June 2010

Respecting Diversity Discussed at
Community-Wide Interfaith Symposium

By Stephen E. Lipken

Understanding Differences—Respecting Diversity,” a community-wide interfaith symposium was held at Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El (SSTTE) on Sunday, May 16 creating fresh dialogue on important issues that touch everyone.

“We should look at this event as the beginning of an ongoing process,” stated Stephen Gordon, SSTTE Understanding Differences—Respecting Diversity Co-Chair. “This symposium was inspired by Ellen Plum Rosenberg, SSTTE President, who found loose papers reading ‘Kill the Jews’ scattered throughout the Scarsdale area.

“Not content to merely notify the Scarsdale Police, Rosenberg decided to organize a community wide event featuring a panel discussion and Opportunities Fair as a jumping off point.”

A sparse but attentive audience in SSTTE Sanctuary heard a panel consisting of Heide Mason, Chief Hate Crimes Unit, Westchester District Attorney’s Office; Kenneth Stern, American Jewish Committee (AJC) Director on Anti-Semitism and Extremism and Calvin Scholar, Civil Rights Attorney.

Among those in the audience were Assemblywoman Amy Paulin; SSTTE Rabbi Stephen A. Klein; Assistant Rabbi Andrew Gordon; Cantor Chanin Becker; SSTTE Vice President Ellen Baken; Westchester Jewish Council Executive (WJC) Director Elliot Forchheimer and Stefan Weinberg, Holocaust survivor and Founding Member, Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC).

The Opportunities Fair presented twenty diverse civil rights and social action groups as well Voices of Rwanda and Rwanda Education Assistance Project (REAP), whose Executive Director Edward M. Ballen detailed how REAP helped 2100 pupils from Hameau des Jeunes orphanage and village of Musha attend a new school, integrating traditional Rwandan design with latest technology and alternative energy.

During the panel discussion, Mason recounted the cross burning on Black family Wesley Artope’s lawn in Cortlandt, arising from a school fight between Artope’s son and two white girls.

“One of the perpetrators, Ryan A. Martin walked up to Wesley and apologized at the trial. Martin is doing everything you could ask, including volunteering in soup kitchens.

In contrast, the other offender Christopher Hudak while in jail threatened the President on Facebook and is now on the FBI’s ‘Watch List.’

“We must break the cycle and use the system not as a hammer but education. We should differentiate between organized hate groups such as Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and a drunken kid acting on impulse,” Mason noted.

SSTTE Understanding Differences—Respecting Diversity Co-Chair Scott Baken pointed to “Juvenile Restorative Justice Program,” a planned group course for students involved in non-violent incidents, sponsored by HHREC at Manhattanville College.”

Baken’s daughter Sasha, 16, is following suit by forming an anti-bias student group at Scarsdale High School, “Civility for Change.”

In a private conversation, Boys & Girls Clubs Executive Director Lowes Moore called attention to the fact that “even though they are the same color, Jamaican gangs in Mt. Vernon are fighting African Americans.”
Through the Boys & Girls Club Educating the Scholar-Athlete to prepare them for Excellences and Diversity through Sports program, athlete academic problems are addressed as well as fostering appreciation for diversity.

Concluding the program, Rwanda Tutsi genocide survivor Yvette Rugasaguhunga rendered an emotional account of her ordeal on April 9, 1994 in which she lost her grandmother, father and brother. Using a drum, she inserted songs sounding eerily like Native American chants.

 

 

 

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