On Monday, Upper School students and professional community members held a forum on using religious empathy as a way to combat hate. Read our notes from the forum below, as well as some suggestions for combating hate.

The F.B.I. said 270 crimes were reported against Muslims and Arab-Americans, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said it had recorded 1,664 hate crimes against Muslims in 2018.

Some of us noted:

• Feeling overwhelmed — where do you even start to learn about everything going on? Pressure to act but not sure what to do.
• People sometimes confuse Sikhs for Muslims — violence against Sikhs is often borne out of Islamophobia.
• Surprise at the level of hate crimes in NYC relative to the state, especially in light of the level of diversity of NYC.
• Remember that not all hate crimes are reported.
• Secular Jews are not exempt from anti-semitism and there are different answers to the questions, “What does it mean to be Jewish?”
• Be open to talking about religion; too many of us have been taught not to talk about religion.

Things we can do to combat hate:

• Actively work to ignore stereotypes and media representation contributing to incidents of bias.
• Take the Implicit Bias test; you don't need to share your results, but do it for yourself.
• Work with Student Council to build awareness for various religious and cultural holidays beyond Jewish and Christian calendar
• Explore resources like the Revolutionary Love Project.

— Packer's Diversity and Equity Team