Several board and staff members of the Dialogue Institute gathered to celebrate at the Awards Ceremony and 60th Anniversary Celebration of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations on October 5, 2011. Among the honorees of the Commission that evening was Leonard Swidler, who received a Human Rights Award in Community Service. The Commission selected Swidler and the Dialogue Institute for having “transformed cutting-edge academic research into concrete activities and partnerships by creating a process and place for religious pluralism and constructive, committed interfaith / intercultural dialogue.” Read the full story in our newsletter!

Issue #4 of the Dialogue Institute’s E-News features the recognition of Leonard Swidler and the Dialogue Institute with an Award in Community Service, a Kurdish Leadership Seminar, a third Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism in America, and the annual meeting of the North American Academy of Ecumenists.

The Dialogue Institute, together with the International Center for Contemporary Education, recently hosted eighteen outstanding student leaders from universities in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia for a five-week State Department-sponsored “Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism.” Through classroom sessions, workshops and site visits, participants learned about U.S. history, democracy and society with a special focus on religious pluralism and interfaith dialogue. Students returned to their home countries ready to carry out action plans that will foster tolerance and recognition of religious diversity.

Issue #3 of the Dialogue Institute's E-News highlights a second Study of the U.S. Institute on Religious Pluralism in America, Central Asia and the Middle East, Week of Religious Harmony, and the Bumuntu Peace Institute

In March, DI Founder Leonard Swidler reconnected with several former DI program participants during a lecture tour highlighting the Institute's international impact. He travelled to Baku, Azerbaijan where his lectures were hosted by Dr. Elnura Azizova of Khazar University, a former Fulbright scholar at the DI. In Iraqi Kurdistan he met with Huner Rasheed, a participant in the Summer 2010 Study of the US Institute (SUSI), to help inaugarate his new "Institute for Memorial and Dialogue" at Sulaimani University. And at Notre Dame University in Beirut, his lectures and seminars celebrated the establishment of the "Dialogue for Life and Reconciliation Organization" by former Fulbright International Community Action Scholar Dr. Ziad Fahed. Sharing in that celebration were several other participants from the Summer 2010 SUSI program. Congratulations to all!

Twenty undergraduates from seventeen different universities in Indonesia took part in the Dialogue Institute’s second “Study of the U.S. Institute” on the topic of religious pluralism, January 8 – February 12. Arriving in the midst of Philadelphia’s snowiest January ever, these student leaders visited numerous historical and religious sites, studied the origins of American democracy and religious freedom, and learned skills for engaging in dialogue across religious boundaries. Read more.

The Christian-Muslim Dialogue Committee of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh invited Professor Leonard Swidler and Dr. Racelle Weiman of the Dialogue Institute to serve as Scholars-in-Residence over a weekend early in 2011 to lead faculty seminars, lecture and facilitate an all-day workshop designed to teach dialogue principles and techniques to 20 doctoral students and assorted faculty members. The purpose of the workshop was to elicit and promote interest in the academy in the study, teaching, and implementation of constructive and effective dialogue with emphasis on the need for critical thinking. Read More.