A bright reality of religious freedom, tolerance and harmony – this was the message Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, Shaya Cohen, brought to leaders in Washington, DC, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Hon. Gregory Meeks (D-NY).
Despite a hectic day on Capitol Hill, the Chief Rabbi was able to meet and touch base with a number of House members from both parties (the Senate is out this week) and others in the international arena in Washington, DC.
The visit was hosted and coordinated by the offices of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad) in Washington, DC.
Known initially as a place of “exile” because of the Soviet persecution of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, of Saintly Memory, who was then sent there into exile, Rabbi Cohen emphatically noted how much he has come to appreciate present day Kazakhstan as a new reality – an international example of religious tolerance, peace and harmony.
“As long as you live lawfully, you can freely express yourself in prayer and faith in Kazakhstan,” said the Chief Rabbi, who oversees several communities totaling some 30,000 Jews, from his central office in Almaty. “I hope people everywhere will learn more about how this place once known in our community as a dark exile has literally become a bright beacon of light. Even though it is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, we are not treated as a ‘minority,’ we are treated as Kazakhs, and that says the story better than anything.”
