3. A Thousand Voices Join Together in the Small Hours of the Night for Peace and Understanding in Jerusalem
Elijah Institute supported and took part in a meeting of local religious leaders, on the occasion of the visit to Israel of Hajji Pak Yahya Staquf, leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama, a 60 million strong Muslim organization in Indonesia, who was in Israel as a guest of honor of the AJC, and engaged in a public conversation with Elijah board member Rabbi David Rosen. Click here to see the conversation. One former leader of the organization, the largest Muslim organization globally, was President Abdurahman Wahid, who was founding member of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders. Elijah thus had a natural connection with Nahdlatul Ulama, and the recent visit to Jerusalem allowed for the recovery of that relationship, laying the ground for future participation of NU's leadership in Elijah activities.
At the gathering of religious leaders, Alon Goshen-Gottstein offered the following, in response to Pak Yahya's challenge - "why can't we simply practice compassion towards one another?"
The challenges pertain to heart and mind.
On the level of mind - all too often we hold narrow views, and attribute these to the teachings of religion. We need to engage in work of theology of religions as part of purifying our religion and discovering its higher and highest vision. We need to purify our religion, all religions, from the egotism and narrowness that we all too often ascribe to religion, and to do so as a spiritual exercise, drawing from true religious resources.
On the level of heart - compassion cannot be simply an idea to spread about. It has to be a reality that comes from our heart, from our being. For this, we need to grow in spirit, in prayer, in rising to a higher spiritual vision and reality, from which we can draw and through which our heart can expand.
Elijah was delighted to contribute to the interreligious nature of the mass-singing event, by suggesting and helping facilitate a brief interreligious prayer at its opening, thereby exposing the masses attending this event to a sample of interreligious prayer and solidarity.
For coverage of the event in Israeli media and clip of the brief prayer, click here.
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