Inter-faith
Bushey Synagogue has been prominent in promoting Inter-faith events in the local community for the past five years and during that period Synagogue members have partaken in many meetings with members of the local Anglican, Catholic and Moslem community.
The Bushey Inter-faith Forum is now accepted as the leading organisation of its kind within the United Synagogue and it’s meetings take place at either one of the local Churches or the Synagogue building or the Mosque in Stanmore.
The public meetings tend to take place every summer and different aspects of religious practices are explained and analysed. The meeting before last dealt with the role of women in mainstream religion and Niki Goldman from the Synagogue enthralled an audience who packed St. Peter’s Church Hall with an explanation of how Jewish women see their place in Judaism. The previous year the meeting at the Synagogue included Rabbi Salasnik on the panel debating “milestones in family life” with other local religious leaders.
The last meeting was entitled “Till death us do part” and took place at the Stanmore Mosque in Wood Lane where the topic of marriage was put under the microscope by leading clergy from all the major religions.
An audience in excess of 240 from the Anglican, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu and Moslem faiths packed the Islamic Centre where the Shul’s own chuppa had been erected to illustrate the Jewish marriage tradition. Men and women sat separately and everyone present removed their shoes whilst all the women wore headscarves at the host’s request.
The religious leaders of each faith told the packed audience how they conducted marriages and what significance they represented in their faiths. The Moslems were represented by Imam, Dr. Shomali, who was keen to highlight the many similarities between Islam and Judaism in particular. His comments were well received by the large Jewish contingent at the meeting.
The Christian community was represented by Rev Guy Buckler, the Rector of St. James’ Parish Church in Bushey who sought to explain the rituals of marriage from his perspective.
Rabbi Dr. Julian Shindler, the Director of Marriage Authorisation at the Office of the Chief Rabbi concentrated on the laws of Jewish marriage and how they differed from all other religions. He distributed copies of a Kettubah around the audience and explained the purpose of the traditional Chuppa which was erected within the Mosque
For the first time, the Forum included a Hindu Minister among the speakers and Shri Dasa enthralled the audience with details of some of the hundreds of wedding ceremonies he personally performs each year for the local Hindu community.
Forum chairman, Laurence Brass (who represents Bushey Synagogue on the Board of Deputies) is a firm believer that such events are a superb way of building local bridges between communities. “Friendships are now being forged at all levels between the different faith communities in Bushey and that can only contribute to breaking down the barriers of intolerance and ignorance which feed extremists”.
Rabbi Salasnik is an enthusiastic supporter of the Forum’s work and has not yet missed attending a single meeting. He is pictured here with Professor Bahman Pour, an Islamic Imam, when they both spoke at a Brains Trust at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Bushey.
In addition to the Bushey Inter-faith Forum, the Synagogue is represented on the so-called “Hertsmere Forum of Faiths” which is an organisation headed by Rev Richard Leslie of St Michaels’s Church in Borehamwood. A quarterly meeting is held of all faith leaders in the Borough and both Laurence Brass and Rabbi Salasnik are regular attenders. The aim of the organisation is to ensure that the views of the religious groups in the locality are heard by local political and municipal leaders.
If any Bushey Synagogue member would like to be kept informed of Inter-faith activities they should contact Laurence Brass
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