MORGANTOWN — Faith leaders from Morgantown’s Muslim and Jewish communities gathered at Krepps Park picnic shelter Thursday May 17 to participate in joint prayers in a statement of peace for the recent lives lost in the Gaza region.
The Muslims displayed unity by reciting peaceful Jewish scriptures, while Jews aimed to do to the same with a recitation of Muslim scriptures.
Leaders joined the members and participants in a circle beside the picnic tables to take turns reading each other’s scriptures. The statement of peace was quiet as the communities mourned the loss and prayed for the injured in their holy land.
Rabbi Joseph Hample, from The Tree of Life Congregation, said, “Well, this event was prompted by what happened in the holy land this week. As you know, it’s terribly complicated. We’re not going to solve those problems tonight, but we do have to stand up always, I think, for human rights and for human dignity and whatever the ultimate solution is to the problems over there, it begins with the recognition that all human beings are created in the image of God.”
