SILICON VALLEY, CA: Over hundred Indo American and Israeli Americans enthusiastically participated in an event on ‘Indo Israel Relations’ organized by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS). The FIIDS had organized this event on the historic occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.
“On this occasion, we wanted to have dialogue of Indo-American and Israeli American experts, activists, prominent people and community leaders”, said Rakhi Israni, a coordinator of FIIDS Bay Area Center.
This event was inaugurated by Deputy Consul General of Israel Revital Malca and Deputy Consul General of India, SFO, Rohit Rashith.
“Marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Israel could not be more highlighted than with the current visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Israel.
This historic first-ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Israel solidified the enduring friendship between both peoples and raises the bilateral relationship to that of a strategic partnership”, said Revital Malca during her inaugural keynote.
India’s Deputy Consul General, Rohit Rashith, endorsed Revital saying, “Our strategic partnership with Israel spans from agriculture to military technologies, it should increasingly include human capital investment. Silicon Valley is ideally placed to be frontline of this join effort”.
The inaugural keynote addresses were followed by a panel discussion of expert speakers, comprising Matt Kahn, a regional director of American Jewish Committee (AJC), Diane Fisher, the community relations director of American Jewish Federation of Bay Area, Dr. Mike Harris, Founder of Stand With Us, and Saumitra Gokhale, International Coordinator of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS).
Yogi Chugh initiated the discussion by reminding common issue of terrorism both the countries faced; including 26/11 Bombay attack by Jihadis as well as state-sponsored terrorism. During the discussions, Dr. Mike Harris covered history of Jewish people and Israel. He emphasized that Israel remains to be diverse democracy boldly facing adversaries still prospering and practicing values.
Diane Fisher mentioned that many service organizations from Israel are also serving in India on projects like Water Conservation and Cleaning. She mentioned, “At a time when so much of our public conversation is about Indo Israel relations, the FIIDS gathering illuminated the truly inspiring and uplifting relationship between our two communities. There is a genuine feeling that India and Israel will be leading the world toward a better future. ”
Matt Kahn mentioned that India and Israel have a lot of common issues and can effectively work on them at variety of levels. In his comments, Saumitra Gokhale drew the attention to similarities in history of both the countries being ancient yet continuing cultures and being democratic nations. He said that both the countries faced a thousand year of period of difficulty with the contrast that Indians faced atrocities in their own nation while Jews had to leave Israel and faced problem everywhere except in India.
He also drew attention to the fact that hundreds of Indian soldiers fought and many died in Haifa in 1918, about hundred years back, but their victory led to the beginning of formation of Israel. He suggested both the communities to come together to commemorate this event in 2018.
Community leaders like Dr Romesh Japra, Raj Salwan, Chandru Bhambra, Dr. Mihir Meghani, and Gaurang Desai addressed the audience. Many other community leaders like Rahul Roy, Bob & Mrs. Lisa Cohen, Morey Schapira, Murali Krishnan, and others joined the event. Rakhi Israni and Yogi Chugh had hosted the discussions while Somanjana Chatterjee thanked the experts, and audience.
Khanderao Kand, a founding director of the FIIDS, commented on the FIIDS future efforts on the relations. “The FIIDS will continue the dialogue between both the communities to establish an alliance for strategic and tactical collaboration for common issues as well as exploring areas of innovation and development projects. We would host a program to commemorate 100th year of Haifa war in 2018, he said.”
India Post News Service
