天美传媒

by Rebecca Endres

Nora Elbassiony has always accepted others, regardless of race or culture. An major in her junior year in the , Elbassiony is also a practicing Muslim who works at the , a community center populated mostly by Jews, in Brooklyn, New York.

When violence between Israel and Palestine escalated this past summer, she was hurt to see hateful remarks on social media and tension between cultures on the streets of Brooklyn. Her response was proactive鈥攖o hold an event to unite the religions.

What started as a simple Shabbat-Iftar (Jewish-Muslim) dinner among coworkers turned into a banquet with 240 guests.

鈥淓veryone at work was so amazing,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y boss just encouraged us to move forward with it and was a great help. The fact that it went so well made me think that there are good people in the world, and it鈥檚 not just me who wants peace.鈥�

Although her friends and family supported the idea, others weren鈥檛 so receptive.

鈥淧eople were bashing me, like, 鈥榃hy are you doing this? You鈥檙e a bad Muslim; you make us look bad,鈥欌�� Elbassiony said. 鈥淏ut all the negativity, it made me hungry. It made me want to do this.鈥�

Despite the criticism, she moved forward with advertising and planning the event, which occurred on her 20th birthday. 鈥淭his is my day,鈥� she recalled telling her mother. 鈥淭his is how I want to spend it.鈥�

The festive evening included an integrated group of guests鈥攜oung and old鈥攇athering on stage to sing an Arabic-Jewish peace song. Loved ones, including Elbassiony鈥檚 mother and a Jewish friend, Kilash Persad (who helped organize the event), took to the stage and encouraged guests to mingle and truly get to know one another.

For Elbassiony, it was the perfect birthday gift.

鈥淓ven just doing this, something small, might not mean much to everyone else, but it meant something to me and meant so much to the people who came,鈥� Elbassiony said. 鈥淚t proved to me that we can do more of this鈥攊t starts with just one person or two people and it spreads. The rabbi came, the imam came; it was so many people just coming together.鈥�