At Rikers Island, Jewish volunteers find a ‘powerful connection’ with inmates by leading prayer services
By Julia Gergely – The New York Jewish Week
But while the big guns battle it out, there are numerous grassroots efforts to make the living conditions a bit more bearable for those interred. Among them are a group of Jewish young adults affiliated with the Selma and Lawrence Ruben Base House on the Upper West Side, or Base, a communal space for Jews in their 20s and 30s.
Once a month, a handful of Base volunteers join Kretzmer-Seed at Rikers for Jewish prayer services with Jewish or Jewish-curious inmates like Padilla, providing company, conversation and Torah learning for some of the city’s most isolated citizens.
“I have a strong interest in prison abolition so I like to look for ways to build community with people inside,” volunteer Julia Burke, 37, told the New York Jewish Week. “As a new resident to New York who is on a conversion journey, I was really happy to find such an opportunity within the context of Judaism.”
