Promoting Peace, Nobel Laureates Square Off, Politely

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A panel discussion titled “Peace Within” at the Newark Peace Education Summit on Friday. The discussion included the Dalai Lama, center, and the anti-land mine activist Jody Williams, seated fourth from right.
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: May 13, 2011

NEWARK — Of the many rare scenes provided here on Friday by renowned advocates of enlightenment and nonviolence, the rarest may have been a pair of Nobel Peace Prize winners getting about as close as such people ever get to actual confrontation.

On a stage during the opening session of the Newark Peace Education Summit, the Dalai Lama and Jody Williams, a world-famous anti-land-mine activist, disagreed — sometimes obliquely, always politely — about the importance of inner tranquillity, the role of anger and the moral character of the United States. (More on that later.)

The three-day conclave mixes celebrities, community organizers and people who grapple with a range of problems, from the personal to the global. On Friday, another Nobel laureate, Shirin Ebadi, spoke on the rule of law and the rights of women in Iran, and the author Deepak Chopra spoke about the neuroscience of happiness. The hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons talked about recruiting young men for neighborhood safety patrols, and Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, led the audience in singing “Down by the Riverside.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/nyregion/nobel-peace-laureates-square-off-at-newark-nonviolence-summit.html?hp