I gave a college lecture on Jewish identity -- and confronted a mob of video vigilantes

[Hekate]

1. Los Angeles Times, page 1, Sat. April 7: An act of interfaith goodwill ends in tears

It is all so heartbreaking. This is another article well-worth reading in full, if you can get a copy of the paper.
Hekate


An act of interfaith goodwill ends in tears
A Jewish temple in the Valley opens its doors to Muslims for Ramadan, but then an uproar breaks out over Israeli hostage photos and a guest speaker

It started with good intentions.
When a Jewish temple in the San Fernando Valley opened its doors to Muslims for the holy month of Ramadan, its rabbis hoped to offer a model of interfaith outreach.
“There is more that unites us than divides us,” Rabbis Stewart Vogel and Richard Camras wrote in an email to Hamakom L.A.’s congregation announcing their plan to rent their synagogue to the Islamic Society of West Valley, whose own house of worship was too small to accommodate everyone for the holiday.

The rabbis understood that their plan was unusual, particularly at a time when death and destruction in the Middle East weigh heavily on Muslim and Jewish communities around the world.
But they sought to transcend that. Their temple — formed last summer in the affluent neighborhood of Woodland Hills when two synagogues merged — would be a beacon of goodwill and understanding, a place where L.A. Jews and Muslims could gather in mutual toleration, appreciation and grace.

Hamakom is a strongly Zionist community that believes Israel has a right to self-defense and self-determination. Many in the congregation were shocked when they read the rabbis’ email.
Some worried about security. Others were bothered that their evening programs and Friday Shabbat service would move to a different location. Most of all they wondered: Why were they notified the same day of the first Ramadan prayer service?
The dissent might have ended there. But just a few hours before Muslim worshipers started to arrive at the temple, a photo began to circulate.
It showed that a display honoring Israelis taken hostage by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack had been covered.
For many in the Hamakom congregation, the covering of Israeli hostages was a step too far. It represented an erasure of Israeli suffering and an unnecessary concession to political adversaries.
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The partnership between the synagogue andmosque was the product of years of interfaith work.

When Shaykh Suhail Mulla joined the Islamic Society of West Valley in 2017 as resident scholar, Vogel and the other rabbis at Temple Aliyah invited him to speak at a Shabbat service to honor the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Later that year, vandals painted antisemitic graffiti, including a swastika, on the guard shack at the entrance of the synagogue. Mulla, 51, a former social worker who leads a spiritual and psychological wellness center, delivered flowers.
Vogel, who trained in interfaith dialogue between Christians and Jews in the 1980s,reciprocated by attending a communal iftar meal to break the fast of Ramadan.
Dialogue is important, Vogel said, “because it challenges us to look beyond our assumptions, learn from one another and work together towards a more inclusive and harmonious society.”
Over the years, Mulla and Vogel swapped notes over coffee and lunch about spiritual leadership and how to connect with congregants.
One of Mulla’s biggest challenges was that the west San Fernando Valley’s Muslim community was growing so fast that his congregants could no longer squeeze into his small mosque for Ramadan.
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The goodwill continued even after Oct. 7, ….. (much more at link, if you can get there)

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https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/latimes/default.aspx?token=42e23962a5d74614be16bae3d62d13e7&sfmc_id=6532a30f25b3640666bed99d&utm_id=34935325&skey_id=f0185674dd52c0ccd4b79cadf4d6840cd74dca950f70382e51f3c73188047081&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ENP-email-Subs-eNewspaper-202445&utm_term=eNewspaper+Daily+Notify&edid=5566fb0d-a2b3-4a7d-82fc-4a4c9d9d870c