Award-winning poet/author to speak in Newark

“XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet and Rabbi Zalman Schacter” by Rodger Kamenetz Courtesy Newark Museum

“The Jew in the Lotus,” the best-selling book about the first recorded major dialogue between experts in Judaism and Buddhism, is the subject of a lecture by the book’s author, Rodger Kamenetz, at the Newark Museum on Thursday, June 2, at 7 p.m. The lecture will follow a coffee reception at 6.

Kamenetz was invited to document a historic trip in 1990 by a group of Judaic scholars and teachers to Dharamsala, India, the home in exile for the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet and the center for his sect of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama wanted to determine if Tibetans might find a path to their survival from the history of the Jews in exile.

Published in 1994, “The Jew in the Lotus” is in its 35th reprint and was also made into a PBS film, which first aired in 1999. Call (973) 596-6550 or newarkmuseum.org.