Interfaith Shabbat aims to reach across cultural, religious barriers

Candlelight and prayer welcomed students of all faiths to the Interfaith Shabbat event on Friday at North Carolina Hillel. 

Hillel, the UNC Lutheran Campus Ministry, the UNC Presbyterian Campus Ministry, the UNC Muslim Students Association, Hindu YUVA and the Newman Catholic Student Center Parish put on an interfaith event every semester that encourages students to learn about other religions. Students were warned they may feel some discomfort, but organizers asked students to embrace and challenge that discomfort. 

Junior Sara Yeh, one of the organizers, said the event lets students gain a new perspective on the way their peers practice their faith. 

“It’s a really good opportunity to see and experience each other’s way of worshipping, which, in turn, helps us understand each other better as a community,” Yeh said.

The program included eight different themes, with each theme featuring at least two of the different groups' prayers. Some of the prayers of the Hindu faith were not typed in the program, and sophomore Dhanesh Budhram said this was because many of the Hindu prayers are shared through oral tradition. 

“Hinduism is such a minority religion in this part of the world, and it is unique and special, just like all of the other faiths,” Budhram said. “I feel like if I have the ability to teach people about Hinduism and have them understand its significance to me, and to other people in the world, it’ll be special.”

The organizers of the event mixed prayers of different religious groups into the program to emphasize the sense of religious community they wanted to create. Yeh said the top messages the interfaith events try to convey are community, inclusivity and a place to find common ground.

Junior Meredith Cohen, one of the event's organizers, hoped students could use the event to bridge religious divides. 

“I hope they learn about different religions,” Cohen said. “I hope they mix and mingle with people of other religions and learn that even in different religions we have a lot of similar themes in prayer that we can unite over.”

Sophomore Diana Mellow attended the event and said she was positively impacted by the program. Mellow said she grew up with Christianity and Judaism and was used to going to interfaith events. 

“It’s nice to see folks entering Jewish spaces on campus because I feel like this is an intensely Christian space, and I like that about UNC,” Mellow said. “I feel like a lot of people are very faithful and that shows in their actions, but I guess that faith culture can translate to … not knowing about other faiths.”

The event closed with the song "Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu," which translates to "Peace Will Come for Us All." 

Budhram said it's an important time to reach across these cultural boundaries.

“Events like these really teach us to respect and understand differences, especially now,” Budhram said.

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