The chief rabbi of Israel Jonah Metzger and Ronald Lauder, an American Jewish philanthropist presented Nursultan Nazarbaev, the president of Kazakhstan, with an International Maimonid Award. The award was given to the head of Kazakhstan for his contribution to the dialogue between civilizations.
Nursultan Nazarbaev became the first winner of an award devoted to an 800th anniversary of Maimonid, a Jewish doctor and philosopher, who is considered to be an Islam-Judaism dialogue founder. According to the recognition of the chief rabbi of Israel, 25 members of international committee have unanimously given their voices for Nazarbaev. Another candidate for the award was Ioshka Fisher, A Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany.

   The award is a reduced scale copy of sculpture of rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, which is in his motherland - Kordov city (Spain).

  "As the representatives of Jewish people, we have come here for presentation the president of Kazakhstan with the most prestigious award, uniting Jewish organizations all over the world," - rabbi Jonah Metzger told after the award ceremony had finished.

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