What the Middle East Can Learn From the Bronx About Religious Tolerance – The Atlantic

Whilst perusing the morning digest of Bronx related news, this story made me do a double take. Someone is actually suggesting that the Middle East should look to the Bronx for inspiration on tolerance?

As the Jewish population of the Bronx dwindled to just under 50,000 from a high of over 600,000 when the borough was considered the most Jewish of the 5 counties that makes up New York City, many synagogues have closed and eventually reopened by various Christian sects.

Young Israel Congregation of Parkchester was one of the many that have lost their homes however, the story does have a happy ending thanks to the Muslim community of Parkchester.

Upon further research to locate the original article that the author was referring to, I found it in Tablet, a digital journal on Jewish news, life and culture.

Here’s an excerpt from the moving and inspirational story:

Near the corner of Westchester Avenue and Pugsley Street in Parkchester, just off the elevated tracks of the No. 6 train, Yaakov Wayne Baumann stood outside a graffiti-covered storefront on a chilly Saturday morning. Suited up in a black overcoat with a matching wide-brimmed black fedora, the thickly bearded 42-year-old chatted with elderly congregants as they entered the building for Shabbat service.

The only unusual detail: This synagogue is a mosque.

Or rather, it’s housed inside a mosque. That’s right: Members of the Chabad of East Bronx, an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, worship in the Islamic Cultural Center of North America, which is home to the Al-Iman mosque.

After reading the rest of the story then it dawned on me that I shouldn’t be surprised that the other gentleman would suggest to look at the Bronx to see how it’s done. We are a borough of immigrants and many faiths, often times living in the same neighborhoods. People who back in their countries were taught to fear the different. Here in the Bronx they are exposed to each other and old prejudices begin to peel away like the layers of an onion.

We are far from perfect, that we know, but it’s stories like this that makes me proud to be from the Bronx. If we can overcome such obstacles, there’s no limit to what we can do when we are united.