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Montreal school bombing sparks inter-faith concert for peace

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  • Montreal school bombing sparks inter-faith concert for peace

    Ottawa Citizen
    May 31, 2004 Monday Final Edition

    Montreal school bombing sparks inter-faith concert for peace:
    Synagogue chooses to 'do something practical';
    will raise money for books

    by Bob Harvey


    Ottawa faith groups hope to sow a little more peace in the world.

    On Sunday at 7 p.m., Jews, Mormons, Roman Catholics, Armenian
    Christians, Hindus and Muslims will join in a Concert for Peace at
    the Beth Shalom Synagogue on Chapel Street.

    Daniel Benlolo, the cantor at Beth Shalom, and the event's
    co-chairman, said that after the fire-bombing of Montreal's United
    Talmud Torah School on April 5, "we decided we wanted to do something
    practical."

    Some of the money raised by the concert will go toward buying books
    to replace those destroyed in the school library, and the rest will
    be doled out by the participating groups to any project that might
    help make peace.

    Mr. Benlolo said "people think all Jews and all Arabs are the same,
    and we're trying to prove otherwise. We hope people will stop and say
    there are some good people in the world."

    A note found at the scene of the fire-bombing linked it to Israel's
    killing of the founder of Hamas, a Palestinian resistance movement.

    Mr. Benlolo said that when he met Palestinians, he sang his songs,
    and the Palestinians sang theirs. "That way, camaraderie was
    established."

    He said it is not just the Middle East that faces conflict today.
    "We've learned that there is terrorism in cities all over the world."

    Mr. Benlolo said the concert will be strictly entertainment and "is
    not going to make a huge difference in the world, but it is
    definitely going to make a difference to some people, and these
    people are going to be speaking about it to other people."

    The choirs, the musicians and the synagogue are waiving any payment,
    and even the synagogue's custodian is working for free.

    Tickets for the peace concert and the dessert reception that follows
    are $10. The synagogue's auditorium has 740 seats, and there are only
    125 seats still left. But Mr. Benlolo says that, if necessary, he
    will open the doors to the synagogue and provide more seats.

    Tickets can be obtained from the participating groups: the Jewish
    community at 789-3501; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
    Saints, 832-0101; the Roman Catholic Cathedral at 241-7496; the
    Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada, at 224-8117; the Hindu
    Temple at 822-1531; and the Ottawa Muslim Association, 722-8763.
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