Interfaith Peace Waged

Volunteers from multiple interfaith organizations painted a new billboard Thursday that will tower over I‑95 right northbound before Exit 45 .

The 50-foot billboard was one of numerous projects completed by over 100 volunteers from across the world who gathered for New Haven Interfaith Service Day.

The effort was led by Rev. Nicholas Porter from Jerusalem Peacebuilders and Bruce Barrett from IWagePeace.org with local clergy members Rabbi Brian Immerman (Congregation Mishkan Israel), Imam Omer Bajwa (Yale Chaplin), Father Stephen Holton (Christ Episcopal Church), and Rev. Bonita Grubbs (Christian Community Action).

Around 75 high school students from Jerusalem Peacebuilders and other community volunteers were split into seven teams, each with a different service mission. In addition to painting the poster, other groups restored a Jewish cemetery on Jewel Street, built affordable housing with Habitat for Humanity, cleaned a neighborhood, picked up trash with the Criscuolo Park beach cleanup, and prepared meals for the homeless.

The volunteers at the beach cleanup collected a total of 397 cigarette butts, 136 plastic wrappers, 26 foam containers, and six plastic containers among other trash. Volunteers with Christ Church made 220 sandwiches and gave them out to people around the Green. With Habitat for Humanity, volunteers poured cement, and installed floor tiles and insulation. Other volunteers visited neighborhoods planting shrubs and collecting trash.

Zoe Weininger spent the day volunteering with Christian Community Action painting at affordable housing projects. Weininger said ​“It was really fun getting to know people and help them. I think it also brought us closer together.”

Weininger is in the first year of the Jerusalem Peacebuilders program and came from Israel to participate. Though she has been to the states before for a wedding, she said this trip has changed her perspective of the United States and the world. ​“We really need peace now more than ever and that’s why we’re here to help.”

Falah Safeih is also from Israel and in his second year of the program. He and other students participated in various model UN conferences and were selected because of their commitment to understanding international relations and their passion for creating peace. ​“We believe in peace and know it can make real change” said Safeih.

Reverend Nicholas and Dorothy Porter founded Jerusalem Peacebuilders on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. ​“We felt the call for peacemaking in the Holy Land became even more urgent” said Rev. Nicholas Porter. Their four year program is for high school students from the United States, Israel, and Palestine. ​“The program connects service to our lives through the lense of how we understand and serve God” Porter said.

Jerusalem Peacebuilders offers a ten-day summer service learning program in New Haven. The students stay at Christ Church in what Porter called ​“urban camping” while they work with IRIS and other New Haven based volunteer organizations. ​“A lot of people wonder, ​‘Well, what can I actually do?’ So through the program, students learn that an individual can actually make a difference,” said Porter

Mayor Toni Harp visited the teens and fellow interfaith community volunteers once the billboard banner was completed. She commended New Haveners’ service work and also the Jerusalem Peacebuilder dedication to peace. ​“It is important to come together like this because we are all more alike than we are different” said Harp. ​“Because we are the same, we should keep finding ways to work together for peace.”