The story of how the Dalai Lama encountered the Jewish community in 1990 is well known.

Less known is how the Ashkenazi Jewish community first encountered the Dalai Lama — in a Hebrew-language book published in Europe in 1804, compiled from travelers accounts in English and French.

“Jews then were not as sheltered as we think of them,” says Alan Brill, who quotes from the book, “Meorot Zvi,” in his own book, “Judaism and World Religions: Encountering Christianity, Islam, and Eastern Traditions,” just published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Teaching the importance of Islamic sources in the works of great Jewish thinkers can create an awareness of the possibilities of encounter. This educational process would be an internal Jewish endeavor and could carry important implications. First and foremost, if Jews are taught about the prior integration of the two faiths then there would be greater clarity that the political war between Arabs and Jews is not a faith war. It could promote an understanding that Islam and Judaism can coexist.

Jews were comfortable enough with Islam that many aspects of medieval Jewish culture were articulated, defined, and systematized under Islam. Knowledge of Arabic linguistics allowed Jews to refine Hebrew as a sister language. Jews followed Arabic and Persian models of poetry, and Jewish law was influenced by Islamic courts and Islamic jurisprudence.

A remarkable indication of the depth of this penetration of Arabic language and culture is the adoption of Islamic terminology to designate even the most sacred notions of the Jewish faith, a fact which has practically no parallel among Ashkenazi Jewry prior to the modern era. For example, the Hebrew Bible would be referred to as the Koran, the halakhah as the shari’a, and Moses as rasul Allah “‘the Apostle of Allah’.”

JERUSALEM – Israel’s security technologies were on display as the country hosted two separate international contingents.

THE 41st ICPO-INTERPOL European Regional Conference brought 110 senior law enforcement officers from 49 countries to Tel Aviv, while a homeland security conference drew 37 mayors from two dozen worldwide cities to sites throughout Israel last week. ICPO-INTERPOL stands for International Criminal Police Organization. “INTERPOL” is a contraction of “international police.”

“Israel has been forced to overcome difficult circumstances, including war and terror, in order to survive,” said Alfred Vanderpuije, mayor of the Ghana capital of Accra, following a visit to Elbit Systems, a defense electronics company based in Haifa. “And this has put the Israelis in a unique situation to develop security technologies.”

Five years ago, the inaugural Cycling for Peace group bike ride that was launched by the municipality of Acre (Acco) was dedicated to then-captive soldier Gilad Shalit. This year, organizers were excited to have Shalit leading the pack of about 500 cyclists on a 36-kilometer ride from the Shalit home to the multicultural seaside town of Acre, in northern Israel.

About 150 Arab-Israeli citizens joined the May 4 ride — the biggest turnout to date — showing that at least the wheels of peaceful intentions are rolling in some Arab and Jewish communities.

At 6 a.m. on May 9, 1,000 Jews from New Jersey and New York boarded 24 buses to the nation’s capital as part of the 20th annual Mission to Washington sponsored by NORPAC — America’s largest pro-Israel political action committee.

The bipartisan committee was founded in 1992 by Rabbi Menachem Genack of Englewood and Englewood physician Ben Chouake to strengthen the United States-Israel relationship. NORPAC fundraises for lawmakers who support this relationship, hosts frequent meetings with elected officials, and regularly updates members on the situation in the Middle East.

An online petition urging the International Olympic Committee to hold a minute of silence in memory of 11 Israelis murdered at the Olympic summer games in Munich 40 years ago continues to gain momentum even though the request was already rejected by the IOC out of hand.

The 11 Israelis were murdered on the final day of the XXth Olympic Summer Games in 1972 by members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization. Efforts to win a moment of silence in their memory have been ongoing ever since. The request this year was for 60 seconds of silence at the opening ceremonies of this summer’s XXXth Summer Games, being held in London beginning on July 27.

WARSAW – Fifteen years ago, Pawel Bramson was a skinhead shouting anti-Semitic and racist slogans during soccer matches. He hated Jews and blacks — simply, he says, because people need someone to blame for what is wrong in the world.

These days, he keeps kosher, wears the long beard and black hat typical of many charedim, and assists Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich.

Bramson’s transformation began when he was 22. It is documented in the film “The Moon Is Jewish,” which recently received the Warsaw Phoenix Award at the Jewish Motifs International Film Festival for the best film showing modern Jewish life in Poland.