"On Sunday, June 7, 2009, the Bait-uz Zafar Mosque in Queens, New York held a Conference on Peace. The title of the session was “How to Establish Peace, Love and Harmony in our Diverse Society.”  The invited speakers were leaders of all the major faiths in the New York Metro area including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Much to my surprise and delight, I was invited to be one of the fifteen speakers at the event.

Imam Kauser, the spiritual leader of the mosque, explained that the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam has been organizing these functions every year since 1939 all over the world. They taped the 3 hour session and planned to send it to other mosques in their movement across the continents.  The hosts at the mosque that Sunday were warm and welcoming, and it was a unique experience to participate in such a worthy event- how religious teachings promote human values which lead to peace, love and harmony.

My name appeared on the program as the representative of the International Council of Jewish Women at the UN. Since it was clear that I was not a religious leader, I chose to speak as a global citizen steeped in religious values.

I discussed the fact that, while globalization has brought us closer together, it has also exposed the religious, cultural and socio-economic differences between us. Therefore, we each have an obligation to help bridge the gap between these differences. We can do this by promoting dialogue and understanding in our own communities.

I talked about the awareness at the highest levels of government of the need for more dialogue among peoples. However, little will be achieved by one or two conferences; we must respond with long term action, there must be a vision, a concrete plan and it must be implemented at the grassroots level. That is why the event that day was such a positive undertaking. While it is clear that religions are not the cause of the problems, they do play a vital role; hence, we must insist that religious leaders be an integral part of the solution.

On a personal level, I related some of the simple things that I have chosen to do to teach my own children and to try to make a small difference in my world. I closed with a challenge to the audience to commit to something bigger than self, to be pro-active in promoting dialogue by reaching out to the “other” in their own community.

Last Sunday afternoon at the mosque, one had the opportunity to witness New York’s extraordinary diversity. We bonded and challenged one another with ways to make a difference in our world, with ways “to establish peace, love and harmony in our diverse society.”"