Delivered Thursday, November 3, 2022, at James Weldon Johnson Park in Jacksonville, Florida, at UNF OneJax Institute’s Vigil for Unity and Hope, in response to antisemitic messages in Jacksonville over the October 28-30 weekend, on a banner on a highway overpass and digital words projected on to TIAA Bank Field and a high rise downtown.
Good Evening, I am Matt Hartley, Director of the UNF Interfaith Center and a board member of the community organization Interfaith Center of Northeast Florida. It is an honor to stand with the Jewish community tonight and with all of you.
I care because I’m human – but I also care because my faith as a Christian has taught me too. Or I should say, people of faith have taught me. See, I was a preacher’s kid, and my earliest memories were running around church, falling asleep in the pew and getting gum in my hair, delighting the congregation and perhaps embarrassing my parents a little with my antics. And it was in that small town, in that small church, in a small Sunday school classroom that I learned my first memory verse, which was anything but small: “For God so loved the world.”
That was a small town in Indiana, and I didn’t see much of the world yet, but I had an idea that if God loved the world, so should I.
It was later when we moved to Florida that I began to meet more friends who were from different cultures than me. And it was then that my Dad struck up a friendship with Rabbi Barry Friedman of Temple Israel of Brevard County. Rabbi Friedman invited him to participate in a Shoah remembrance service. Later, when my dad went through a tough time, the Rabbi was there for him, a Christian minister. I never forgot that. For God so loves the world, so we should love each other even when we belong to different religions. Or in the words of both their traditions: Love your neighbor as yourself. It was my first lesson in Interfaith friendship.
Now Interfaith Friendship is not just for clergy members; its something all of us can do, whether we are religious or not. In fact, some of you already do and have been. Or maybe you have Interfaith friendships, but you just have never engaged that aspect of it. Not everyone wants that, and that’s ok. But here’s why I think it can be good.
Interfaith friendship can be about empathy and support in difficult times. You can reach out to your Jewish friends and colleagues when something like this happens and you don’t have to be an expert. All you have to say is, I’m sorry this happened. How are you? How can I support you? Likewise with any religious community, when a Mosque receives a threat, or a Church burns down. We should reach out to each other.
Interfaith friendship can also be about mutual curiosity, learning from and with each other. Again, no expertise required. You can simply say, I’d like to understand what its like for you to be Jewish, or Muslim, or Christian, or Sikh, or Baha’i, or Hindu. There’s a lot of religions in Jacksonville, and a lot of opportunities for curiosity and friendship. Through this, we can not only prepare to face hate, but we are also actively building a more inclusive city.
Beyond what we can do as individuals, its important that we build our power together, like we’re doing tonight. I’m convinced that Interfaith Friendship can help us confront hate and make our city a more inclusive place – because it already has done so. And you or your congregation or organization can join that legacy now.
The legacy of the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, begun by a local synagogue, The Temple, and a Unitarian Church, over a century ago. You can join OneJax’s 105th service, even more diverse now, on Thursday, November 17 at Riverside Presbyterian Church.
These shows of unity matter, but we also have to use our power to achieve common goals. ICARE is an Interfaith coalition of 38 local congregations, including the Jacksonville Jewish Center, which lobbies city officials to make just policies in our city, for instance, this year addressing flooding and criminal justice. Your congregation can join ICARE congregations in this work that has been going on for 25 years.
We can also build power by connecting our congregations. This is the work of the community organization Interfaith Center of Northeast Florida, for which I am a board member. For the last five years, we have worked with the Jacksonville Jewish Center, who have generously welcomed their Muslim neighbors celebrating Ramadan, for an exercise in mutual curiosity, in learning from each other’s tradition. This is more than education though – its bond, that can hold in times like this, and set an example for more Interfaith friendship between congregations across our city. Your congregation can join that work too.
But what if you’re not religious? At UNF we say, Interfaith work is for religious and non-religious people, if we build it that way. I’m heartened to see the Northside Coalition with us tonight, which is an example of how non-religious organizations can build power Interfaith coalitions. We are better together.
I have tried to be practical and hopeful tonight with you – because we are facing dangerous waves of antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and the list goes on too long, some of which come from our religious institutions. I have to face the antisemitism in my own Christian tradition.
We also have elected officials and politicians who promote antisemitism and other forms of prejudice, while other officials remain silent.
Its time for the hate to stop, and it’s time for the silence to stop.
I want to finish tonight with a thank you. You may have noticed a thread; the Jewish community has played a central role in Interfaith work in our city throughout history to this day. To the Jewish Community, thank you for teaching me how to be an Interfaith friend.
Matt Hartley 