“If we start with the young, we have hope for the future,” Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksandr Feldman told the first-ever Kiev conference against hate and extremism this week.
Founder of the Institute of Human Rights and Prevention of Extremism and Xenophobia and an op-ed contributor to Israel National News, Feldman announced a global initiative to encourage youth to become better advocates for tolerance education and inter-religious dialogue.
“More than politicians or any other public figures, clerics and religious leaders bear the heaviest onus of responsibility to ensure that the world become a more loving and tolerant place,” the legislator told more than 300 religious and public leaders.
“Education is the key to creating tolerance. The children of today need guidance in religious tolerance and sensitivities,” Feldman added. “If we start with the young, we have hope for the future.”
He said that the series of events that have swept the Middle East in recent weeks highlight the need for leaders of all faiths to come together in addressing hatred and intolerance. Also serving as the Chairman of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Feldman disagreed with a recent announcement by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate to forgo all interfaith efforts as a response to a recent upswing in violence.
“We feel the conversation and cooperation between different faiths must continue,” Feldman maintained. “Only good can come out of dialogue between our communities. Stopping to talk will solve nothing and will only be viewed by the terrorists as an achievement in disrupting all the successes our communities have already achieved.”
The two-day conference featured representatives from a diverse collection of religions, races and languages. Calls for better education and understanding were the common thread among all speakers, but it was an issue of language that provided Professor Kamel Abu Jaber of the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies much praise.
Abu Jaber stated his distaste for the word “tolerant.” He said, "I don’t want to be tolerated. I want to be accepted for who and what I am.”
HB Theophilos III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, in his first official visit to the Ukraine, told the conference, “Religious leaders have a major role in creating responsible communities denounce violence and engage in public and private interfaith dialogue. Let the voices from our traditions and scriptures be our guiding examples as we strive to free ourselves from violence and extremism.”
Rabbi Levi Matusof, leader of the European Jewish Public Affairs in Brussels, called upon all the clergy and community leaders to take the messages of co-existence and interfaith dialogue back to their communities. “We can’t just gather once a year and agree with others like us,” he said.
The conference was attended by officials of the three main monotheistic religions from all around the world, including France, the Netherlands, Israel, Jordan, the United States and Norway as well as from the Ukrainian community.