Imam, Rabbi remember Holocaust

BY VICTOR G. MIMONI

Thursday, April 30, 2009 4:15 PM EDT

Queens is so diverse, there is nothing unusual about an imam giving a talk on “The Essence of Islam.” Unless it’s in a Synagogue, at a Holocaust memorial service, that is.

Rabbi Michael Weisser of the Free Synagogue of Flushing likes making the unusual commonplace, so he has invited his “friend and partner in interfaith outreach” Imam Shamsi [CQ] Ali to a special interfaith Yom HaShoah or Holocaust memorial observance.

Imam Ali is the leader of the Islamic Cultural Center in Manhattan, as well as mosques in Jamaica and Astoria. He is also a founding member of the Imams’ Council of New York.

He will be attending Sabbath evening services at the temple, at 41-60 Kissena Boulevard in downtown Flushing on Friday, April 24 at 8 p.m.

After speaking on the topic, the imam and rabbi will be available to engage “in a timely and topical interfaith dialogue.” The public is invited to attend.

“We are remembering the Holocaust by actively living the values that would have made it an impossibility,” said Rabbi Weisser, “Those of understanding, respect and tolerance toward all faiths.”

Promoting dialogue is nothing new to Rabbi Weisser.

In 1991, as a new rabbi in Lincoln Nebraska, Weisser and his family started getting threatening phone calls and received a package of racist, bigoted pamphlets with a note attached: “The KKK is watching you, scum.”

The harassment was coming from the Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Nebraska, a wheelchair-bound diabetic named Larry Trapp.

When the Rabbi first confronted the racist on the telephone, the disarmament began – “I heard you’re disabled. I thought you might need a ride to the grocery.”

In less than a year, Trapp quit the clan, befriended Weisser and his family and converted to Judaism. By the time Trapp died of his illness, he was being cared for by the Weissers in their home.

The rabbi spoke at his funeral.

The story is detailed in a 1995 book by Kathryn Watterson, Not by the Sword: How the Love of a Cantor and His Family Transformed a Klansman.

Imam Ali was appointed “Ambassador for Peace” by the International Religious Federation in 2002. In addition to his congregations and other duties, he is on the American Muslim Council and is an Advisory Board member of the Tanenbaum Center for Inter-religious Understanding.

In 2006, he was named one of New York City’s seven most influential religious leaders by New York Magazine. Since September 11, 2001, the Imam has served as a community activist and has lectured in churches, synagogues and schools to promote a more accurate understanding of Islam.

“Imam Ali and I share a common vision of a world in which people of all traditions will come to consider themselves as family working together to build a more harmonious world,” Rabbi Weisser said.

The Free Synagogue is located at 41-60 Kissena Boulevard, between Sanford Avenue and Main Street. All are welcome. Free on-site parking is available. Please call 718-961-0030 or visit www.freesynagogue.org for more information.