In the spirit of the universal American observance of Thanksgiving this week, middle school students from the St. Aidan School and the Solomon Schechter Day School of Williston Park gathered in St. Aidan’s auditorium for an interfaith service between the Catholic and Jewish private schools.
“We welcome our older brothers in faith. We come together in mutual respect and love,” said Father Kevin Dillon of St. Aidan at the outset of the service. “All of you can thank God that you go to a school where you can talk about your faith.”
Dillon explained that “older brothers in faith” was a phrase used by the late Pope Paul John II with reference to the covenant Moses forged with God on Mount Sinai in accepting the 10 commandments, a cornerstone of both religious traditions.
Rabbi Josh Rabin of the Schechter School followed by reading passages from the Book of Deuteronomy when God promised the tribes of Israel who had been wandering in the desert a better life in the land he had promised them, “a land with bread where you will not lack for anything.”
Rabin reminded the children of their common belief that all good things spring from their creator.
“All the good things we have are not ours. They’re given to us by a God who loves us,” the rabbi said.
The two schools had been linked in controversy last year when Solomon Schechter Day School in Glen Cove was negotiating a contract with the Mineola School District to rent the Cross Street School across St. Aidan’s, which it now occupies. Williston Park residents had expressed concerns about traffic problems and the loss of access of access to the school’s ball fields to St. Aidan and the Williston Park Little League. During these discussions, a flyer was distributed at a St. Aidan’s Church service expressing concerns about allowing a yeshiva to rent the location that some viewed as religiously charged. Solomon Schechter is Jewish private school, not a yeshiva.
But on this day there were no signs of the controversy from the children attended the service.
Students from both schools took turns reading brief original compositions about the things they had to be thankful for, mostly focusing on family and friends, with one young student from Solomon Schechter paying tribute to her late grandmother in what was a touching sequence of thoughts expressed in the spirit of the common holiday this week.
St. Aidan students brought out a banner that said, “We’re grateful to our friends from Solomon Schechter School.”
The Solomon Schechter students, in turn, rolled out their own banner replete with references to the 100th Psalm that begins, “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all ye Lands,” and includes the verse, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name.”
Under the direction of Schechter teacher Joan Cohen, students from both schools sang spirited parts of a simple hymn of praise, with one side of the room singing “Hallelu, Halleu, Hallelujah,” and the other answering, “Hodu Lashem,” or “Give thanks to God,” in Hebrew. The students on each side stood up when they sang their parts in what was an enthusiastic, unified singing exercise.
Rabbi Morris Bernstein, who teaches Judaic studies at Solomon Schechter, said the commonality of thoughts they expressed were a good way of introducing themselves to one another.
“Anytime we get children together it is a good thing. The more they meet each other, the more they realize they’re part of our American enterprise and we should be thankful to have it,” Rabbi Bernstein said.
The students, smiling and talking to each other, were visibly enjoying the experience.
“It was good for us to meet,” said Schechter student Dideon Berman, after giving on of the St. Aidan students a high-five as he left the auditorium with his classmates.
“It was really nice meeting all of them,” said St. Aidan student Bobby Dodson.
The genesis for their meeting were the gift baskets that Schechter students brought as a good neighbor gesture to the priests and sisters at St. Aidan Church this fall when the private Jewish school opened. That moved Dillon to want to return the gesture as an expression of support for the church’s Jewish neighbors, recognizing that some local residents had expressed misgivings about Schechter’s presence in Williston Park.
“St Aidan’s is not opposed to them. It’s kind of sad that some people were, but the vast majority of us weren’t,” Dillon said.
St. Aidan principal Eileen Oliver and Solomon Schechter principal Adele Spickler met early in the fall. Dillon and Rabin determined the format for the 40-minute service over the last few weeks, and said they were pleased with the result of what they intended to be the first of a series of events between the two schools.
“We’re all planning on there being a next time,” Rabin said. “The hope is that we will at some time have a Passover seder.”
The seder, a springtime observance that commemorates the tribes of Israel escaping captivity in Egypt, would take place at Schechter. And there may be other non-religious interactions scheduled as well.
