DAILY NEWS
About 50 NYPD officers
will travel to Mideast in
effort to build a cultural link
BY Rocco Parascandola
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
Wednesday, May 19th 2010, 4:00 AM
Detectives (from left) Samuel Miller, Ahmed Nasser and Lawrence Wein and Sgt. Brian Reilly
They're not out to solve the crisis in the Middle East, but a
group of Christian, Jewish and Muslim NYPD
officers hopes its trip this week to the Holy Land can breed understanding and tolerance -
while creating more effective cops. "It's all about building bridges,"
said Detective Lawrence Wein, head of the NYPD's Shomrim Society,a fraternal group of Jewish cops.
"We're hoping that by doing this we can bring
people together.
"It will be great to go to the Holy Land, where all these religions began, and
learn about each other's culture."
About 50 officers from Shomrim, the Muslim Society and the Holy Name Society,
a Catholic group, are scheduled to leave Thursday for a two-week trip with stops in Jerusalem,
Nazareth, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Cairo.
The officers expect to visit holy sites and houses of worship, and hope to talk
with their foreign law enforcement brethren.
Detective Ahmed Nasser, who emigrated from Yemen to New York 24 years ago and
leads the department's Muslim Society,
said he knows one trip won't do all that much
to ease tensions between Jews and Arabs.
Still, he hopes learning more about Christians and Jews will make him a
better-rounded officer
and lead to a stronger relationship
between the NYPD and the communities it serves.
"It's very volatile over there," said Nasser, who works in the Community Affairs
Bureau.
"No matter what we do and how we feel, that's
the way things are, but maybe this can set an example for others."
Officers with the Holy Name Society have traveled with Shomrim before -
including a trip to Israel.
The Muslim Society, which formed two years ago,
is the newcomer to the group, but Nasser said its officers were quickly
accepted.
rparascandola@nydailynews.com