World Jewish News

Eurasia calls for a peace dialogue.

Last week, the presentation of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress was held in New York City and Washington, DC, USA. The organization unites Jewish communities of the CIS and Asian-Pacific countries. The leadership of the EAJC arrived in New York City, USA, to invite the authorities and the population of the USA to participate in an international dialogue on decreasing the present day's tension in the world. The delegation of the Members of the Congress met the NY Jewish Federation and the UJA there. On the same day, the EAJC delegation met the religious leaders of the USA and the representatives of the COJECO. Many different events of the kind took place on January 28, including: the press conference and a big reception jointly organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, the NCSJ, and the World Jewish Congress.
On January 29, the delegation arrived in Washington, DC. The EAJC members met with the US National Security deputy advisor Steve Hadley and with the aide to the State Department Secretary on Europe and Eurasia Elizabeth Jones. Then, the delegation visited the US Congress to meet a big group of congressmen and senators. The EAJC Washington presentation ended with a reception in the Embassy of Kazakhstan attended by mass media and religious leaders representing different confessions.
The Embassy of Kazakhstan expressed hospitality, the main Kazakh tradition, by setting a dastarhan full of Eastern and Kosher food, for the delegation and its guests. The Kazakh Ambassador in the US K.Saudabayev delivered a welcoming speech: "Nowadays, when the entire world is inundated with terrorism, and when the entire progressive mankind worries not only about the life of children, but also about that of the entire Earth's population, we have to say a loud "No!" to terrorism and do everything possible to stop it. Kazakhstan is the only country to have voluntarily agreed to close down the nuclear testing ground situated there. This and many other steps Kazakhstan has taken is a clear evidence of the peaceable disposition of my country. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is calling on all the nations to start a peace dialogue, and we are ready to cooperative with it".
The EAJC President Alexander Mashkevich explained the audience that the EAJC is the Eurasian branch of the World Jewish Congress, that the EAJC had been founded less that a year ago to unite 28 nations, which respective Jewish communities had previously been out of strategic development and coordination by any public organization. These include not only all CIS countries, but also Japan, Australia, India, and some others. Nowadays, our Congress helps Jewish communities of different countries in the fields of cultural and educational development, for which we have developed special programs. The interreligious dialogue is the highly important aspect of the Congress's activities. The objective of this visit of ours is, with a help of the local Jewish communities, to attract the attention of the American political authorities and that of the public to a peace dialogue on this difficult issue in order to settle peacefully contradictions between different religions and nationalities. We are 100% sure that there are no antagonistic contradictions between Judaism, Islam and Christianity; only a small group of extremists use religion as a cover for their criminal attitudes and deeds," pointed out the EAJC President.
A quite reasonable question: "Why has the Embassy of Kazakhstan been chosen for the closing ceremonies?" was answered by the Ambassador: "Because the EAJC President Alexander Mashkevich is a citizen of this steppe sunny country; plus, the representatives of Jewish and Muslim organizations have chosen Almaty to sign there the Eurasian Peace and Harmony Charter, already known as "Nursultan Nazarbaev Charter", in February 2003".

Источник: www.kontinent.org