Yom Kippur event in Grand Army Plaza mourns lives lost in Middle East conflict
The event drew crowds of Brooklyn residents, and saw members of groups including Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voices for Peace and If Not Now.
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Members of Park Slope Congregation Kolot Chayeinu hosted a Yizkor, a large-scale group mourning event at the Grand Army Plaza Saturday.
The event drew crowds of Brooklyn residents, and saw members of groups including Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voices for Peace and If Not Now.
Those leading the prayer say they wanted to call attention to innocent lives lost and call for an end to the violence in the region.
"We are here with our neighbors Jewish and Palestinian, Asian and Black, we felt compelled as a Jewish community to stand together, to honor all those we have lost in the last year watching this horrific violence unfold in the Middle East, senseless and endless violence," said speaker and Board President Kolot Chayeinu Cynthia Greenberg.
The congregation also invited Council Member Shahana Hanif to attend the event.
Hanif has drawn criticism in the past by other Jewish groups in her district covering Park Slope, for language she has posted online about the war, including a post calling to "globalize the intifada."
Speaking with News 12 at the event she says those posts have since been removed.
"That phrase has been deleted, and I recognize that it is a phrase that is antagonistic, discriminatory and hurtful to many Jewish people, and so I have learned, and I will continue to learn," she said.
