Carol and I went and were so inspired by some of the people of faith we met. We called on them and asked them to be part of the Kaplan concert.
Our Rabbis teach us by example to respect other communities. Rabbi Siegel, Senior Rabbi at Anshe Emet brings a diverse array of speakers for us to learn. He is part of an interfaith group of rabbis and ministers who meet regularly. We had an interfaith Seder at Bright Star Church last year, we do projects with New Beginnings and Pastor Brooks.
We reached out to them and suddenly, the Kaplan Concert was growing and the buzz was on.
JB: Tell us more about Shakeela Hassan, Joyce. From what I've read, she sounds like a very interesting person.
JLA: One of the real joys of working on this concert is meeting and getting to know Shakeela Hassan. She is a retired physician who lives with her husband in Hyde Park. He is the Dean of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology. She has the best sense of humor. A Jewish Cantor is called a Hazzan, her last name is Hassan and she heads the Harran Foundation. She loves to say,"This is Hassan, calling Hazzan from Harran."
JB: Fun. Catchy!
JLA: At a committee meeting Shakeela asked one of our Jewish grandmother members if she had a good recipe for matzo ball soup.
Carol and I told her we have a goal of a tushie [ed. note: Yiddish for rear end] in every seat for the Kaplan Concert, and now Shakeela tells us in emails and in person how many more "tushies" she has coming. While she has a great sense of humor, upon meeting her you also sense this is a woman who wants peace and understanding in the world.
Shakeela noticed in her medical residency that life begins when a baby takes his/her first breath and ends when a person takes their last breath. And,she feels that breath, used in song is one of the highest forms of communication. She often tells the story of being a young intern at St. Mary's Hospital and the nuns woke her up for Mass. She, a devout Muslim, went into the chapel and felt she was in a room of total peace And, she felt she was one with the nuns who were praying quietly in the room.
Shakeela came up with the concept of Sounds of Faith - members of the three Abrahamic traditions coming together.
JB: Very nice. What haven't we talked about yet? The concert is coming up fast.
JLA: One thing I am especially proud of of that we have not talked about - Carol's family and mine are sharing our enthusiasm.
My son in law has a computer consulting firm and he asked me if I would like to have 15 slightly used complete computer set ups to donate to each of the three religions. Carol and I picked them up and shlepped them to Pastor Brooks and his New Beginnings Church, to American Islamic College and we have one more stop to Rabbi Funye and the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Choir. The computers at New Beginnings will be used to help children in the afterschool program do homework, the computers at The American Islamic College will be put to good use in the library of the college and the computers at Beth Shalom will be set up to help congregants look for work.
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