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BOROUGH PRESIDENT MARKOWITZ ADDRESSES BROOKLYN’S CLERGY

Photographs by Kathryn Kirk

In photo: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz addresses members of the clergy in the Borough Hall Courtroom at the Biannual Clergy Breakfast.

Today, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz hosted his Biannual Clergy Breakfast. This fall’s event focused on the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s “Take Care New York” program. Also present as a special guest speaker was New York City Department of Health Commissioner Thomas. R. Friedan.

“Brooklyn’s rabbis, priests, imams and ministers are the heartbeat of our borough’s many diverse communities,” said Borough President Markowitz in his remarks. “Our religious institutions are the bedrock of Brooklyn.”

Markowitz also took the time to urge the clergy members present to help raise funds for Caribbean flood relief. “I am sure you are doing it already,” Markowitz said, “but just in case, I ask that you take up a collection for disaster relief in Jamaica, Haiti, the Cayman Islands, Grenada and the Bahamas.” Borough Hall has previously worked with the religious community to aid the Caribbean, most notably last August when Deputy Borough President Yvonne Graham traveled to Haiti to deliver a $50,000 check raised by Brooklyn’s Christian Cultural Center.

Also speaking at the breakfast were Debbie Almonstaser, who reported on the Borough President’s Anti-Bias Task Force, Reverend Dr. Daniel Meeter of Old First Reformed Church, presenting the Faith in Brooklyn Initiative, and Reverend Robert Jackson of Brooklyn Rescue Mission, speaking on Community Food Gardens.