More than 200 Christians, Jews, Muslims and Baha’is joined together in an interfaith dinner Saturday night at Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville.
Event co-chairman Bernie Newman said they were thrilled at the response, which exceeded expectations.
“We have never done anything like this before,” he said. “Other faiths regularly visit us, but this is the first time we have put on a dinner like this. A lot of people that come here want to get a deeper understanding of their own faith because the roots of many faiths stem from Judaism.”
Congregation representatives were invited to experience Ramadan at the Islamic Center of Naperville last summer.
“That was one of the inspirations for this event,” said Newman
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Hasein Mansy of the Islamic Center of Naperville believes a successful interfaith effort locally sends a message to the rest of the world.
“Unfortunately, in today’s world, there is an abundance of mistrust, ignorance, fear, injustice, and violence,” Mansy said. “We hope that a successful interfaith effort in Naperville could serve as a role model for the world, showing that by goodwill, tolerance and open-mindedness, they can also succeed.”
According to Nizar Jiwani of Ismaili Jamatkhana, Naperville is an ideal place for interfaith dialogue.
“Having intelligent and informed discussions is a major part of a civil society, and this dinner is a perfect example,” he said. “These dinners are a great way to build understanding between religious groups and to promote goodwill.”
Ismailimail 
This shows that most of us are happy to interact with each other in our daily lives, and socialising at such inter civic occasions where we respected each others faith and traditions, which are seen as a force to do good. Many congratulations for the initiative and its success. I hope there will be more of these, in more places, including such civic family occassions where children can also interact and see partents interacting in this way regularly to share experiences, knowledge and wisdom..
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