Members of the Huntington Jewish Center shared Purim holiday festivities Wednesday with members of Masjid Noor mosque in a gesture of solidarity after the attacks on mosques in New Zealand last week.
Members of the two faiths gathered to share gifts for children that the Jewish congregation brought to the Park Avenue mosque.
Purim, a Jewish festival to commemorate the defeat of a plot to massacre the Jews, is a day of feasting and rejoicing.
Dr. Eve Krief, a member of the Huntington Jewish Center, came up with the idea of visiting the mosque while preparing her own holiday hamantaschen, a pastry made for Purim celebrations.
“For Purim, it’s traditional to create baskets filled with treats, fruit and hamantaschen, to bring them to people and exchange them to symbolize the love we have for our friends and neighbors. And it occurred to me while making hamantaschen Sunday that wouldn’t it be nice to bring our baskets to our neighbors at the mosque in the wake of the New Zealand tragedy.”
Members of the two congregations gathered to talk and hand out the gifts of candy and other sweets stacked on a table as children gamboled about.
Wajma Halimi-Modaser welcomed the visitors to the mosque and invited all to join an interfaith service scheduled for Friday, one week after the New Zealand massacre, which killed 50 Muslims and wounded many more.