Bainbridge Island North Kitsap Interfaith Council 

Now that spring is upon us, this is a great time to donate flowers from your garden to the Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers, who arrange and deliver them to care receivers who need emotional support. Please take your freshly cut flowers to the front doors of Eagle Harbor Congregational Church and place them in the buckets there.   

Interfaith Reflections
Members of IFC congregations offer faith-based insights on topics of interest or concern to people in our community. Click here for more information and an index and links to all columns.

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial

**Breaking News** (April 30, 2008) The U.S. House last night passed the long debated Wild Sky Wilderness proposal. It's now headed to the White House. The plan protects more than 106 thousand acres from logging in the Mount Baker–Snoqualmie National Forest. And it also calls for a new 8–acre memorial on Bainbridge Island to mark the internment of Japanese–Americans during World War 2. The Bainbridge Island families were the first of nearly 120 thousand people sent to internment camps across the country. KUOW's Derek Wang spoke with Clarence Moriwaki about the development. Moriwaki is an island resident who heads the Japanese American Memorial Committee.  Click here to listen to the interview.

On March 30, 1942, 227 men, women and children from Bainbridge Island, Washington were assembled and escorted by armed U.S. Army soldiers to the Eagledale ferry landing. Only allowed to bring what they could carry or wear, they passed military cordons before boarding a ferry, leaving their island home in the heart of Puget Sound. They sailed to Seattle, where they were loaded onto trains for a three-day journey that would take them to the Manzanar concentration camp in California’s Mojave Desert. The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial marks the spot. The Interfaith Council of Bainbridge Island/North Kitsap is proud to be part of the history in the creation of this important memorial.  Click here for more information.

An Open Letter

To:  Mayor Darlene Kordonowy; Bainbridge Island City Council; Dr. Ken Crawford, Superintendent, Bainbridge Island School District; School Board, Bainbridge Island School District

February 26, 2008 

The recent act of vandalism at Blakely Elementary School is of great concern to us.  It contained not only ugly smears of school employees, but antisemitic slurs as well – “Kike,” “Jesus Hates Jews,” a figure labeled “Jew” hanging from a hangman’s noose.

The school staff and the Bainbridge Police Department responded quickly and sensitively, and we are very grateful to them for having done so.

But we remain concerned.  This was not a one-time event, but rather the latest in a series of incidents of bigotry and prejudice that have occurred on the Island in recent years.  In August, 2001, vandals desecrated tombstones at Port Blakely Cemetery; there has been racist graffiti at the Filipino-American Hall; developmentally disabled students in our schools have had to endure taunts and harassment.  Additionally, our community still bears the all-too-recent memory of watching hundred of local Japanese-Americans being deported from the Island at bayonet-point during World War II.

We know, of course, that the majority of our fellow Bainbridge residents find these acts abhorrent.  But bigotry continues to raise its ugly head here, anyway.  No longer can we dismiss these events as isolated incidents or as mere childhood pranks.   There is clearly a pattern of hurtful prejudice here, and it is time that we begin taking it seriously.

Of course, there is no easy fix to such ugly behavior.  But the fact that the problems are complex is no excuse to ignore them.  We call upon the Bainbridge community – particularly, but not only, its schools – to take positive and purposeful action on behalf of cultural and religious diversity on Bainbridge Island, and on behalf of respect for the various groups whose presence so deeply enriches our community.  Such steps might include community-wide diversity activities, diversity-awareness programs in our schools, and other activities, too. We are eager to work in partnership with you in implementing these initiatives.

Again, we know that most of us on the Island treasure the diversity of our community and abhor incidents such as the recent one at Blakely Elementary school.  But this most recent event should remind us that values such as respect and dignity don’t prevail on their own – we need to work to make them real. We call upon you to undertake this noble task, and we pledge to work with you to achieve it.

We thank you in advance or your efforts on behalf of respect and diversity on Bainbridge Island.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Mark Glickman, Congregation Kol Shalom

Eileen Hershberg, President, Congregation Kol Shalom,

Rev. Dr. Dee Eisenhauer, Eagle Harbor Congregational Church

Janette Ahrndt, President, Bainbridge Island/North Kitsap Interfaith Council

Bishop Brad Hepworth, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Bainbridge Island Ward

Other Organizations and Leaders

Member Organizations