An Argentine delegation of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders is scheduled to arrive in Israel for the first leg of a goodwill tour of the Middle East. The 43 religious leaders are to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican next week.
The trip is being organized by the Latin American Jewish Congress, the regional chapter of the World Jewish Congress. Businesspeople, politicians and faith leaders representing the three Abrahamic religions are scheduled to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah, and King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman, amongst others.
“We will undertake the same journey as Pope Francis will as a pre-interreligious trip to warm the pope’s agenda and to show that Argentina can export our model of coexistence and interreligious experience to the world,” Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Congress, told JTA.
