Building bridges across religions and cultures, Israel will be hosting an Asian Interfaith Conference, titled ‘Ancient Traditions, Contemporary Realities: A Meeting of Israel-Asia Faith Leaders’, from 11-15 September, 2016 in Israel.
The conference, organized by the Israeli MFA in cooperation with American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the World Council of Religious Leaders, will see fifteen prominent spiritual leaders from Asia come under one roof and discuss such questions as the role of Religious Leadership in our societies today, and how faith leadership can help better protect our planet and conserve its resources.
Religious leaders from India, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Myanmar will take part in this special event, with India having the largest representation of religious leaders, comprising of Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Swami Avdeshanand Giri, Swami Parmatmananda, Giani Gurbachan Singh and Acharya Chandana ji.
The Asian religious leaders will meet Israel’s Prime Minister and will enjoy a busy program that will include interactions with religious leaders, fromIsrael’s diverse communities: Jewish, Druze, Muslim and Christian, as well as with scholars, intellectuals and the Israeli public. The conference will feature a special memorial session to commemorate the life of Swami Dayananda Saraswati ji
Swami Dayananda was the driving force behind the Jewish-Hindu relationship. Through the council of Hindu leaders, he held two high profile summits with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the American Jewish Committee and other Jewish leaders and scholars. These summits were a breakthrough in Hindu-Jewish relations, establishing “spiritual-diplomatic” relations between India and Israel. His loss was mourned by Prime Minister Modi as a personal loss.