a letter to the editor of the Daily Gazette, June 4, 2021

The conversation concerning an email sent out within the Schenectady High community can be turned into a learning moment for us all. Even as we cannot fully explain the issues in the Middle East in a single email, we can and should model communication, be active participants in our learning, lead with love, and move with peace as an action word.

Members of our Schenectady community have been engaged in the essential work of learning how to apply an anti-racist lens to examine our local systems, structures, and institutions. All Of Us, Schenectady Clergy Against Hate, and others have worked earnestly to model the type of leaning into community necessary for effective communication. We have learned how important conversations across our differences can be. We have learned that it is imperative that we listen with honesty to one another, examine our own biases and privileges, and accept with graciousness the knowledge and understanding we gain from the experience.

Ours is a commitment to the wellbeing and welcome of all who call Schenectady home, especially those who are or have been historically the victims of oppression because of the religion they practice or people they belong to, the color of their skin, their stories of origin, or any of the identities they embody. To achieve the world we all deserve, we must build from a foundation of equity, justice, and peace. Let that foundation begin with us.

Rabbi Matt Cutler, Congregation Gates of Heaven (Schenectady, NY)

Jamaica Miles, Lead Organizer, #AllofUS

Rev. Dustin Wright, Senior Pastor, Messiah Lutheran Church (Rotterdam, NY)

Rabbi Rafi Spitzer, Congregation Agudat Achim (Niscayuna, NY)

Rev. Amaury Tañón-Santos, Executive Director, Schenectady Community Ministries