Antisemitism and Islamophobia were the focus of the panel discussion yesterday November 12, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester. The panel tackled each topic in its specific historic context, avoiding simplifications or reductionism and demonstrating that there are people in Jewish and Muslim communities who condemn violence. The panelists, Dr. Afridi, Dr. Shafiq, and Rabbi Katz drew on scholarly publications and on personal and professional experiences.
Each panelist offered a coherent perspective and each spoke with honesty, resolution, and enormous empathy for suffering; they all spoke of pain and tragedy inflicted on victims of senseless bigoted hatred. They spoke with great respect, and with what we call in Hebrew k’vod ha’adam, human dignity, invoking God creating humans in God’s image, in the Book of Genesis. Each spoke with clarity and courage about their respective communities and spoke across faith traditions with appreciation and affection. That great respect that the speakers have demonstrated resonated in the room and gave hope to the audience.