An historic mission to Egypt will be made by the Synagogue Council of America this week. Fifteen leaders of the national Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbinic and lay bodies of American Judaism will meet in Cairo for the first time Jan. 26-Feb. 2 with President Anwar Sadat and leaders of the Muslim and Christian Coptic faiths. The delegation will be headed by Rabbi Saul I. Teplitz of Woodmere, N.Y., president of the Synagogue Council of America.
According to Rabbi Henry Siegman, executive vice-president of the Council, “The purpose of this historic mission is to open a Jewish-Muslim dialogue. Until now, formal contacts between major faith communities have involved only Jews, Protestants and Catnolics. As a result of our conversations with the Vatican and with the World Council of Churches over the past ten years, major progress has been made in Jewish-Christian relations. However, there has been virtually no contact between Jewish and Muslim religious leadership.”
Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem, and Premier Menachem Begin’s response to his visit, have opened new possibilities for a serious and fruitful encounter between Muslims and Jews,” Siegman stated. “The conflict in the Middle East has been allowed to obscure the fact that Judaism and Islam share significant spiritual and cultural links. It is our hope that as a result of our visit to Egypt, both faith communities will be encouraged to draw on their respective religious traditions to help heal the wounds caused by thirty years of political conflict and hasten the day of peace.”
On Dec. 7, Ashraf A. Ghorbal, Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, addressed the Board of the Synagogue Council in New York in what was considered an historic breakthrough. In response, he invited the Council to visit Cairo. Meetings in Cairo have been arranged with the Grand Imam Dr. Abdul Halim Mahmoud, Sheikh of Al Azhar University, leading Muslim university, and other Muslim and Christian leaders. The delegation also will meet with leaders of the Jewish community at the synagogue in Cairo.
In addition to Rabbi Teplitz and Rabbi Siegman, the delegation will include Rabbi Walter Wurzburger, president, Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox), Rabbi Stanley Rabbinowitz, president, Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative), Rabbi Ely E. Pilchik, president, Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform), and Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, vice-president, Synagogue Council of America. The delegation intends to discuss with Egyptian authorities a project to identify and catalog documents and articles of Jewish religious and historical value.
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