Staten Island Rabbi Blazed an Interfaith Trail with Community Days

June 10, 2005

Source: Staten Island Advance

http://www.silive.com/living/advance/index.ssf?/base/living/1118410310197790.xml

On June 10, 2005 the Staten Island Advance reported, "a leader in Staten Island's interfaith movement is leaving the borough and heading back to the pulpit. Rabbi David Katz, a longtime spiritual leader of Temple Israel Reform Congregation who was instrumental in starting the borough-wide Community Days three years ago, has taken a position at Temple Concord in Binghamton, N.Y. Interfaith leaders are sorry to see him go... Community Days had its start at Temple Israel as Mitzvah Day, a Sunday each spring when congregants would gather to collect items and prepare meals for Project Hospitality, collect funds for Jewish causes, begin letter-writing campaigns on social justice issues and provide entertainment for Island residents. The effort spread to some of the Island's Conservative synagogues and, at Rabbi Katz's urging, became an Island-wide interfaith event in 2001. This year, 85 congregations took part in the weekend-long effort."

See also: Interfaith, Judaism