S.F. financier, bishop, Dalai Lama fly to Israel for talks

Two San Francisco leaders and the Dalai Lama jetted into Jerusalem to break a generations-old standoff between the world's major faiths.

Members of the Inter-Religious Friendship Group, a loose coalition spearheaded by Jewish financier Richard Blum, San Francisco Episcopal Bishop William Swing and the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, came first to listen, then to talk. Their aim: Making this ancient city, so often torn apart by discord, a center for interfaith understanding.

The three-day conference, which ended Monday, exceeded all expectations, Swing said Wednesday after his return.

"You look at the Dalai Lama, Richard Blum and William Swing, it's like Larry, Moe and Curly. But it's going to take business people, artists, mothers, musicians, people with an array of gifts, to build this kind of peace."

The bishop said he, Blum and the Dalai Lama came to Jerusalem late last week to create a United Religions that would parallel the United Nations. The organization would have small centers throughout the world -- including Jerusalem -- with much of its communication taking place electronically.

"Unlike the 1945 model, where you have a big building, we would set up a worldwide network linked by purpose and principle," said Swing, who founded the United Religions Initiative, an international forum, in the mid-1980s.

Swing added that the talks brought together eastern and western Jerusalemites of various faiths "who I think will be able to sustain a dialogue in our absence. We were also able to breathe some strength into Muslim, Christian and Jewish interfaith people. In the isolated position they are in, a fatigue factor sets in."

Hindus and Shintos came away from the conference with an understanding of Jewish and Christian issues, he added. "It went as well as could possibly have been expected and maybe even better."

Blum, whom Swing describes as a "good friend," brought "a practical, democratic solution-oriented approach to the discussions."

"The Dalai Lama is, in a sense, very uncomplicated," Swing said. "He keeps his spiritual feelings close to him, and if you try to ask him a loaded, political question, he will respond in a way that reveals that great simplicity of understanding. It's very disarming. And he's smart. He holds big thought systems together at once."

Blum, a high-powered Democratic Party fund-raiser and the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairs the S.F.-based Richard C. Blum & Associates. He also chairs the American Himalayan Foundation and is honorary consul general of Nepal. He and Feinstein are members of Congregation Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue near their home in the city's Pacific Heights neighborhood.

"He is involved in so many things, his consciousness is darting around all the time," Swing said. "You have to catch him fast on his way down on the rebound before he jumps back up to the basket again. He's a very sweet person, and he's also very hard-charging."

Swing described himself and Blum as a compatible team since "he can make a lot of things happen that I can't, and I can provide infrastructure that he can't." In addition, "We're friends. We like each other."

And Tenzin Gyatso, the exiled 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, is "very funny," Swing added.

"I was having my picture taken next to a world religious leader and suddenly I felt on the other side of me a finger poking me in the ribs," Swing said. "The guy's just a leprechaun."

The Dalai Lama, who visited the Western Wall in a kippah after the conference wound up Monday, "is of course a great drawing card," Swing said. "I very much enjoyed his spiritual presence. He has lived through a lot and maintains a deep faith."

Blum, who was continuing his international travels and could not be reached, left Israel before sunrise on Tuesday, an aide said.

The three-day event was co-sponsored by Israel's Interreligious Coordinating Council and attended by such luminaries as feminist writer and Orthodox Jewish theologian Blu Greenberg.

Participants came from such divergent places as Sri Lanka and Louisville, Ky.

Julian Resnick of the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in London, a member of Swing's United Religions Initiative, said Israeli advocates for an interfaith dialogue are seldom in the mainstream of their faiths and consequently lack influence.

But Swing said that is to be expected.

"About two days ago we sat in the grand room of a very respected religious leader, and he said, 'Look, I'm a prisoner of my own palace. You all will have to get out and do this work.' We can't wait for the leaders to take the first steps. Peacemaking is grassroots work."

Before leaving the country Monday, the Dalai Lama visited holy places revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims in Jerusalem, including Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques. He met with Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi, Yisrael Meir Lau, at the Western Wall.

Muslim leaders declined to meet with the Dalai Lama, although Diodoros I, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, greeted him at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Fearful of angering Chinese officials, Israeli leaders would not meet with the Dalai Lama. However, he was nevertheless asked to intervene on behalf of 13 Jews who were arrested in Iran in April and charged with spying.

But the Tibetan Buddhist leader demurred, saying he had no contacts in that country, and suggested moderate Arab and Muslim leaders intervene instead.

Next week, the core leaders of the proposed United Religions will convene at Stanford University to finish work on a charter, which members all over the world will sign June 26, 2000 -- the anniversary of the U.N. charter.