The Muslim Education Center in Morton Grove
UPDATE [8/13/12] Since this statement was drafted, we have learned of yet another attack on a Muslim institution in Chicago’s suburbs; a home-made bomb was thrown at an Islamic day school during the evening prayers on 8.12.12. See details here, including JCUA’s response.
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August 13, 2012
The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the undersigned community leaders are outraged and saddened by the violent assault on the Muslim Education Center (MEC) mosque in Morton Grove, IL, this past Friday night (August 10, 2012).
This attack on a house of worship is only the most recent in a dangerous string of incidents in the Midwest:
- On August 5, 2012, six people of the Sikh faith were murdered at their temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
- On August 6, 2012, a mosque in Joplin, Missouri, was deliberately set on fire.
In destroying property and taking the lives of innocent people, the crimes of the past week do immeasurable harm to the sanctity of the American values of religious freedom, diversity and equality.
Meanwhile, on August 8, 2012, U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois’ 8th Congressional District warned in a town hall meeting in Elk Grove Village that Islamic radicalism here in the U.S. is the threat Americans should be concerned about, naming Elk Grove Village and other Chicago suburbs as places where he believes that potential threat exists. Such rhetoric can only inflame the bigoted and discriminatory attitudes that motivated the recent attacks.
As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel warned in 1963, “What begins as inequality of some inevitably ends as inequality of all.”
We stand with the Muslim and Sikh communities in condemning these hateful acts, and we are committed to speaking out against bigotry and prejudice of all kinds. Our own Jewish historical experience has taught us the danger of demonizing, and discriminating against, a community. We will not be silent in the face of acts of hatred that threaten our neighbors and undermine the democratic fabric of our society.
Click here to add your signature to this statement.
Signatories:
Rabbi Andrea London
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
Rabbi Peter Knobel
Rabbi Rachel Mikva
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Ellen Dreyfus
Rabbi Isaac Serotta
Rabbi Michael Cohen
Rabbi Paul Cohen
Rabbi Alan Kensky
Rabbi Wendi Geffen
Rabbi Allison Abrams
Rabbi Josh Feigelson
Rabbi Amy Memis Foler
Rabbi Michael Schwab
Rabbi Michael Zedek
Rabbi Victor Mirelmann
Rabbi Bruce Elder
Rabbi Capers Funnye
Rabbi Lawrence Edwards
Rabbi Michael Balinsky
Rabbi Max Weiss
Rabbi Shoshanna Conover
Rabbi Batsheva Appel
Cantor Michael Davis
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Rabbi Herbert Bronstein
Rabbi Lisa Greene
Rabbi David Russo
Cantor Arik Luck
Cantor Alberto Mizrahi
Rabbi Joshua V. Salter
Cantor Vicky Glikin
The Reform Cantors of Chicago
The American Conference of Cantors
Cantor Cheryl Wunch
Cantor Ross Wolman
Rabbi Dr. Shai Har-El
Judy Levey, CEO, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Jane Ramsey, President, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
Sandy Goldberg, Evanston, IL
Rachel Berkowitz, Chicago, IL
Pamela Klier-Weidner, Chicago, IL
Susan E. Fisher, Wilmette, IL
Asaf Bar-Tura, Evanston, IL
Aliza Becker, Chicago, IL
Jay Frank, Niles, IL
Irene Frank, Niles, IL
Russell Swirin, Chicago, IL
Franne Entelis, Chicago, IL
Lynn S Kane, Deerfield IL
Sandra Morgan, Evanston, IL
Bonnie L. Wishne, Chicago, IL
Brian Zakem, Flossmoor, IL
Emily Zucker Burns, Chicago, IL
Daniel R Lapidus, Chicago, IL
Donald McDevitt, Chicago, IL
Adam Shprintzen, Ph.D. Alexandria, VA
Carole Levine, Evanston, IL
Sharna Marcus, Chicago
Yonit Hoffman, Lincolnwood, IL
Dina Elenbogen, IL
Adam Stewart, Chicago, IL
Elysa Barack Fisher, Wilmette, IL
Eugene Wollaston Naperville, IL
Professor Sam Fleischacker, Evanston, IL
Richard Rhodes, Wilmette, IL
Jean Kosiara, Naperville, IL
John Ferrin, Naperville, IL
Ina Winston, Skokie, IL
Michael Simon, Evanston, IL
Professor Claire Sufrin, Evanston, IL
Rachel Roth, Schaumburg, IL
[...] response to the recent violence against the Chicagoland Muslim community (shooting at mosque in Morton Grove and home-made bomb thrown at an Islamic day school in Lombard), JCUA, the Muslim community and our interfaith allies will be holding a vigil to express our [...]