A diverse panel of religious and ethnic leaders led a forum in Great Neck last week to call for unity to combat the rising tide of hate crimes and intolerance gripping the nation.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Great Neck Plaza Mayor Ted Rosen said, quoting from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from a Birmingham jail.

The United Against Hate Conference hosted by Great Neck Plaza was a prelude to MLK Day, with more than 50 community members attending in person and via Zoom.

Rosen said the discussion was an important opportunity for the community to band together in confronting the increase in antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and anti-Asian attacks in recent months and years.

“I believe that most people are good,” Rosen said. “And that the many people of goodwill that we have will stand up together and be united in speaking out against and denouncing acts of prejudice and hate regardless of whether the targets of such hate and prejudice are of the same religion, race or ethnicity as they are.”

Present on the panel were local and nationally known officials as well as religious leaders representing a diversity of backgrounds.

Included was Co-President of the Great Neck Chinese Association and Great Neck School School Board Trustee Steve Chen, Vice Chair of the NAACP National Board of Directors Karen Boykin-Towns, President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding Rabbi Marc Schneier, Imam of the Jamaica Muslim Center Shamsi Ali and New York State Supreme Court Justice Mojgan Cohanim Lancman.

The forum was moderated by Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Kenneth Bossert, who said the forum is addressing an important topic “at a time where it is desperately needed.”

“Ignorance is our shared enemy,” Ali said. “And we must fight that.”

Schneier said MLK Day coincides with the Jewish tradition of reading the Biblical narrative of the exodus from Egypt, which details the 10 plagues cast upon the Egyptians.

The ninth plague is the plague of darkness, but Schneier said it was not physical darkness but rather a darkness found within one’s heart.

“And that, my friends, is the most terrible plague of all,” Schneier said. “And that’s our challenge, not only here but throughout the country and throughout the world. And that is to find that light of understanding and caring that enables us to see the other so that we see each and every person as a human being who has the hopes, the needs, the hunger, the feelings that appear just as we do, who is a child of God just as we are and who is entitled to be treated with the same indignity, justice and compassion that we claim for ourselves.”

Boykin-Towns cited data that showed hate crimes increasing in recent years, and a prediction that the trend would continue to increase in 2024 due to an association with presidential election years. She called for people to unite in order to challenge this prediction.

“Fighting hate has no political party,” Boykin-Towns said. “We are all duty-bound to fight together because hate is hate and our safety and our futures are intertwined… 2024 will be another battle, but I am optimistic because if you’re not optimistic, then what do you have?”

Schneier said there has been an “exponential growth” in various forms of prejudice, but quoted King in his statement expressing that all forms of prejudice is to be fought by everyone not just those directly affected.

All the panelists called for the same thing to help combat hate to their respective communities: allyship.

“We need friends,” Schneier said. “We need allies…we cannot fight these battles alone.”

Lancman said uniting starts with inviting others into the conversation.

Boykin-Towns expanded upon this, saying it also is important to show up after receiving these invitations.

Ali said casting aside ignorance is the first step to combat hate.

The Imam said that New York City is the greatest city in the world for many reasons. But he didn’t say it was due to the impressive architecture or the notable monuments of the city  Rather he attributed it to the bridges that connect the boroughs and its people.

“There is only one supremacy, and that is human supremacy,” Ali said.

While Boykin-Towns said the discussion held Thursday night is valuable, she said it is the actions taken afterward that are important.