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JAINA
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Lansing, MI
2006
40
Jain Education International 2010_03
and gained worldwide attention. With every succeeding YJA and JAINA convention and visits of scholars and monks from India, JAINA's sphere of activities grew. Conventions became more robust with new features like erection of beautiful Temples on the convention floors, performing Shri Siddha Chakra Poojan, illustrious speakers and invited guests from political and social worlds.
Currently, there are 30 committees created to handle the expanding role of JAINA. Most of the work of JAINA is carried out under the leadership of committee chairpersons. Several of the committees are described below.
YOUTH ACTIVITIES: The concept of Young Jains of America (YJA) as an essential JAINA activity was born in 1989 when JAINA President Sulekh Jain requested Dr. Urmila Talsania of Chicago to lead the effort to create a youth wing for the 14 to 29 age group. She initiated contact with various Jain centers and established contacts with youth coordinators. Many of these initial youth coordinators met and many of them met in 1990 when the Jain Center of Greater St. Louis organized a youth camp. Shri Bal Bhadraji was invited as the keynote speaker at that gathering and at the 1991 JAINA convention in San Francisco, YJA was born. The first group of young organizers consisted of: Seema Jain, Samir Mehta, Mona Kothari and Jugna Shah. YJA mission statement is: "To be a national and international umbrella Jain youth organization for establishing a network to share Jain heritage and religion. through young people." YJA is a vehicle that the Jain youth have used to learn more about Jainism from like-minded individuals and colleagues. A fantastic by-product of that has been the opportunity to meet and interact with other youth from around the city, state, country, and world. Many of our children have had the opportunity to share and learn about different experiences with Jainism based on geographic and cultural environments.
YJA was never 'started' on a certain date. It truly has evolved from the local Jain meeting at someone's house to the national conventions we see today. YJA was more of a youth-led movement to explore the boundaries of our religion. It gave the youth a forum to discover and investigate Jainism without any pressures from the elder Jain community. But movements like this become firmly planted in our society when leaders of all ages step up and take on the challenge to create a formal organization. Between 1989 and 1993, various youth and adult leaders came together to form what we now know as YJA. It was in that crucial meeting at the JAINA convention in Pittsburgh in 1993 that leaders came forward and COMMITTED themselves to making this entity a reality.
Early on Dr. Talsania had concluded that the youth activity could best be organized by creating six regions in North America. Regional activities could result in a national convention in the even years as the adult conventions were held every odd
Extending Jain Heritage in Western Environment
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