Center posed for a photo honoring their memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed for<\/p>\n
the implementation of HWPL peace education, which will launch in New York for the first<\/p>\n
time in February with a training to develop peace educators. The leaders of the Guru<\/p>\n
Gobind Singh Sikh Center later gifted the HWPL New York Branch leaders with traditional<\/p>\n
shawls.<\/p>\n
The Plainview Jewish Center was honored to provide their venue for the commemorative<\/p>\n
gathering and looks forward to future programs that can unite diverse members of the<\/p>\n
community.<\/p>\n
“I think in the times we live in, I mean, all we hear is hate and intolerance and conflict,” said<\/p>\n
Plainview Jewish Center President Shea Lerner. “I think any opportunity to get together with<\/p>\n
like-minded people who believe in peace and justice and equity—we have to avail<\/p>\n
ourselves of those opportunities.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York – Free Yemen Eye Faith Leaders, Educators and Local Elected Officials Unite for World Interfaith Harmony Week Commemoration in Long Island The bitter cold weather was no match for local leaders and youth with hearts burning to advance peace and unity. More than 100 people gathered on February 7 at the Plainview …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":139658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diverse-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/139658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fye-yemen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}