In response to a wave of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic
attacks on Jewish and Muslim institutions
around the country and in the greater Chicago area, the Social Justice Committee of the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist
Congregation in McHenry has reached out to local synagogues and a mosque offering sympathy,
solidarity, and support.
In a letter addressed to Rabbi Tom
Samuels of the McHenry County Jewish Congregation, Rabbi Craig Wyckoff of Congregation Tikkum Olam, and to the Islamic
Center of McHenry County in Crystal
Lake the Committee wrote:
On behalf of the Tree
of Life Social Justice Committee, we wish to extend our deep concern and
support to your members.
We condemn the
continued attacks and threats to religious community centers, cemeteries,
schools, mosques and synagogues that have escalated since the election of
Donald Trump. We condemn the xenophobic rhetoric used on social media.
We are willing
to lend personal support should your group find itself in need.
The letter was signed by Committee co-chairs Judy Stettner and Janet Burns, Barbara Sedgwick
who initiated the contact and drafted the statement, and by members including Sue Rekenthaler, Andrea
Myers, and Patrick Murfin.
When this Mosque in Victoria Texas was torched recently the members of a tiny local Jewish congregation gave the keys to their building to the Imam and invited worshipers to share their space. |
It was prompted
by the wave of attacks and general
atmosphere of intimidation that has been unleashed across the country including bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers, cemetery desecration, vandalism
to synagogues, arson attacks on
mosques and assaults on individuals believed to be Muslim. In Chicago a North Side Jewish Community Center received bomb threats and the Loop Synagogue was vandalized. Mosques and Islamic groups and institutions
are barraged with threats and harassment.
The letter
reflects the commitment of the Unitarian
Universalist Association nationally to religious
liberty and respect for the
diversity of religious practice. Tree
of Life has had a long tradition of close interfaith relations. In fact both of the Jewish congregations held services in their formative years
in the Congregation’s former Woodstock
home, then known as the Congregational
Unitarian Church. Muslim leaders
have been invited to speak at from
the pulpit. Children
from the Congregation’s Religious
Education Program have visited synagogues and mosques.
The former Diversity Day Festival held annually on the Square in Woodstock for 14 years
which was organized by the Congregation, invited participates of both faiths to
speak and promoted respect for Islam
during the harsh backlash in the post-9/11 era and during the Wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Unitarian Universalists
cite both Judaism and Islam, along
with other world faith traditions,
as spiritual sources from which they
draw inspiration. Windows
celebrating both faiths were installed
in the Woodstock church and will be re-installed
in McHenry.
“We are called
to act now as Unitarian Universalists,” said Co-chair Stettner, “But we are
also called because it is the human and moral thing to do.”
For more
information call the church at 815 322-2464, e-mail office@treefolifeuu.org or visit http://treeoflifeuu.org/ .
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