One by one, groups of nervous elementary school children took turns at the microphone inside the packed gymnasium at Richmond Jewish Day School.
Some held hand-drawn poster boards explaining how to play with a dreidel. One group answered questions about Ramadan and Eid. Another sang holiday songs accompanied by a piano, eyes darting back and forth between the construction-paper lyrics and the listening crowd.
Richmond Jewish Day School held the inter-cultural and inter-faith event called “Highway to Heaven” earlier this week so families could share a variety of wintertime celebrations and traditions across different cultures.
For more than an hour, children shared their religions — from Judaism to Islam to Christianity and Catholicism — and how their families celebrate holidays differently.
“I want them to know about how our tradition works so that they can get to understand us better, like how we want to understand them better,” said Hassan Rizvi, who spoke about the holy month of Ramadan.
“That is important because sometimes they think bad things about us. We think bad things about them, so I want both of us to know about each other so that we don’t think that way.”
Watch | Elementary school student on why it’s important to learn about other faiths:
Hassan Rizvi talked about the holy month of Ramadan during an event at the Richmond Jewish Day School on Monday.
The event was named after a three-kilometre stretch of road in the city south of Vancouver, home to nearly two dozen religious and cultural institutions, from a Muslim mosque to a Sikh temple, a Buddhist temple and the Jewish day school.
Students from Richmond Christian School, Az-Zahraa Islamic Academy and Cornerstone Montessori were invited to come.
“The way to really combat and address antisemitism and racism and discrimination is through education,” said Sabrina Bhojani, the principal of Richmond Jewish Day School.
“By bringing the students together, for them to have the ability to learn from one another, I think that that is really how we are going to be able to address racism, antisemitism and discrimination.
WATCH | Sabrina Bhojani, the principal of Richmond Jewish Day School, on the importance of the interfaith event:
Sabrina Bhojani, the principal of Richmond Jewish Day School, said the school organized the interfaith ‘Shine a Light’ event to teach children from different religions about what their faiths have in common.
Students performed dances, sang songs or created art to show their personal winter-themed traditions. Afterward, they were invited to play together or make more crafts with students from across schools.
“Every religion they have something that is a tiny bit alike, but there are a lot of things that are really different. I find that really interesting,” said Grade 5 student Ella Sadoff, 10.
“It gives an understanding of we’re all different, but we shouldn’t be treated differently; because of that, we should all be treated equally.”
The event came during a surge in anti-Jewish vitriol spread by prominent public figures across the continent, including rapper Ye — formerly known as Kanye West. Neo-Nazi trolls are returnying to Twitter after its new CEO, Elon Musk, granted “amnesty” to suspended accounts.
“It seems like now is really an important time, not only in our community here in Richmond but in Canada and across the world,” said principal Bhojani.
“I hope through learning from one another, getting to know one another, they see the similarities and the commonalities between all of us … And I think it’s only through that learning that we’re going to be able to break down some of those walls of stereotyping.”
Several children, ranging from kindergarten to Grade 7, noticed on their own how different religions share similarities — including Rizvi.
“They believe in one God. We believe in one God. The Torah, like they have … we have a book like that called the Quran,” he said, offering an example.
“They just need to know about religion so they can better understand us.”