Edgar Bronfman and Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp
Imam Khalid Latif, Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and wife Sira, and Grove Harris
Lenore Ruben and Imam Khalid Latif
Ephraim Isaac	Rabbi Yehuda Sarna and Imam Khalid Latif
Linus Roache, who plays the prosecutor Michael Cutter on Law & Order, and wife Rosalind Bennett	May Rihani and husband Zuheir Al-Faqi
Michael Noth and Nadia Bilchik

TEMPLE OF UNDERSTANDING
Seeking Peace And Justice
In A World Full Of Wars

N

ADIA BILCHIK, a CNN producer, was happy serving as emcee at the 12^th annual Juliet Hollister Awards ceremony at Tribeca Rooftop in New York. At CNN we are immersed in bombings and wars," she said, "so it’s a pleasure to be here for peace and understanding."

The late Juliet Hollister founded the organization in 1960 in Manhattan with a mission to promote peaceful coexistence through cultural and religious education and advocacy.

Naomi Tutu, daughter of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, presented an award to the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. He accepted graciously while remarking with a broad smile, "When you receive a lifetime achievement award it means you are almost the sunset."

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp was another honoree. He is the founding president of the Jacob Soetendorp Foundation Institute for Human Values in The Hague. He described a time in 1943 when he was newly born and his parents were hidden in a hole in the ground on a farm to escape being killed.

"There is such madness of oppression," Soetendorp said. "But I am so grateful that in every part of the world there are people who are able to stand for justice even if it means prison or worse.

"We in the religious world, who have not often done what we preached, can be the champions of true cooperation. I cannot be Jewish fully without my Palestinian and Christian brothers. Together we can unite in peace and justice."

May Rihani, a native of Lebanon, received an award for advocating in behalf of girls' education and women’s empowerment. She cited a Unesco figure that in 2009 about 67 million children, mostly girls, remained out of school.

"My life has been enriched," she said, by working to ensure that girls, in more than 40 countries, such as in the remote mountains of Yemen, in drought-stricken areas of Mali, in the war-torn communities of the Congo, ands in the religiously conservative rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, to make sure girls are able to go to school to benefit their families and society at large."

Rihani concluded, "I believe the waves of extremism will recede as everyone is educated, especially the girls, who are the future mothers of society, and who are the first teachers who shape our minds and hearts."