These events, the first in the United States, followed a historic Hindu-Jewish Summit held in New Delhi in 2007 and Jerusalem in 2008–first initiated by Bawa Jain, Secretary General of the WCORL.

The earlier summits abroad resulted in the first breakthrough "Declaration" that among other points, affirmed mutual belief in One Supreme Being, the sanctity of human life and the rejection of violence to achieve goals, the need to have religious scholars from each tradition review school textbooks and finding ways to weigh in together on some contemporary scientific and ethical dilemmas. The Declaration is an example of concrete results of mutual Hindu-Jewish explorations.
 

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An historic event took place in New Delhi (6-7 Feb-2007), when Hindu and Jewish religious leaders met for the first time for a two day dialogue on a range of subjects. Among the subjects discussed were the relevance of tradition in everyday life, similarities and dissimilarities between the two religions, and education. The purpose behind this unusual inter-faith dialogue was the promotion of understanding, tolerance, peace and conflict resolution through religion.

The summit was organized by the World Council for Religious Leadership and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Jewish participants included the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, David Rosen, the Chief Rabbi of Belgium, President of the Committee for Relations between Judaism and other Religions, and additional rabbis from Europe, the United States of America and India. Also present were Israeli ambassador to India David Danieli, Consul General to Mumbai, Daniel Zonshine, and director-general of the Chief Rabbinate, Oded Wiener. Hindu participants included some thirty prominent priests from all over India.