WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — As anti-Trump protests continue to be held across the city, an event being organized Uptown aims to celebrate diversity and unity.
The interfaith Thanksgiving celebration and art exhibit on Sunday is being organized by Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez. It will be followed by a post-election roundtable dialogue with Uptown Community Democrats.
“The results of ... the presidential election cannot be taken lightly,” Rodriguez wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
“A candidate from one of our two major political parties won on a campaign that trumpeted prejudice, discrimination, racism, misogyny and that appealed to a dangerous strand of our country's past that so many of us thought was in the rearview.”
The event, which takes place Sunday at the Hebrew Tabernacle at 551 Fort Washington Ave., will focus on the need to celebrate diversity and push back against the hatred experienced since the election and even before, said a spokesman for Rodriguez.
Faith leaders from across the neighborhood of different backgrounds, as well as community leaders and elected officials, will be in attendance.
Earlier this year, a Jewish customer was threatened in a Dunkin Donuts at 398 Audubon Ave. and told to take off his yarmulke. The assailant was later arrested and charged with aggravated harassment.
Shortly after that incident, a local rabbi had a mezuzah stolen from the door of his family’s home.
The interfaith Thanksgiving celebration will start on Sunday at 2:30 p.m., followed by a post-election roundtable dialogue — called "Community Blueprint: Moving Forward As One" — with Uptown Democrats at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church at 729 W. 181st St. from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The roundtable, which is open to "everyone interested in working together on solutions to move our community forward," will also have representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union in attendance.
Several residents are also organizing a bus trip to Washington D.C. on January 21, 2017 to support the Women’s March on Washington.
