Campus Ministry hosted a prayer open to members of the Fordham community at the Lincoln Center campus on Oct. 11 in response to the mass casualties in Israel and Palestine following the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, which has claimed thousands of lives. The war is the latest surge in decades long violent conflict between both states.
The event emphasized a desire to provide a prayer space for readings on peace and grief for those mourning the recent escalation in violence after the military wing of Hamas–a political organization governing Gaza–attacked Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7.
“We come here today as people who mourn. As we feel shock, confusion, grief or even anger, we long for comfort and consolation,” Erin Hoffman, director of Campus Ministry, said at the start of the event. “Although we come here as a particular response to recent escalation in violence, there are many victims and countless people who mourn, far away from the front pages.”
Hoffman emphasized turning to faith for guidance and encouraged unison among members of the community. She then introduced an opening prayer.
Campus Ministry was asked by the university to organize the interfaith prayer on Oct. 10, one day prior to the event which was organized on Wednesday at Lincoln Center and Friday at Rose Hill to ensure that University President Tania Tetlow could attend. Campus Ministry reached out to various active clubs on campus to read selections from various religious texts.
The selected readings focused on themes of grief and peace, including the Mourner’s Kaddish, an Orthodox Christian prayer for the departed and afflicted, and a peace prayer from the Hindu Upanishads. The event was an effort to offer space for individual prayers and grief.
“We wanted it to be as much from the students as possible,” Hoffman said. “Recognizing the diversity of our student body and wanting to honor and uplift the prayers of all of our student community.”
“As we feel shock, confusion, grief or even anger, we long for comfort and consolation.”Erin Hoffman, director of Campus Ministry
Lincoln Center’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) declined to participate in solidarity with Palestinians, according to an MSA E-Board member, who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution from Canary Mission, a website which claims to “(document) people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel, and Jews on North American college campuses.”
“We feel that this vigil for peace taking place now after the Hamas attack is hypocritical, when Palestinians have not had peace for 75 years and no vigil was held for them,” the MSA at Lincoln Center E-Board member wrote in a statement to The Observer.
According to Hoffman, no Muslim student participated in the prayer, although a Muslim colleague helped select the readings from the Quran. Campus Ministry chose to include the selections regardless to “ensure representation from the Muslim tradition.”
In response to MSA’s decision not to participate in the event, Hoffman emphasized that Campus Ministry sought to structure service recognizing loss for both Israeli and Palestinian communities, “recognizing that the impact for Palestinians is and has been vast too.”
The spokesperson said that as a Palestinian, they experienced very mixed reactions after hearing that oppression should be turned into freedom and occupation into liberation during the closing prayer.
Hamas’ attack on Israel was the largest assault on the state in over 50 years, and since, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly removed from northern Gaza as thousands of missiles and airstrikes from Israel bomb the enclave.
“When we do have a prayer service such as this, it is thus an opportunity to include prayers for everyone who is and has been impacted by the conflict – not just now but over time too – and to pray for justice and peace for all people – which we sought to do in the selections of readings and prayers we offered,” Hoffman said.
Campus Ministry did not reach out to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an organization on campus which has long sought to obtain official club status, according to an SJP spokesperson, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’24, who also requested anonymity due to fear of retribution from Canary Mission, a website which claims to “(document) people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel, and Jews on North American college campuses.”
Campus Ministry chose to include the selections regardless to “ensure representation from the Muslim tradition.”
Hoffman confirmed that because SJP is not an officiated club at Fordham, Campus Ministry was unable to access their contact information through the Office for Student Involvement.
The spokesperson said that as a Palestinian, they experienced very mixed reactions after hearing that oppression should be turned into freedom and occupation into liberation during the closing prayer.
“They seem like they’re trying to understand,” the anonymous SJP spokesperson said of the university’s response to the war, though they elaborated that it “looks like there’s not as much effort as there should be in trying to comprehend.”
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a contentious and tense dispute involving religious, ethnic and political disagreement over the creation of the Israeli state.
“There is so much pain among Palestinians and Israelis, we pray for leaders throughout the region and ask you to turn their hearts toward just and lasting peace.”Jenifer Campbell, dean of students at Fordham Lincoln Center
They emphasized that they felt the university should have reached out to SJP and expressed disappointment that there was no Muslim student who spoke at the prayer service.
“I feel like it could’ve been done better,” the SJP spokesperson said.
Jacobo Filman, FCLC ’24 and treasurer of Lincoln Center’s Jewish Student Organization, said he thought the event was comforting.
“I think it was good to spread a message of peace, unity across campus,” Filman said. “I think it’s really good that the Campus Ministry is able to organize events that highlight the diversity of religion on campus.”
Attendees also participated in a candle lighting, prayer litany and closing prayer. Jenifer Campbell, dean of students at Fordham Lincoln Center, shared prayers for both Israeli and Palestinian families affected by the war.
“We pray for the families in Israel and Palestine who live in fear, for those who dread the next missile strike, for those whose anxiety gnaws at them as they wait for the news of missing loved ones, for those who are forced to flee their homes, for those who can’t bear to face a day without the loved ones they have lost,” she said. “Their lives will never be the same, and they are afraid of the future.”
Campbell called on leaders in the region to resolve the violent conflict through God.
“There is so much pain among Palestinians and Israelis, we pray for leaders throughout the region and ask you to turn their hearts toward just and lasting peace,” the dean of students at Lincoln Center said. “As leaders and those around the world consider how to respond, please grant them wisdom and insight.”
The prayer event ended with a small performance of “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” read by students and Robert Minotti, director of music.
