To see JFREJ's statement on this issue, click here.
Announcing
a silent vigil to support
the children, parents, teachers and administration
of the Kahlil Gibran International Academy.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007,
at the Academy,
345 Dean Street, near 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn.
Gather at 7:30 am for breakfast at the welcome table,
silent witness at 8:00 am.
We welcome all those
who can support the statement
and the guidelines below.
GUIDELINES
1) We are quiet. Little sound, and no amplified sound
2) We have a statement to hand out, but don't otherwise speak to the media - or have one designated speaker only
3) We have one big sign and no other banners from other organizations
5) No angry statements re the mayor, chancellor, UFT pres
6) No talk about intifada, Israel, the occupation et al
THE STATEMENT
We are Brooklynites who stand in silence today to support the opening of the Kahlil Gibran International Academy, its staff, teachers, parents and children. We hope that it will grow and thrive.
We are Brooklynites of different races, many ethnic and national backgrounds, and several religious affiliations who believe that there is room in our public schools system for a school that teaches Arabic language and culture along with math, English and social studies and that it can remain fully public while doing so.
We believe there is a need in our complex world for students of all backgrounds to prepare to live in and lead their communities, states and our country, and that languages such as Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic will be crucial to that preparation. As there are schools and programs that include the teaching of Chinese and Hispanic language and culture, so now there is one that teaches Arabic language and culture.
This is in keeping with the most admirable feature of Brooklyn cultural life: its genuine celebration of diversity that serves as a model for the worldwide human family. It is important that, beginning with our children, we teach and remind each other that we are all sisters and brothers, that we can teach and learn from each other, that each culture and faith tradition has its own integral beauty.
We are saddened that the complex and often violent world in which we live has intruded on the development of this school in a way that has created tensions rather than healing them. Brooklyn has always been a place of many cultures living side by side in relative calm. Sometimes the calm is shattered. We hope in this case it can be healed quickly so that the children for whom the school has been created, and their parents, can go about the business of learning, their and our primary concern.
We are deeply distressed at the way certain media have distorted the story of this school's development and have relentlessly attacked its director to the point of resignation. Because we believe certain media are incapable of reporting on this school fairly, we stand in silence, offering this statement only.
(This statement was drafted by Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, Carol Horwitz and Rev. Tom Martinez, organizers affiliated with Brooklyn’s annual Children of Abraham Peace Walk).
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