7th Annual Dialog and Friendship Dinner, Pacifica Institute, Los Angeles
The 7th Dialog and Friendship Dinner was held at Sheraton Gateaway Los Angeles on October 28th Thursday at 6:30 pm with a reception. Around 250 distinguished guests honored the dinner from different segments of the society including politicians, consul generals, interfaith activists, religious representatives, academicians, law enforcement officers and state officials in order to show their support for dialog.
A video presentation depicting a short summary of the 2010 activities of the Pacifica Institute was presented. The video summarized the Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival, Annual Dialog and Friendship Dinners in six major cities in California plus Las Vegas, Intercultural Trips to Turkey, Luncheon Forums, Interfaith Conversations, Lecture Series, Women’s League Events, Humanitarian Aids, Turkish Studies and Community Outreach.
Reza Aslan, an Iranian American and author of the books ‘No god but God’ and ‘How to win a Cosmic War’ made the keynote speech stressing that education will not diminish the prejudices of the believers of different religions in the society about one another but it is the relations that will diminish the prejudices. To support his idea Aslan gave an example. According to a study, he quoted the rate of people in American society having prejudices about Muslims is down to 50 percent when they meet and talk one single Muslim in their lives. It is thanks to the relations that people begin to understand ‘the other’ and realize that ‘they’ are like us. Aslan added that people who consider others as other also have children and concerned about their education and future, and are also just humans. Aslan noted ‘relations take away sense of otherness. The Iranian American writer also emphasized that the problems that the Muslims are facing in the post 911 America were similar to the ones the Jews, Catholics, Irish and African-American people faced in the past.
Udi Yervant, who is an Armenian born and raised in Turkey’s southeast province Diyarbakir, gave a concert in the event performing many songs composed, versed and sung by Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Jewish, Greek and Assyrian members of Anatolia- Turkey, which has been hosting many civilizations and communities for long centuries in peace and harmony. The songs were also in Turkish, Armenian, Kurdish and Greek languages, which all belong to the Anatolian civilizations.
Rabbi Mark Diamond- Executive Vice President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California expressed his remarks for the activities of Pacifica Institute and also the keynote speech telling about one of his experiences in a company as a Jewish teenager. One of the employees asked him `What are you?` and he responded `What do you mean?` The other person asks again `What nationality are you? He answers `I am a Jewish.` And the men responds ` How can a Jewish kid work for Ford Company? All Jews are rich, all Jews are at Wall Street.` Rabbi Diamond concluded his remarks saying ` any type of hatred against a fellow human being is a hatred against all of us. Whether it is anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia or any other fear.`
With the closing remarks, Christina Littleton- UCLA Vice Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development Professor of Law and Women’s Studies stressed the importance of dialog and during the year of 2010 and 2011 and with her position in UCLA as vice provost for diversity, Professor Littleton said she lays special emphasis to dialogue on the campus.