Source: Newsday (New York, NY)
FLUSHING, NEW YORK, October 21, 2002: New immigrants coming to America are seeking solace in their religious roots and nowhere is this more evident than in New York City. Rajesh Vohra, a 39-year-old restaurant manager originally from New Delhi, says, “First I began coming to the Ganapati Temple on Bowne Street because I missed family members and I missed my culture. It became a habit that brought me a lot of peace. Now I feel if I didn’t have this place to come to, I would be lost.” Rev. David Tsang from the Boon Church of the Overseas Chinese Mission says, “We call Bowne Street ‘The Holy Land’ because we have so many churches, temples, and synagogues. I think the main reason is the number of newcomers who feel they have no place else to turn except to God.” Tony Carnes, director of the Research Institute for New Americans in lower Manhattan says, “The New York area is attracting one of the most diverse concentrations of religions that the world has ever seen.” Robert Orsi, a scholar of urban religion who teaches at Harvard Divinity School says, “Immigrants often become far more identified with their religion here, in part because they reach out to religious and cultural communities for help, and in part because they discover that religion plays such a key role in American identity.” A 2000 survey of religious participation by the Nashville-based Glenmary Research Center indicates that 62.4% of people living in New York metro area are connected with a house of worship and that the 29-county New York metro claims more Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Hindus than any place else in America.