North Shore Synagogue Dives Into Islam in May

The latest installment of "Islam – A Four Part Series" was presented at the North Shore Synagogue in Syosset on Monday night. Individuals from the Syosset congregation and community attended the free presentation hosted by speaker Naomi Mayor.

With more then 50 individuals in attendance, Mayor informed, embraced and even quizzed the enthusiastic audience. Offering Jolly Ranchers candies as prizes for questions answered correctly, Lifelong Learning Program Co-Chair Paul Joseph happily tossed them across the room to the winners. The questions included What country has the largest Muslim population? (Indonesia) and How many times a day do Muslims pray? (Five times.)

According to Mayor, she was motivated to teach about Islam because most people have a negative perception of the religion.

"There is a lot of misinformation and ignorance about the facts of Islam. I am informing them that there are a lot of similarities between the Jews and Islams. Most people don't even realize that there have been Jewish Arabs," said Mayor.

Diana Silverman, Lifelong Learning Program co-chair, was fascinated with Mayor's teachings of the basic history, religion and social customs of Islam.

"Naomi is an excellent teacher. Everyone here is riveted by the information she shares about Islam. Last week, over 100 people showed up wanting to learn," said Silverman.

Providing an insightful multimedia presentation to the crowd, Mayor spoke in depth on Part Two of the series about the history of Islam – "What Every Jew Should Know about Islam."

"There was an interaction between the Muslims and Jews at one time. It wasn't all bad," said Mayor. "One of the most positive examples is the Golden Age of Spain where the Muslims, Jews and Christians were all able to share in their culture. People should not just look at the Muslims and Jews through the lens of the last 100 years." 

The next topics that will be covered are "Islam and America" on Monday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m., and "Islam on the Front Page" on Monday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m.

"We will discuss the recent bomb scare at 42nd street in Manhattan and we will also look at the development of the Jewish and Islamic communities," said Mayor.

Mayor's interest in the Islamic culture originated from her momentous experience in college.

"September 11th happened on my second day in college," said Mayor. "I wanted to know more and understand about different cultures, and I learned that Islam is a religion of peace. You can't just base the Islam culture by the terrible things you see in the media. There is so much more to the Islamic culture than the bad stuff."

Speaking at various synagogues across Long Island for the past year, Mayor is committed to educating others. Mayor was a part of the Washington University (St. Louis) program bringing Jewish and Islamic students together. After graduation, she worked with David Saperstein and the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C. and is currently finishing a masters degree at Columbia University.

For more information about "Islam – A Four Part Series," call the synagogue at 516-921-2282 or visit www.northshoresynagogue.org.