5th Annual
Friendship and Dialogue Dinner
On Nov 16th,
we organized the 5th Annual Friendship and Dialogue Dinner. The
event was held at City Avenue Hilton and brought together more
than 15 organizations that actively engage in interfaith or
intercultural dialog as well as people from the legislative and
administrative body of Greater Philadelphia.
The event
provided different groups with an opportunity to get together and
exchange ideas about what can be done to further enhance the
dialog between people of different faiths and of different
cultures. The keynote speech was delivered by Leonard Swidler,
founder and the director of the Dialog Institute at Temple University. Dr. Swidler
emphasized the importance of dialog in neighborhoods of ethical
and religious diversity and underlined the increase in the
engagement of Muslim communities in active dialog. In this
regard, he also acknowledged the contributions made by
Philadelphia Dialog Forum (PDF).
Rabbi George
Stern of Neighborhood Interfaith Movement talked about how they
have worked to strengthen the neighborhood through interfaith
action. He talked about their various programs aimed at
increasing the quality of childcare of children from low-income
families, providing support to seniors etc.
President
Mustafa Koksal took the stage on behalf of the Philadelphia
Dialog Forum and talked about the activities we as the PDF have
engaged in the past. The activities included discussion sessions
that brought together people of different faiths, iftar dinners
at various churches, academic dinners at universities and in
particular cultural trips to Turkey sponsored by
PDF.
Intercultural
Journeys, a music band that engages in interfaith music,
performed at the event. The show was highly entertaining.
Overall, the
event was a great get-together for the major institutions of
dialog and provided everyone with an opportunity to interact and
learn from each other.
