By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Abraham Peck of Portland was born in a concentration camp, the son of two people who would survive the Holocaust.

Now, he is writing a book with the grandson of the German woman who supplied Hitler with the paper he used to write “Mein Kampf.” Their relationship is an example of what Peck believes will eventually bring an end to religious wars and conflicts across the world.

“Hatred is something that is only possible when two individuals who hate each other have never met,” Peck said Thursday during to a visit to Lewiston.

The director of the Academic Council for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies at the University of Southern Maine, Peck was the speaker at this month’s Great Falls Forum.

He began by talking about Sept. 11, the war on terrorism and the fighting that has erupted between Muslims and people of other religions in countries around the world.

It is happening, he said, in Indonesia, the Phillipines, Pakistan, India, Israel, Sudan, Serbia, Bosnia, Nigeria and many other places. He acknowledged that it will be a long time before many of the conflicts are resolved.

But Peck believes the effort can begin in towns and cities across the United States, in places such as Lewiston.

“We’ve got a lot of things to face in this community,” he warned the audience.

Peck referred to his relationship with the grandson of a Nazi as an example of how people can make a difference by simply sitting down across the table from one another.

“I’m not talking tolerance,” he said. “I’m talking about a climate of respect.”

If that happens here and in other communities across the state, he believes it can be “exported” from Maine to the rest of the world.

Peck commended the people of Lewiston for already making strides, referring to how the community responded to a visit in January 2003 from a neo-Nazi group targeting the area’s Somali population. Thousands of people of various churches and religious backgrounds rallied together to protest the group’s arrival.

“There will be no peace among civilizations with no peace among religions,” he said. “Religion needs to be a force for conflict resolution, not conflict creation.”

Peck spoke with a sense of urgency.

He described the 21st century as being dominated by politics of identity – not the politics of ideology as happened in the 20th century.

He encouraged the audience to ask an important question: “How has Western culture shaped who we are and how have we shaped Western culture?”

The answer to that question, he said, will allow us to begin the long, difficult road of what he refers to as inter-religious study and dialogue.

“We live in challenging times,” Peck acknowledged. “But I believe in this nation and the ultimate promise of America. We need to work – each and every one of us – to make that happen.”