Brothers and sisters,

There was a rather snide and dismissive article about the Rally in Jerusalem on Dec. 22. Our brother Dinshaw Dadachanji wrote a good letter in response, which the e-zine graciously put on-line.

See below---

Andrew Wilson

Dear Andrew, I recently read a commentary titled "Peace, Love, and Light," by Judy Lash Balint, published in the "Jerusalem Diary" of Jewsweek, an Internet-based magazine. [I found out about it through a posting by Damian Anderson, which I will forward to you separately.] Basically, it's a put-down of the Dec. 22 peace rally in Jerusalem. So I wrote a response and sent it to Jewsweek. To read Judy's column, go to < www.jewsweek.com > and click on "Jerusalem Diary" in the right-hand column. My response is attached under "Talkback" at the bottom of her column, and a copy of it is given below.

Let me know your thoughts on this.

All the best,

Dinshaw

Dear Editor of Jewsweek,

I am a resident of Washington, DC, and a member of the Unification Church. It was with some disappointment that I read Judy Lash Balint's column, "Peace, Love, and Light," that appeared in Jerusalem Diaries, dated Dec. 25, and I would like to offer a personal response.

My main disappointment was with the mocking tone of the piece and the dismissive attitude toward the rally for peace in the Middle East, held in Jerusalem on Dec. 22. While I did not attend the rally, I watched it at home with my family through a live Webcast.

Judy begins by questioning the motivation of the organizers of the peace rally, saying "they must be jealous" of the publicity given to the work of others. She then gives some superficial description of the rally, while dismissing the speakers' messages as "platitudes."

If we were on another planet, where hatred and killings were just imaginary, then yes - we could dismiss one another's efforts for peace and compete in entertainment or something else. Unfortunately, as you know much better than I do, violent killings in Israel and surrounding areas are a sad and terrible reality, nearly every day. The Jewish people, in particular, have suffered a long, tearful history of being mocked and killed in massive numbers. This sorrowful history needs to come to an end.

Also, as you know, terrorism is not confined to the Middle East but is quickly expanding to other parts of the world. Here in the United States, we are placed on "high alert" for acts of terrorism. What can we do? Most people wish for peace but feel unable to do anything substantive to end the violence.

In this regard, Rev. Moon cannot unilaterally bring peace either. But he firmly believes that men and women of faith need to come together, because the power of God's love can work through them to move people's hearts to live together in peace. For this reason, he has founded several organizations for world peace. He and members of these groups have been working tirelessly for many years, mostly without much media attention, to bring together religious leaders and people of different faiths and enemy countries to engage in peaceful dialog and reconciliation.

The peace rally that Judy witnessed came on the foundation of these quiet, patient efforts. It brought together Jewish rabbis, Christian ministers, Muslim imams, and Druze leaders, as well as followers of their faiths. Many of them spoke at the rally and at a conference that preceded it. Some observers commented that such a large, interreligious gathering for peace was probably unprecedented in the history of modern-day Israel. Whatever the case, it demonstrates that people can follow different faiths and traditions, but they can still come together as one family created by one God.

My plea is, let us not belittle the efforts being made toward peace, regardless of who is making those efforts. As the saying goes, it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Let us therefore uplift one another and put some happiness in each other's lives.

Finally, I have one more request. Please do not refer to members of the Unification Church as "Moonies," because it is a derogatory term. If you need a single descriptor, you may use the term "Unificationists." In the past, Jewish people (as well as African Americans and other minority groups) were denigrated with a variety of other mocking terms, which are part of a sorry history that I hope will not be repeated. Moreover, the code of conduct for Jewsweek expects civil, respectful letters from your readers - and I applaud that code. I humbly ask that you treat others with the same civility and respect.

I pray that you, your families, and communities may have a Happy New Year - one in which peace can finally come!

Shalom!

Dinshaw Dadachanji

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