“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” - Jeremiah 29:7
“with G-D’S name The Merciful Benefactor, The Merciful Redeemer: Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the East or the West, but righteousness is in the one who Believes in G-D and gives the wealth in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask, and for the freeing of the captives (of war)” - Surah 2:177
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ… If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” -1 Corinthians 12:12, 26
“Seek the welfare of the city…” The prophet Jeremiah spoke these words to the people of God who had been driven into exile. He tells the people: you can’t just worry about yourselves. To survive this hard time, to thrive in this place, you’re going to have to care about everyone.
Across religious traditions, people of faith are called by the divine to care for one another. Over and over again we are commanded in our religious texts: you are responsible for one another’s wellbeing. As faith leaders from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions in New Haven and
Connecticut, we call our communities to the hard work of building a world where all people can thrive. This means acting for the common good, and holding one another accountable when we see our neighbors suffering.
Today in New Haven we are seeing our neighbors struggle and suffer. Public schools in New Haven struggle—and sometimes fail—to keep doors open, and to keep vital student academic and social services in place due to funding shortfalls. The divide continues to grow between those who have access to Yale’s extraordinary resources, and the young people who grow up in the shadow of one of the world’s leading educational institutions.
While our neighbors struggle to meet their rents and pay their bills, we have watched the Yale endowment grow to $44.1 billion last year. While the workers and communities that support the University live paycheck to paycheck, while the City of New Haven cuts services and struggles to fund the needs of the most vulnerable, while year after year young people lose their lives to violence, Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital enjoy over $106 million in real estate tax breaks each year.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We, the undersigned clergy, call on Yale to do what our communities of faith try to do every day: be a good neighbor, working for the mutual welfare of the whole community of New Haven. Put the people over the profits of the endowment. Recognize that Yale must act with mutual responsibility for the community because it is a partner in the community. We call on Yale to:
- Help our city create world-class schools, build more affordable housing, and provide vital services by paying their fair share to New Haven.
- Commit to a neutral and voluntary recognition process for workers seeking unionization.
- Settle fair contracts with unionized workers that set a middle-class standard for our region.
- Expand local hiring and training programs that give our residents access to good union jobs.
A healthy city, with mutual and strong bonds of respect between Yale and the community, means resilience for both the city and the University. Our mutual care for each other is what keeps us all - individual and institution alike - from falling through the cracks when threatened and attacked by federal policies and budget cuts. Yale, seek the welfare of this city. In its welfare, you will find your own.