JAM & ALL Interfaith celebrated World Interfaith Harmony Week on Monday evening, February 8, 2021 with an hour and a half online Interfaith Roundtable on the topic “Loving Thy Neighbor, No Exceptions.” This event consciously built on the experiences and momentum created by our World Interfaith Harmony Week commemorative event last year: an interfaith conference on February 1, 2020 on “Transforming Bigotry and Hate: From Awareness to Action.” The session began with an introduction of our organization as a nonprofit founded in south Florida shortly after 9/11, with the purpose of connecting people through conversation and education to create peace, harmony and love. Guest presenter Christopher DeSanti presented a 15-minute inspiring introduction of the topic. He outlined how we can look at life through the lens of fear, creating separation, barriers and walls, or through the lens of love, leading to a life of joy where we are all connected. Our Zoom host then electronically divided the 61 participants into ten breakout sessions of six people each for 35 minutes of facilitated online interactive discussion on what impacted each of us the most about Christopher’s remarks and what was most difficult for each of us in “loving our neighbor, no exceptions.” These breakout groups were facilitated by a racially and religious diverse group of leaders of JAM & ALL Interfaith and other interfaith organizations, including Muslim, Baha’i, Jewish, Protestant, Universalist Unitarians and Catholic members. In addition, among the online participants were also Hindus, Buddhists and Wicca. After stimulating and wide-ranging discussion, a member of each group then shared with the entire group one significant learning or “nugget” their group took from their conversation. As JAM & ALL Interfaith celebrates 20 years as an organization this year, we are committed to continuing and expanding the work of fostering dialogue, mutual respect and interfaith understanding.

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