Conference of European Rabbis President Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt on Friday co-hosted a breakfast panel discussion alongside World Jewish Congress President Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder at the end of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The event entitled ‘Ethical Challenges with New Technologies,’ investigated the ethical and moral challenges posed by new means of communication and new technologies. The panel consisted of Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, Knesset opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union), Israeli Prime Minister's Office Director General Eli Groner, and Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat, Former US Under Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, each sharing their expert guidance. Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt moderated the panel.
“It is an honor that for the first time the Conference of European Rabbis, together with the World Jewish Congress, have organized a breakfast briefing in Davos,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt said. “World leaders come together at Davos to discuss the most important issues of our time and religion and ethics must be part of the conversation.”
“Technology has made us change the way that we behave, but it must not be at the expense of our beliefs or our integrity. I hope that by having this discussion, we will be able to keep these principles at the forefront of our minds.”
“My sense of what is going on is that technology is depriving us of the capacity to doubt in the same way,” Rama said. “We don’t have time to doubt and the decision-making process is very fast because interactions are very fast. I’m not talking about this germane process as prime minister, I’m talking about this germane process as father, as husband, as son, as a public officer, because interactions make it too fast.”
“There is no time to think enough, to doubt, and to put yourself in a situation where you can come out with a decision that has matured.”
