AJC Honors Stanley M. Bergman and Bergman Family for Global Interfaith Leadership

News provided by

Sep 29, 2014, 09:43 ET

NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC honored Stanley M. Bergman and his family with its prestigious Global Interfaith Leadership Award.

The award was presented at a New York City gala, attended by 1,000 people, celebrating interfaith cooperation and understanding. Mr. Bergman, his wife Dr. Marion Bergman, their sons Paul and Eddie and their spouses Sara and Sharon, each received the award.

"We accept the AJC Global Interfaith Leadership Award with a renewed sense of optimism for a brighter tomorrow," said Mr. Bergman.

"Bridging the chasms that separate people may seem impossible, but it is not," Mr. Bergman added. "When we face what seem like the insurmountable challenges of immorality, each of us must be prepared to look at ourselves in the mirror five or ten years from now and answer the questions: Where was I? What did I do?"

Mr. Bergman, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Henry Schein, Inc., currently serves as president of AJC, the premier global Jewish advocacy organization. Since its founding, AJC has pioneered the advancement of interfaith relations across the United States and around the world.

As AJC President, Mr. Bergman has encouraged and expanded AJC's outreach to Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other religious groups. In February, Bergman led an AJC multifaith delegation to Rome for a private audience with Pope Francis and a series of meetings with top Vatican officials.

"Our family firmly believes that safeguarding the place of everyone in society, including minorities, is the responsibility of us all," said Mr. Bergman.

"I have only one request for each of you tonight," Mr. Bergman told the audience. "Reach out to someone of a different faith, a different ethnic group, and add to the good of the world. Tearing down the walls of hate starts with building bridges. It starts with dialogue and partnership."

Among those attending the New York celebration and award ceremony were leaders in New York's business, diplomatic, political and religious communities, as well as international dignitaries who flew to New York especially to honor Mr. Bergman and his family.

"Interfaith dialogue is indispensable, the only means of creating harmony," said Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, who delivered the keynote address. "In Tanzania, we all live together in one house. Apart from prayer, Muslims participate in Christian gatherings of every kind, and Christians participate in Muslim gatherings in the same way."

The Honorable Oby Ezekwesili, former Nigerian Federal Minister of Education and World Bank Vice President for Africa, and Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa's ambassador to the U.S., also saluted Mr. Bergman and his family in their addresses to the gala.

The evening featured a panel discussion moderated by Rabbi David Rosen, AJC's director of international interreligious affairs. The panelists were His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York; the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church, City of New York; and Suhag Shukla, Esq., Executive Director and Co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation.

"If only there were more Bergman families in the world, we would all be so much better off," said AJC Executive Director David Harris, who spoke at the gala tribute. "Truly committed to the democratic and prophetic ideals of protecting human dignity for all, advancing justice, and welcoming the stranger, the Bergmans make a difference, each and every day, in the four corners of the world, and they do so with the utmost humility and compassion. How fortunate we are at AJC to have Stanley Bergman as our President, all the more so at such a tumultuous time in world – and Jewish history – when his unmatched professional, philanthropic and interpersonal skills are more needed than ever!"

Rabbi André Ungar received AJC's Moral Courage Award at the event. Born in Hungary, Ungar came to South Africa in the mid-1950s to be a rabbi at Temple Israel in Port Elizabeth. He was expelled from the country for his outspoken protestation against the apartheid regime.

"Exiled years ago from apartheid South Africa for your steadfast moral dissent, you have called out fearlessly, decade after decade, for the rights and dignity of all," states the inscription on the Moral Courage Award, presented to Rabbi Ungar by Rabbi David Saperstein, President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and Leslie Bergman, President of the European Union for Progressive Judaism.

Video messages were delivered by Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum; Dr. Amid Ismail, Dean of Temple University's Maurice H. Kornberg School of Dentistry; and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, member of the board of directors of Henry Schein, Inc., former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and President Emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee