By Andrea Ordonez, Staff Writer

Students of different religions on campus gathered March 24 for the second annual Interfaith Dinner. Sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement, the Office of Multicutural & International Student Programs, Hofstra Hillel, the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Newman Club and the Islamic Organization of Hofstra University, the dinner discussion focused on how people of different religions approach times of crisis.

For the second year, Anthony Lucci, a junior major in mathematical business economies, led the team of four students from each religious organization on campus and three interns organizing the event. Since January, Lucci placed almost 20 hours contacting both religious and cultural groups on campus to come and take part in the discussion. His work paid off since this year’s dinner had a 25 percent increase in attendance.

At the dinner, students talked freely about their religious communities and how they respond to current global and personal calamities. “It’s a social responsibility for Jews to take care of those who need it in both big and small ways,” said Becky Cuthbertson, a freshman secondary education major and the Hofstra Hillel representative on the dinner’s executive planning committee. 

The discussions were moderated by religious representatives who work at the Interfaith offices or are current faculty members.   

Overall, the dinner created a positive atmosphere promoting unity despite differing religious practices. “We are of the same world, it’s just different houses,” said Michelle Hall, assistant director of the multicultural office. “Whatever you believe there is still love and community.”

Lucci hopes that this year’s Interfaith Dinner, the only religiously-oriented event that the Center for Civic Engagement sponsors, will garner even more interest in the coming years.

“The way this event is sent up,” he said, “and the kind of synergy you get from learning from other people is more than what you get from your own.”