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Euroasian Jewish News
Meetings of Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Leaders in Kazakhstan with EAJC leaders, Kazakhstan.
14.02.2003 From February 14 to February, 16 a series of events were held in Almaty involving the Confer-ence of Presidents and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. These began with a presentation by representatives of USA oil companies in Kazakhstan, includ-ing Chevron/Texaco and Exxon, who told participants about the prospects facing the oil industry in Ka-zakhstan.
Asher Ostrin then gave a presentation of the activities of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ("The Joint") on the territory of the former USSR, after which the overseas visitors toured Jewish institutions in Almaty. The presentation of a Torah scroll, donated by the American delegation to the Jewish community of Kazakhstan, was then celebrated in festive style in Beit Rachel synagogue (which is named in memory of Alexander Machkevich's mother).
The EAJC and the Conference of Presidents celebrated Shabbat together, with religious services and meals, which provided a wonderful opportunity for conversation and exchange of ideas. Over Shab-bat, three sessions of the dialogue of the American and Euroasian contingents took place.
After the Friday night meal, Alexander Machkevich opened proceedings. Presen-tations followed from Mort Zuckerman, Chairman of the Conference of Presidents, Avi Beker, Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and Marc Levin, Executive Director of the National Con-ference for Soviet Jews (NCSJ). The Ambassador of Israel in Kazakhstan Moshe Kimche and the repre-sentative of the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Dan Meiri also contributed to the discussion.
On the next day, the baton of the dialogue was picked up by Michael Chlenov, the EAJC Secre-tary General, and other participants: Rabbi Pinchas Goldshmidt, Secretary General of the EAJC Council of Rabbis, and Rudy Boshowitz, US Senator. The main topics canvassed were international perceptions of Israel, and the mutual relations between Israel and Kazakhstan, and Israel and the Central Asian region as a whole. This was followed by open-ended discussions between representatives of the Euro-Asian and Pacific communities with American delegates.
The EAJC General Council Chairman Josef Zissels chaired a working session of the EAJC Gen-eral Council, in which the participants praised the organizers of the events in Almaty and discussed priori-ties for future EAJC activities. The Council accepted new members into their organization, these being the New Zealand Jewish Council, represented by its president, David Zwartz, the "Makkabee" movement, represented by V.Polyansky, and the World Congress of Mountain Jews, represented by Z.Gilalov.
A festive concert and a day-trip to the mountains, which are on the outskirts of Almaty concluded the varied and constructive mission.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen
It is my pleasure to greet the American Jewry leaders on behalf of the Eurasian Jewish Congress. I am particularly glad to note that we have met with many of our today's guests before - at the recent Eura-sian Jewish Congress presentation in the USA. And today, we have a good opportunity to welcome en-voys of the Great Power, who are here on their return visit.
It is also a joy for us to welcome the delegation from the State of Israel, a state, which is bravely defending the sacred shrines of the Jewish People, and the Eurasian Jewish Congress leaders from the Eurasian countries and also leaders from the Pacific region, who represent our Congress where the sun never goes down. And, of course, my special greeting is to my fellow countrymen, who are activists of the Jewish Community of Kazakhstan.
Now that Jews from all over the world have come to Almaty, we can say that our today's meeting is of global nature indeed. I consider it an honor that our meeting has actually been included into the Program of the International Conference of Peace and Accord, which started yesterday in the Southern Capital of Kazakhstan. And this is an important fact I would like to emphasize.
Kazakhstan was the first Muslim country to have called people to a serious dialogue between Judaism and Islam on an intergovernmental basis. It is owing to the good will of the Kazakhstan people and the firm position taken by President Nursultan Nazarbaev, that the Jewish community in Kazakhstan can develop freely and dynamically. Jewish communities live in a peaceful, tolerant and stable environment both in Kazakhstan and the Central Asia, as a whole. It should be noted that official delegations from Turkey, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, countries, which are friendly to us, have also joined their colleagues from Central Asian countries to visit this Summit.
The Agenda of the International Conference of Peace and Accord reflects expectations and hopes of the Jewish People. Many of those present here are activists of authority of this interstate forum. I trust, the experience our ancestry have gained over many thousand years of their history will help us find a way out of the current situation in the world, which would be acceptable to all concerned parties.
Since old times, the Jewish and Muslim traditions have rejected terror as a means of settling dis-putes. The developments of the last years urge us to come back to our ancient covenants. These underlie the decisions adopted by the International Conference of Peace and Accord and the reasons why we have organized this meeting. We wish the efforts made by our allies across the Atlantic to control terrorism were a success. However, to overcome the old enemy we have to strengthen neighborly interrelations be-tween all Antiterrorist Coalition nations irrespective of their religions.
Being a citizen of Kazakhstan, who has lived his all life in this country, I am extremely proud of the strive for the dialogue with the Jewish world demonstrated by the Muslim clergy of Kazakhstan. The Joint Memorandum signed mostly owing to the efforts taken by the Religious Administration of the Muslims of Kazakhstan in Almaty jointly with the Eurasian Jewish Congress discountenanced terrorism and emphasized the fact that there are no principal contradictions between Judaism and Islam.
I call the Jewish world to support this noble initiative and recruit more participants to joint it. I also call the Jewish Diaspora to support further development of Israeli – Kazakhstan neighborly relations, as well as relations with other countries of this region. Let the words "Kazakhstan is a neighbor of the Jewish State" said by President Nursultan Nazarbaev during his meeting with the EJC delegation be a ref-erence checkpoint for our future work in this direction.
Dear participants and guests, it is obvious we now face a lot of challenges we have and will try to address today. And I trust that joint efforts of Jews who represent four continents will bear positive results within the nearest future.
EAJC Public Relations and Media Department
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