Jackson Heights is a neighborhood where different religions and cultures coexist and cooperate in harmony. There is a Greek Orthodox Church, SS. Constantine and Helen, on the same street as the Jackson Heights Islamic Center Mosque, which is located right off of Roosevelt Avenue. Other religious institutions, such as the St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church and the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, open their doors to everyone in the community. They invite people to participate in different activities and programs that they host. The Community United Methodist Church provides workshops such as learning how to speak and write English for adults. Making a left on 74th St overwhelms me with the Indian aromas, culture and language. The constant exposure to the different religions in Jackson Heights has turned out to be the foundation for this community and what makes it special. No matter how much war and hate is in the world, in Jackson Heights everything is put aside. Here, one of the most critical MTA stops in Queens (74th St, Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights) connects the E, F, M, R, 7 trains and buses to La Guardia Airport along with these religions.
The Jackson Heights Jewish Community Center serves as a synagogue and a community center. Councilmember Daniel Dromm explained to us that at any day of the week one can pass by the Jewish Community Center and find people of different religions walking in and out. Mr. Dromm calls this way of bringing people together a “model” for other people to follow and to coexist in. On a random day, one will see the Muslims walking in for a service while the Jewish community is holding a yard sale and later that day another religious group will hold a meeting in the Jewish Center. In reality, nearly ten percent of the population is Jewish in Jackson Heights. The Jackson Heights-Elmhurst “Kehillah” has a motto that states it “strengthens the interests of the Jewish community, promotes inter-group relations, and provides public benefits enrollment assistance, social, medical, recreational, occupational, educational and cultural services for all residents of Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and Western Queens.” Their goal is to interweave all cultures and welcome them into their facilities in order to have everyone receive equal programs and resources. Aside from these programs, the Jewish Community Center rents out their space to other religious groups in order for them to hold their religious gatherings if they do not have a place to meet. Moreover, the Jewish Center provides the Jackson Heights community with ESL lessons as well as computer lessons. This way, after a service, members of the community may stick around and learn skills that will further their knowledge about the new, rapid growing technology.
Nearly fifty percent of the population in Jackson Heights identify with a religion. They participate in activities and programs held in religious institutions. The majority of these religious people in the community are from the Catholic community. They make up thirty percent of the population in the neighborhood. Councilmember Daniel Dromm gave us insight as to why this is the statistic. In Jackson Heights, there is a large majority of undocumented people. They find refuge in the church and in Jackson Heights; the largest community of Catholics joins the Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Church, located on 81st Street and 35th Avenue. In the rectory, I was told that there are 3,000 registered members, but on a regular Sunday, they expect about 5,000-6,000 people. During Holidays, the number booms to nearly 10,000. Saint Joan of Arc offers several programs, such as their most popular Day School, which is for grades Pre-K until 8th grade. They also offer youth programs, which include the Boy Scouts and various sports for boys and girls. These programs are not limited to the students of their school or to Catholic people; they welcome everyone in the community of any religious background. The church also offers services everyday and they are in two different languages, Spanish and English. Due to the large turnout every Sunday, the church holds nine to ten services on Sunday, three of which are in Spanish. Members are not just from Hispanic countries though. The church’s community ranges from people from the Philippines, Guyana, Poland, Italian, China and Ireland. It is clear that the diversity in Jackson Heights can be witnessed on a Sunday afternoon at St. Joan of Arc, just by taking a look at the different kinds of ethnicities that partake in the Catholic communities’ services and programs.
In Jackson Heights, there is a large community of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Jain. The predominant religion amongst these religions is Muslim. There are about four to five mosques in Jackson Heights and they are visible, but located in basements of apartments, because of the lack of space in Jackson Height’s, according to Mr. Dromm. Their small space locations are the reason why they do not offer as many programs as St. Joan of Arc and the Jewish Center can offer. The largest Muslim community is located on 72nd Street and 35th Avenue and it is called the Darul Furqan Mosque. Five percent of the population in Jackson Heights is part of the Islamic religion. The difference between the Catholic and Jewish Community and the Muslim community is that the Muslim community is more reserved. Although they cooperate with the other religions in Jackson Heights, they are more likely to stay amongst themselves and follow their traditions very strictly. An example of this is when a young man’s memory and body became an “object of a tug of war over religious freedom and obligation” (NY Times) after his death on September 10th. According to the NY Times, “It began when his mother, who was raised Hindu, and his father, who is Muslim, decided to have his body cremated in the Hindu tradition, rather than burying him in a shroud, as Islam prescribes.” They were accosted by an angry mob that threatened to boycott their shop on 74th Street in Jackson Heights and even burn it down. The cremation dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Muslims in America about what makes someone a Muslim and how to reconcile this country’s freedom of religion with what some Muslims see as a communal obligation to uphold religious observance. This goes to show that the Muslim community in Jackson Heights is very serious and strict with their traditions and culture.
Lastly, The Community United Methodist Church in Jackson Heights provides the community with many free services that better the community as a whole. Recently, they also reconstructed a playground in their facilities for the children of the neighborhood to play in and enjoy. The World’s Fair of 1964 introduced the sixty ethnic communities of Jackson Heights. In the years since, the Borough of Queens has become the most diverse ethnically in the nation. According to the church’s website, “ The Community United Methodist Church of Jackson Heights decided to be and build a new multi-language congregation and the largely European congregation decided to change as Jackson Heights changed”. These facilities also let other religions rent out their space in order to hold meetings and services.
Jackson Heights is a great exemplar of many religions coexisting in peace, despite all the war that is happening around the world. Not only are they coexisting, but also they are cooperating in the same facilities and being civil with one another on a daily basis. Much like the other neighborhoods, the religious institutions in Jackson Heights keep on welcoming people of the community to participate in their programs in order to better the entire neighborhood as a whole. Furthermore, when children are raised in a neighborhood such as Jackson Heights, a place where religious diversity is prevalent, cooperation between ethnicities is even more apparent in public schools amongst the young kids. Children begin to learn about these different religions and cultures. They become accepting of them beginning in kindergarten and are able to embrace and respect the differences between the religions within school walls.
