photo by Simone Popperl
More than fifty students gathered in Red Square on Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil commemorating the lives lost in the Lebanese war this summer.
Hammad Hammad (SFS ‘08), president of the Students for Justice in Palestine, and Mark Lerner (SFS ‘09), president of the Georgetown-Israel Alliance, said they were united in their hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
The event, in which students heard readings from both the Qur’an and a Jewish prayer of mourning, ended as students silently extinguished their candles and left them at the center of the crowd.
The vigil was sponsored by the Jewish Student Association, the Muslim Student Association, the SJP, and the GIA.
“Although we have vast political differences,” Hammad said, “this [vigil] shows that we can come together and start off the year recognizing that we both have grievances and can start a dialogue about the causes of those grievances.”
“Peace has to start somewhere and this is a great place to start,” Lerner said.
