B.C. elementary school students come together across different faiths to celebrate similarities

One by one, groups of nervous elementary school children tookturns atthe 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 songsaccompanied by apiano, eyes darting back and forth between the construction-paper lyrics and the listening crowd.

Richmond Jewish Day School held theinter-cultural and inter-faith event called "Highway to Heaven" earlier this week so families could share a variety ofwintertime celebrations and traditions across different cultures.

For more than an hour, childrenshared their religions from Judaism to Islam to Christianity and how their familiescelebrate 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:

Elementary school student on why it's important to learn about other faiths

2 years ago

Duration 0:25

Hassan Rizvi talked about the holy month of Ramadan during an event at the Richmond Jewish Day School on Monday.

The school hosting the event sitson athree-kilometre stretch of road in the city, south of Vancouver, home to nearly two dozen religious and cultural institutions, froma Muslim mosque to a Sikh temple, a Buddhist temple and theJewish day school.

Students from Richmond Christian School, Az-Zahraa Islamic Academy and Cornerstone Christian Academy were invited to come.

"The way to really combat and address antisemitismand 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:

School kids of different faiths come together to discover their similarities

2 years ago

Duration 0:26

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 toshowtheir 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 studentElla 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 asKanyeWest. Neo-Nazi trolls arereturningto Twitter afterits 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 principalBhojani.

"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."