Queen Of Jordan Helps Promote Religious Tolerance

Queen Rania Al Abdullah, left, with Rabbi Arthur Schneier and wife Elisabeth. Photo by Tim Boxer

Queen Rania Al Abdullah, left, with Rabbi Arthur Schneier and wife Elisabeth. Photo by Tim Boxer

by Tim Boxer
Special To The Jewish Week

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan dazzled 920 guests with her appearance at the Appeal of Conscience Foundation awards dinner last month at the Waldorf-Astoria during the opening of the annual UN General Assembly.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue founded the organization in 1965 to promote religious freedom and global tolerance.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain was one of three honorees at the event. He came for the press conference but skipped the dinner. He had to meet with leaders of the G-20 on climate change.
At the dinner, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got up to present the British prime minister with the foundation’s World Statesman Award and was flummoxed. He looked around

the overflowing dais but couldn’t find Brown.
That reminded Kissinger of last year’s dinner when he presented the award to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“I introduced Sarkozy — after he spoke. This time I’m introducing Brown — who’s not even here.”
Rabbi Schneier presented the Appeal of Conscience Award to the second honoree, Coca-Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent. He is the son of Necdet Kent, vice consul for Turkey in Marseilles during the Second World War, who saved many Jewish lives by issuing visas to escape occupied France.

“Turkey put out a stamp commemorating his father’s humanitarian rescue,” Schneier said.
“Our one million employees in over 200 countries,” Muhtar Kent said, “are deeply committed to our mission of refreshing the world.”

Kent beamed as he recalled a recent visit to Paris. He ordered an ice-cold Coca-Cola at a café. The waiter just smiled and said, “Ah, American Champagne.”

The third honoree, Bernard J. Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH Group/Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, related an exchange of views with Rabbi Schneier.

“We have agreed,” Arnault reported, “on the absolute necessity for peace in the Middle East, so that after centuries of wandering and suffering the children of Israel — to whom mankind, blackened by the shame of the Holocaust, carries a debt that can never be extinguished — may live in a state with recognized and secure borders, without ignoring the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for which we must continue to work to find a solution.”

Among the many notables who applauded the three honorees were Bono, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Edward Koch, former Gov. George Pataki, fashion designer Donna Karan, media titan Rupert Murdoch, plus Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of America; Imam Yayha M. Hendi, Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University; James D. Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank; Dr. Srgjan Kerim, president of the UN General Assembly; Ehud Barak, defense minister of Israel; plus the prime minister of Hungary, foreign minister of Spain, and intelligence chief of Morocco.

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