Get Together

From the Bruin: Hillel at UCLA hosted its first interfaith Passover Seder [last] Monday, bringing together students and administrators to build connections across campus. The celebration – jointly hosted by the Interfaith Living Learning Community and Dialogue Across Differences at UCLA – featured readings, Jewish prayers and teaching about Passover traditions. Representatives of local elected officials and university administrators attended the seder, including Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Monroe Gordon Jr. and Dean of Students Jasmine JS Rush...

The seder was also sponsored by the University Religious Conference at UCLA and the Council of Chaplains at UCLA. The event was designed to include reflections from students who were not from Jewish backgrounds, said David Myers, the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History and an organizer of the event. The event featured readings by student leaders taken from the writings of a Catholic priest and about Martin Luther King Jr...

Religious ceremonies can unify different communities of faith because of the similarities of practice between different religious traditions, including historical similarities between Passover and Easter celebrations, said Myers, who also leads Dialogue Across Difference at UCLA – an initiative dedicated to discussing difficult issues without widening tensions...

Overall, Myers said the event aimed to allow people to come together at a difficult time for the campus community. “Many people feel deeply passionate about what is going on, and we want to create an opportunity and space for people who come from different places to join together in expressing and manifesting hope and dedicating ourselves to activity and action to advance the cause of freedom and redemption,” he said.

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2024/04/17/hillel-at-ucla-hosts-first-interfaith-passover-seder-brings-students-together.