Posted by John Duff
Last week I attended services at a local synagogue to celebrate the baby-naming ceremony for a friend’s daughter. As part of the service the rabbi gave a sermon on the hot topic of the day: the proposal to build a Muslim community center two blocks from the
The rabbi decried the fact that this issue had become such a political one—with everyone from the mayor to the governor to the President weighing in—and said he felt strongly that this was a religious issue that should be decided by the coming together of representatives of the major religious groups in the city to find the best course of action. (Such a meeting is, I am told, being planned.)
The rabbi’s position is that two very important aspects need to be considered. First, and perhaps most obvious, is the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion that allows any religious group to practice its faith wherever and whenever it chooses. Second, but equally important, is the notion that virtually all religious doctrines espouse the virtue of compassion. And by compassion, the rabbi pointed out, one is obligated to consider the sensitivities of others, be it individuals or ethnic or religious groups. In pointing out these two considerations, he distinguished between what is “correct” (that any group can exercise its freedom of religion according to the law of the land) and what is “right” (that any one group should be sensitive to feelings and beliefs of others in the exercise of its constitutional freedoms).
Since the proposed Muslim center is a two-minute walk from my apartment, I was reminded of the message in Peter Lovenheim’s In the Neighborhood, in which he explored the true meaning of community. His story revolved around a domestic tragedy that very clearly demonstrated how people living in close proximity (even in a well-to-do suburb) can be so unaware of the lives of their neighbors that this disconnect can have dramatic and lamentable consequences. So Peter took it upon himself to get to know his neighbors better and, as a result, came to a deeper understanding of the people around him—and of himself. He developed a much greater appreciation for their circumstances, dispelled some of his own long-held prejudices (and, I dare say, theirs), and developed a compassion for even the most unapproachable of these people.
In the Neighborhood by Peter Lovenheim
































