Temple Israel in Lawrence and First Presbyterian Church in Far Far Rockaway mark 100th interfaith Thanksgiving service

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There was singing, preaching and eating as roughly 60 members of Tempe Israel of Lawrence and the First Presbyterian Church of Far Rockaway joined together in the 100th annual Thanksgiving interfaith Service at the reform synagogue eight days before that most American of holidays.

Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum noted that it’s the longest continuous interfaith service in the nation between a Jewish temple and a church. It began as a way to unite Americans of all faiths on the first Thanksgiving after World War I and now serves as a bridge between one sect of Judaism in the Five Towns and their Christian brothers and sisters on the Rockaway Peninsula.

The First Presbyterian Church of Far Rockaway, formerly known as the Russell Sage Memorial Church, is a historic Presbyterian church located in Far Rockaway built in 1908. Temple Israel began as a congregation in Far Rockaway, also in 1908, and moved to Lawrence in 1931.


Before the service began, Rosenbaum noted such an event is important and “even more so this year at this time,” as the FBI announced on Nov. 13 that nationwide hate crimes in 2017 increased 17 percent. Numbers did show that for the fifth consecutive year similar incidents declined on Long Island.

“This is what happens when we revert to nativism and see the other just not as a competitor, but as an enemy,” said Rosenbaum, who had just returned from a trip to Berlin to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht — Nov. 8 to 9, 1938 — which is considered the beginning of the Holocaust.

To help ensure that hate does not thrive, Rosenbaum said it “begins in the home and the values that are learned in the home.” He added that children today live in a virtual world and must be reminded that there is a real world, to guard against attacks on people and facts. “Henry Ford said history is bunk,” Rosenbaum said with an eye to protecting the past, present and future.

Rev. Aqeelah Ligonde, who has been at First Presbyterian for the past nine months, believes that taking part in the interfaith service is a way to learn about different people. “I think it is important for us to look beyond ourselves,” she said not long before she took spoke to the congregants.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. in 2012, she was comforting a child from her then church who was struggling with why God allowed this to happen. “I don’t know, but I do know that there is good in the word,” Ligonde said she told the then 9-year-old. Later she told the people of both faiths: “Love allows us to let go of our hate.”

Lawrence Brown, who is originally from England, is a 10-year member of the church. It was his third time attending the interfaith service. “Where I grew up there were not many Jews,” he said, “so to be here is pretty interesting. You speak to people and you find out you have a common bond.”

Former Temple President James Rotenberg, a member since 1973, echoed Rosenbaum’s thought on avoiding nativsim — protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants — by trying to shun tribalism —the behavior and attitudes that stem from strong loyalty to one’s social group.

“Finding peace and prosperity is important for all,” Rotenberg said. “The world is a mosaic and if we can see that and come together, then we can see the big picture.”