NEW YORK (RNS) — After one year as executive director of the New York City Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, Queens native and Hindu Vijah Ramjattan feels hopeful. At a time of rising hate incidents against some religious and ethnic communities, Ramjattan’s aim has been to build relationships and education from the bottom up, long before harm occurs.
Through bread-breaking initiatives — such as the Interfaith Council for Symbols and Words of Peace and Hate, which launched earlier this year — Ramjattan wants to combat ignorance and show that shared knowledge is the city’s greatest strength. He credits his approach, in part, for a recent decrease in hate crimes in the city.
“The perception that New Yorkers from diverse groups don’t want to speak with each other, don’t want to connect, don’t want to exchange ideas or find places of commonality, that’s not true,” he told RNS in an interview Wednesday (Dec. 17). “We just have to provide the space and the context for diverse New Yorkers to connect and build bridges.”
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How has the Interfaith Council for Symbols and Words of Peace and Hate initiative been going?
This program was designed to bring together over 30 faith leaders who would not ordinarily be in the same room, or who might otherwise stay in their own corners because of differenc …