Avraham Soetendorp

Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp

Awraham Shalom Soetendorp (born February 16, 1943 in Amsterdam ) is a Dutch rabbi of liberal Judaism who survived the Second World War as a hidden child and who founded several social, ecological and humanitarian initiatives.

Life

Awraham Soetendorp was born in occupied Amsterdam in 1943 and survived the Nazi persecution of foster parents as a hidden child. After the war he found his birth parents again and lived in Israel from 1948 to 1953. Then his family returned to the Netherlands, where his father, Rabbi Jacob Soetendorp, reestablished several Jewish communities. After his training at Leo Baeck College in London, Awraham Soetendorp was ordained a rabbi in 1967 and one year later took over the leadership of the liberal Jewish community in The Hague, which he held until his retirement in 2008. From 2001 to 2007 he was President of the European Section of the World Union for Progressive Judaism , the umbrella organization of progressive, liberal and reformed Jewish communities in Europe. Soetendorp is married, has two daughters and six grandchildren.

Social Commitment

In 1970 Soetendorp founded a Dutch solidarity committee for the Jews in the Soviet Union , which he led until the fall of the Soviet empire.

In the 1990s he headed the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, at whose meeting in Kyoto in 1993, at the suggestion of Mikhail Gorbachev, the International Green Cross was founded. Soetendorp took over the chairmanship of the Dutch section and was elected to the honorary board of the international organization.

Together with the Earth Council, the International Green Cross initiated the worldwide civil society consultations on the formulation of the Earth Charter , a universal declaration of fundamental ethical principles for sustainable development. Soetendorp moderated the first international Earth Charter workshop in The Hague in 1995 and was appointed to the Earth Charter Commission in 2000, the then governing body of the Earth Charter Initiative. Soetendorp is currently heading the international Earth Charter working group on religion, spirituality and ethics.

As a result of the ethnic and religious unrest in the Netherlands after the murder of the journalist Theo van Gogh , Soetendorp started the school project “Day of Respect” in 2006, in which various programs on the topic of cultural identity take place in primary schools. In 2010, over 3,000 schools took part in the project day, which traditionally takes place on November 12th.

Awraham Soetendorp is a founding member of the Worldconnectors think tank set up by former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers , a member of the Rabbis for Human Rights and co-author of the Charter for Compassion.

In June 2010 Rabbi Soetendorp started the multimedia "spring project" to promote cross-generational cooperation.

Rabbi Soetendorp is supported by the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values, which he founded in 2001 to coordinate his various projects.

Interreligious Dialogue

Rabbi Soetendorp is active in numerous local, national and international initiatives for interreligious dialogue, including:

• The Islam-West Dialogue Community of the World Economic Forum in Davos,
• The European Council of Religious Leaders, which was convened by Religions for Peace Europa ,
• The Board of Religious Leaders of the Elijah Interfaith Institute in Israel,
• The newly founded Gathering of European Muslim and Jewish Leaders, which is organized by the World Jewish Congress and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding - here Rabbi Soetendorp is a member of the coordination council,
• The World Congress of Rabbis and Imams for Peace, hosted by UNESCO and the Paris-based organization Hommes de Parole,
• The organizing committee of the “inter-world view” celebrations, founded by Soetendorp, which accompany the opening of the session of the Dutch parliament on Prinsjesdag - the third Tuesday in September (“Prinsjesdag Viering”).

Honors

• 1994: House Order of Orange
• 2005: Peace Builder Award from the Alliance for Conflict Resolution and Prevention in Washington DC that he along with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was awarded
• 2007: Gold medal "Peace through Dialogue" of the International Council of Christians and Jews
• 2008: Medal of Honor from the City of The Hague and James Park Morton Interfaith Award from the Interfaith Center of New York

Lectures

• 1999: Parliament of the Religions of the World , Cape Town
• 2000: Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, United Nations, New York
• 2002: Earth Dialogues, Lyon
• 2004: Parliament of the Religions of the World , Barcelona
• 2005: Evangelical Church Congress , Hanover.
• 2007: Evangelischer Kirchentag , Cologne, central event on the subject of "The Power of Dignity" with Desmond Tutu and other international speakers
• 2009: TEDxAmsterdam , Amsterdam

International publications

• A Prophetic Time Path. Joint contribution with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, In: Justitia et Pax. The Hague 2005, pp. 16-17.
• To Avert the Day of Destruction. (PDF; 101 kB) In: Peter Blaze Corcoran (Ed.): Toward A Sustainable World - The Earth Charter in Action. Amsterdam 2005, ISBN 90-6832-177-3 , pp. 58-60.
• The reconciliation of a painful past with a hopeful future. Joint contribution with HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, In: Christoph Quarch et al. (Ed.): The Power of Dignity - Globalization New Thinking. Gütersloh 2007, ISBN 978-3-579-06970-8 , pp. 97-101.
• A council of conscience for a global partnership. In: Christoph Quarch et al. (Ed.): The Power of Dignity - Globalization New Thinking. Gütersloh 2007, ISBN 978-3-579-06970-8 , pp. 83-96.
• A melody of the soul. In: Christoph Quarch (ed.): Our world is sacred - On the way to a global spirituality. Freiburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-451-32661-5 , pp. 132-142.
• Restoring Compassion. Interview with Rabbi Soetendorp, SGI Quarterly , July 2010.
• Retrieving G-d's Hidden Light - A Global Partnership is Emerging. In: Huffington Post . August 15, 2010.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Awraham Soetendorp: A council of conscience for a worldwide partnership. In: Christoph Quarch et al. (Ed.): The Power of Dignity - Globalization New Thinking. Gütersloh 2007, ISBN 978-3-579-06970-8 , pp. 83-96, p. 95.
2. ↑ Rabbi Jacob Soetendorp ( Memento of the original dated February 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Website of the liberal Jewish community in The Hague ( Memento of the original from March 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 31, 2011.  
4. ↑ See Rabbi Soetendorp's curriculum vitae on the website of the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values ( memento of the original from June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 31, 2011. 
5. ↑ History of the organization on the website of the International Green Cross ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 31, 2011. 
6. ^ Report on the Earth Charter Initial Consultation Workshop. (PDF; 64 kB) In: The Hague. 29-31. May 1995, accessed May 31, 2011.
7. ↑ Presentation of the members of the Earth Charter Commission on the website of the international Earth Charter Initiative , accessed on May 31, 2011.
8. ^ Website of the international Earth Charter working group on religion, spirituality and ethics , accessed on May 31, 2011.
9. ↑ Day of Respect website , accessed May 31, 2011.
10. ↑ History of the Soetendorp Institute on the website of the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values ( Memento of the original from November 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 31, 2011. 
11. ^ Act now for the Millennium Development Goals, Appeals from Religious Leaders and Scholars. (PDF; 1.0 MB)

Web links

• HDS Greenway: Dutch Intolerance. In: New York Times. and International Herald Tribune. February 21, 2006.
• Website of the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values
• You-Tube channel from Rabbi Soetendorp
• Website of the spring project
• Respect Day website