Thank you for the kind introduction, Your Excellency. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, family and friends, thank you for the warm welcome. I’m honored to participate in this important dialogue devoted to creating a more peaceful world, family by family. And I offer special gratitude to Taj Hamad, my brother and friend, for making this invitation possible.

I was brought up in the sort of family that most people would regard as ideal. My grandparents came to this country as emigrants from Syria. They learned to adapt to life in a totally different world. Yet they managed to preserve and pass on the wonderful Jewish – and Arab – values that were part of their lives in Aleppo. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, the third generation of a family overflowing with love, devotion, and all the wonderful qualities that make family so important to human beings. 

Sadly, for many people in this world, families are not always as wonderful, supportive a structure as they were for me. Families can be fortresses – protecting, nurturing, and loving. But at the same time they can be closed-in on themselves and exclusive.

Sometimes, families believe they are doing the right thing when they may be doing the wrong thing, like when they suppress individuality or force a new generation into the straight jacket of a previous one. So, in fact, as wonderful as families are, they can also have a negative side – that of overprotection and preventing interaction with others and the outside world.

The same may be said of religion. We all agree that religion is a wonderful thing in principle – spreading spirituality, love of one’s neighbor, and of mankind. Yet, regrettably, the way people put religion into practice can sometimes be divisive and the cause of conflict and pain rather than peace and healing. If the closed nature of a family – a source of strength – is also the very quality that prevents it from extending its gifts to others, how do we bridge the gap?

I think my own story may offer some insight. From an early age, I observed how my family, despite loyalty to its own traditions, was able to relate, help, and work with others, no matter what background they came from. In other words, a family does not need to be exclusive if the values and the example of its members are humane and universal. These values will be passed on.

In mid-2001, my father achieved a high point in his career when he completed the acquisition of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. We all know what happened.

But my father's reaction was everything I had come to expect of him. He did not allow this catastrophe to turn into a game of blame in which religions, nations, and peoples were vilified. He was always able to realize the difference between people and fanatics.

My father set out immediately to build bridges. On the first visit of Young Arab Leaders to New York, my father invited them to come down and tour Ground Zero – to show that good relations between different peoples mattered much more than the destruction caused by a handful of individuals.

This desire to reach out to other people is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my father. It illustrates precisely how individuals can go beyond their own families to the wider world. This example of my father breaking down barriers and healing conflicts is something that I try as hard as I can to follow.

One of my life’s highlights, so far, was the time I spent traveling in the Middle East as a guest of the leader of an Islamic country. At the end of our visit, my business partner and I asked the leader if he would join us in offering a prayer for peace. It was a remarkable moment: two Jewish businessmen from New York praising God – Allah – with the Muslim ruler of an Arab nation. It was a testament to what is possible in a world where we are all connected and part of the same human family.

That’s why individuals like you – who are here today and stand for this universalism without sacrificing individual heritage – can make a difference. And the difference you can make is precisely by reaching out beyond your families to others – by using the good things you have learned from your own families to enrich others.

This is something that anybody can do. It doesn’t require vast sums of money. It just requires people being prepared to make contact with someone from another family, religion, or culture. This in itself can make all the difference to the world. The English poet John Donne once said "No man is an island.” The truth is we are all little islands. Our real task is to go and visit others, and to get others to visit us.

I thank all the families represented here today.

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