... As keynote comments wrapped up, Rabbi Barnett talked about the Torah and the story of Moses being sent adrift down the Nile River before being found by the Pharaoh's daughter after her father had decreed all male Hebrew children should be drown. Barnett said she took the child as her own and while she may have initially thought like her father did -- that these individuals are not even human -- she likely experienced compassion for the child.

"And I think about that for all of us, as a blessing and challenge for all of us," he said. "No matter where we are in our lives, when we encounter someone different we have certain assumptions about who they are and who they're not … can we be open for that human moment to sneak through and for us to have compassion regardless of whatever policies we support or how we see the world?"

Barnett ended by playing his guitar, singing a song in Hebrew called "Salom" (Arabic for peace).

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