HOLLAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – An award winning film about the tension between Jewish and Muslim students on college campuses following the attack on American soil on September 11, 2001 will be shown in Holland Monday evening.
The City of Holland’s Human Relations Commission will be showing the award winning documentary “Of Many” at Herrick District Library. The documentary focuses on the surprising and transformative relationship between an orthodox rabbi and imam who serve as university chaplains at NYU in New York City. Through a series of voyages to communities struck by catastrophe, you will witness young religious Jews and Muslims working together and overcoming long-standing divides.
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna tells WHTC News that it all started by a Muslim students questions.
“To make it clear I never really interacted with anyone substantively who was Muslim let alone had any Muslim friends having grown up in a Jewish household and attended a Jewish University. A conversation about ice cream which is considered kosher for Jews was considered halal for Muslims. That got us talking and what I realized that even though that conventional wisdom that religion is something that separates people, it made me realize that spirituality is something that can bring people together and ought to bring people together. This small introduction did set the stage for when the temperature did rise at NYU that I had some relationships to go back to and that there are forces that are best confronted together.”
“Of Many” follows New York University chaplains Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Imam Khalid Latif as they lead teams of young, religious Jews and Muslims on service projects to communities struck by catastrophe, such as New Orleans.
The film begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by a Q&A with Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, featured in the film, who will be joining the audience from New York via SKYPE.
Directed by Linda G. Mills with Chelsea Clinton as its executive producer, the film has received numerous national and international awards including the Tribeca Film Festival (2014) and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (2014). It has been selected by the US State Department as one of the American documentaries screened through embassies and consulates around the world.
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna is the University Chaplain at New York University and the Executive Director for the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU. Ordained at Yeshiva University. As a faculty member of the Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service, Rabbi Sarna established the first academic minor in Multifaith Leadership at NYU, the first of its kind in the nation. “Of Many” premiered on ABC Television this past May.
Watch the trailer for “Of Many” here.
