By Miriam Itzkowitz

On Wednesday March 15, a group of Year 9 students went to the Sydney Jewish Museum to meet with students of other religions and cultures as part of the Respect, Understanding and Harmony program, part of the Jewish Board of Deputies’ programs. While getting there was somewhat of a hassle (we witnessed a bus and car crash), the museum welcomed us with open arms and we were then able to “mix and mingle”, as Ms Rosin put it.

We were quite shy and awkward at first, but when we started conversations with the other students, we didn’t feel so withdrawn.

The program director, Suzanne Green, organised many insightful and enlightening activities. The first one we did was small talk in pairs and then in a group. I spoke with a girl called Layla who is half Christian and half Muslim. I was very quiet before we started talking, but after we spoke for a bit, we discovered we were very similar. We both love the same books and have very similar interests, such as equality for all. We then had to speak in larger groups where we discussed our favourite things (TV shows, apps, subjects). It was really fun because we all pretty much loved and obsessed over the exact same things.

After that we had presentations from all the schools. We learnt about Catholicism, Church of England, Islam, Multiculturalism and the other schools learnt about Judaism from us.

At lunch we all congregated together at the park. We sat together, shared food and discussed religion and lots of other things.

When we arrived back to the museum we watched some videos on racism. After we watched those videos we went back into our previous groups and discussed what we saw and how we can create change in the world. We did have to touch on some sensitive subjects such as people stereotyping Muslims as terrorists, which was awkward, however, the Muslim girls in the group agreed and explained their insecurities about wearing a hijab or headscarf. We created a mind-map and wrote down multiple ways to stop racism. We also wrote down all of our names to unify us.

Ms Rosin asked us to do a rendition of Hi Ne Ma Tov, so we performed the Kabbalat Shabbat version. We were all laughing and enjoying ourselves and the whole room got into it and were clapping along.

At the end, we heard the CEO of the Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff. He told us about Rosa Parks and how she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the US in the 1950s. He compared it to something that happened 60 years later to a Malaysian man in Sydney. This was definitely strange to hear because we generally don’t see a lot of discrimination in Australia, but we know it exists. Mr Alhadeff reminded us of the Jewish school bus attack that happened a few years ago. I found this to be very confronting having known many people who were on those buses. Mr Alhadeff told us one more story about a boy named Shai. Shai was mentally challenged and one day he asked to join a baseball game and the teams were kind and compassionate enough to let him play and let him win for his team. Unfortunately, three months later, Shai passed away, but his father was extremely grateful to those who had been considerate and caring to Shai. I found this very heartwarming and bittersweet, because although a young boy died, people still accepted him, which is so important to do in today’s society. Finally Mr Alhadeff explained to us that we are all different, but at the end of the day we are all human, so we should be tolerant of everyone and stand up for the wrong doing in this world and help whoever we can.

Just before we left, St Andrew’s Cathedral School ended the day with a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace.

All in all, I really enjoyed Interfaith and found it to be extremely insightful. I learnt a lot about other cultures and religions and it was great coming into contact with people from other religious backgrounds. It also made me think that we should be mingling with other people instead of staying squashed in our tiny Jewish bubble and being segregated from everyone. I honestly recommend the Interfaith Program to everyone because it is a once in a lifetime experience that you will never forget.

By Cade Collins

On 15 March 17 students from Year 9 went on an excursion to the Sydney Jewish museum to participate in the Year 9 interfaith program, Respect, Understanding and Harmony, a project in which students from all different cultures, backgrounds and religions bond over similarities and discuss differences. This year there were 6 schools participating, with a range of different religions, mainly Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The day started off with all of us being scattered across the room, so that no one was sitting next to someone they already knew. Whilst sitting like this, we were asked to answers some basic questions on the board and discuss them with the person sitting next to us. The questions were based around religion and hobbies, such as, ‘What religion are you and your personal opinions on that religion’ and ‘what is something you believe very strongly’. These questions opened up some very important discussions between the pairs.

We then got into groups, two people from each of the 6 schools attending, and discussed our life outside of school. From there each school gave a religious presentation to the rest of the schools, in which we discussed our religion and how our school incorporates those religions into daily life. It led to extremely interesting discussions about acceptance and beliefs, from which we moved into lunch.

 At lunch, we weren’t only allowed to stay within our Jewish bubble and only talk to the people we knew, we had to venture into the unknown world of different religions and sit in a group with at least one other religion. During this some of the Muslim students also shared some magnificent food that they brought with them that were special to them. These included food from the Middle East, South Asia and China.

After lunch we discussed the touchy subject of racism. We discussed how we have experienced it and what we could do to stop it. We then presented how we could possibly stop racism. The Emanuel Group then sang Hi Ne Ma Tov to everybody and spoke about how the song inspires peace and unity.

The day had many activities, all designed to inspire us to work towards combating racism. We were able to meet new friends and to spend the day thinking about some of the most important issues of our time.