Café Finjan: “It’s Not About Being Jewish or Muslim, It’s About Being Human”

By Kayla Higgins
JMCBI Fellow, JCUA

On the evening of Thursday, March 17, nearly 150 Jews and Muslims gathered at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for Cafe Finjan, an evening of performances by Jewish and Muslim artists hosted annually by the Jewish-Muslim Community Building Initiative.

The theme of Café Finjan 2011 was “Chicago Crossroads,” with performances that focused on the themes of Chicago diversity and social justice.

There were two hours of performances with a short discussion break for small groups of audience members to discuss the question, “When have you been at a crossroads, and what path did you take?”

The evening included a diverse repertoire of art: singing, poetry, storytelling, photography and more. One of the highlights of the night was an interfaith conga line formed during an upbeat musical performance by Sirina Issah, a Muslim refugee from Ghana. By the end of her song, almost the entire room was on their feet and dancing.

Sirina Issah performing at Café Finjan 2011

One of the emcees of the evening, Rochelle Rickoff, who also did a joint storytelling performance alongside a Muslim coworker, said, “The similarities in our writing were astonishing and Café Finjan provided the platform that pushed us to discover our shared interest in creative writing.”

Tom Bornstein, a new member and participant of Cafe Finjan and JMCBI said, “It is both thrilling and motivating to experience the Messianic goal of friendship-building between these two ancient civilizations that can occur in the USA!”

As a testimony to the uniqueness of this type of event, another audience member at Café Finjan remarked, “As I was live-tweeting at Café Finjan, a friend of mine from London in the UK responded to me saying, “I wish we had something like that here!”

And one inspiring comment from the student host from UIC’s MSA was, “It’s not about being Jewish or Muslim, it’s about being human, and if this event enticed just a single heart towards peace than it was well worth it!”

For information on other JMCBI events visit www.jmcbi.org.

“Condemning Silence, Not People”: Police Torture and the Added Value of Human Rights

By Michaela Purdue
Director of Community Programs, Human Rights Coordinator, JCUA

The conviction of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was a bittersweet affair for many Chicago activists.

The solace Burge’s torture victims, and their many supporters and allies, felt when the former police commander was convicted in June 2010, was lessened by Burge’s conviction not being for acts of torture, but for perjury and obstruction of justice he committed when he was deposed on the issue in 2003, and by the fact that the Illinois statute of limitations on torture, which lasts three years, expired before Burge was convicted.

Grassroots and advocacy groups like Black People against Police Torture and the Illinois Coalition Against Torture are committed to working with legislators to address extending the duration of the statute, and to putting to an end human rights violations in Chicago, in the state and elsewhere.

On Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010, from 6-9 p.m. at Grace Place on 637 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, in honor of International Human Rights Day, activists from those groups and from across Chicago will come together to speak out about police torture and the impact human rights principles can have in ensuring the respect and dignity of every Chicago resident.

The event, “Condemning Silence, Not People,” will be a night of spoken word featuring locally and nationally renowned artists C.C. Carter, Kevin Coval and Roger Bonair-Agard.