Bridging generations, backgrounds: Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic, Council member Abdul Razak Osmanu.
One night the town erupted in chanting and screaming and accusation. Then a conversation started.
The night was Feb. 20. The Hamden Legislative Council was debating a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hundreds of people on both sides showed up. Chants and accusations and insults filled the air for hours.
Abdul Razak Osmanu, a 22-year-old council member, sponsored the resolution. He took a lead in promoting it.
Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic, who has led Hamden’s Temple Beth Shalom for over 40 years, spoke first against the resolution. He considered the event “one of the worst nights of my life … I felt like I was in Nazi Germany.”
After speaking against the resolution, Scolnic appended an appeal: “Let’s talk.” If Hamden is this divided, there needs to be conversation.
Osmanu took him up on it. They had a conversation.
“I was all prepared to dislike him,” Scolnic, who is 70 years old, recalled Tuesday during a conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” about his four decades at the helm of his congregation (which is honoring him Saturday evening with a “40 Years in the Dessert” tribute event). “He said something very important. He said, ‘I did not create this rift. I did not create this chasm. The rift has been in the community a long time.’ I thought that was a very powerful statement.”
Their conversation continued. It grew more structured: The pair formed a group that includes Rev. Jack Perkins Davidson of Spring Glen Church and Council member Laurie Sweet, among others. They’ve met three times, with more sessions planned, to talk out differences, find common ground, and potentially work together.
“He’s an amazingly personable person,” Osmanu said of Scolnic.
The group recognizes they won’t come to an agreement on the Gaza resolution, he said. But “through the conversations, we realize there’s more that we agree on, especially in town, than we disagree. This can be a gateway to a partnership” on issues ranging from housing and the environment to police violence.
Scolnic said his congregation has “been very supportive of my efforts with this. That’s a wonderful thing when you have the wind at your back.”
Click on the above video to watch the conversation with Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.
Click below to watch a recent previous interview on “Dateline” with Council Member Abdul Razak Osmanu.
Eddy Martinez/Connecticut Public Photo