Rabbi Josh Stanton, esteemed guests, and friends,
 
It is an honor to be present with you here tonight to share this sacred moment. This evening I stand here to grieve, not as a Muslim neighbor who has come to "support the other," but as a member of the family of East End Temple, and as a friend to the Jewish communities of New York and beyond.
 
I come here every Sunday morning along with my three children and the children of many other Muslim families here in New York as part of an Islamic School weekend program, which I founded years ago. Our school was founded on the Islamic values of compassion, pluralism, and inclusion - and being housed here at East End Temple facilitates this mission greatly.
 
Members of our Cordoba House community also come here for Friday weekly Jumma congregational prayers, and are often joined by the Rabbi and other members of the synagogue for a question-and-answer session related to the day's sermon.
 
It is also here at East End Temple where our Cordoba House teens gather week after week in dialogue and friendship with Jewish teens, and discuss common challenges they face in New York - followed by a teen production facilitated by our respective music directors.
 
And, it is here where I have found a friend in Rabbi Josh and the others leaders of East End Temple, where we dream together and support one another to accomplish our shared vision.
 
So, when the Pittsburgh shooting happened, it was a personal tragedy for our community members - not only because we share programmatic space with East End Temple, but also because we have discovered that it is not just us adults who interact with each other, but our children also play, study, and interact with one another in common schools on a daily basis.

Rebekah Shore's (Co-President of East End Temple) daughter Sarah attends not just the same middle school as my son Isa, but was also in the same homeroom in 7th grade. We discovered this when my son Isa was invited to Sarah's Bat Mitzvah, and Rebekah recognized my name on the invitation and I recognized hers on the RSVP.
 
Another example of a friendship that has made the Pittsburgh tragedy a personal one for me is the one that I share with Miri Kubovy. Miri is a Professor of Classics and Jewish Studies at Hunter College, and is in the audience amongst us tonight. Miri does not attend synagogue, but she is here tonight because I do. Miri's home, however, is a synagogue in itself. Miri and I know each other because my older son and her grandson have been best friends since middle school and, even though they are in separate high schools now, they continue to meet regularly. And Rabbi Josh, if you do not find me available to join you here at the temple during Rosh Hoshannah, it's because my family and I are at Miri's home celebrating the holiday with her and her family.

May God then, for whose sake they lived and died, grant them and their families peace from His eternal presence in the highest of paradise. Amen.

- Naz Georgas, Executive Director of the Cordoba House.