It takes a village.
The founder of a Brooklyn human rights group will call on Jews to fight the persecution of other religious groups worldwide at a Holocaust memorial Sunday in Sheepshead Bay.
Dr. Vladimir Gressel of the Stop Anti-Semitism Foundation, has invited a swath of ethnic and religious leaders to join survivors and their relatives at Holocaust Memorial Park.
“How do you expect other religious organizations to help us fight anti-Semitism if we’re not speaking about atrocities happening to other religions?” Gressel told The Daily News.
Gressel, who practices in Williamsburg and Pennsylvania, immigrated 25 years ago from the former Belarus. His great grandparents and three of their five children were among 800 killed by Nazis in the village of Tatarsk, Russia.
His grandmother was among the few who survived.
“[We want to] remind people that what happened in the Holocaust is happening now, especially against the Christians,” said Gressel, who’s invited speakers include Dr. Ashraf Ramelah, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian.
Gressel sees parallels between what happened to the Jews more than seven decades ago in Germany and many attacks today on ethnic and religious minorities across the globe.
Christians in Egypt have been the victims of widespread attacks — including church burnings and killings — leading up to the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
Ramelah, who left Egypt at 16 for Italy and immigrated to the United States in 1993, still speaks to his father and sister in Cairo once or twice a week, he told The News.
“We are living the same situation,” said Ramelah, who lives in Pennsylvania. “They had it before and they have it now. The Holocaust from my point of view is still going on.”
Jews have too often been silent when it comes to conflicts involving other religious groups, Gressel said. He’s hopeful his new organization and Sunday’s event, which will feature speakers and music, will help build new alliances.
“We can’t have some sympathy from the rest of the world if we’re not going to stand together and say what’s going on with other communities, other religions,” Gressel said.
A Holocaust remembrance will take place 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sunday in the Holocaust Memorial Park, at the entrance of Sheepshead Bay near the water’s edge. The event is free.
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