________________
Jinamañjari, Volume 20, No.2, October 1999
JAINA CONVENTIONS: AN OVERVIEW
In May of 1981, Los Angeles Jain Sangha, in conjunction with three Sanghas of New York, Washington and Cleveland, organized a Jain Convention under the guidance of Acarya Sushil Kumarji and Gurdev Chitrabhanu. They elected Lalit Shah as the President and agreed to meet again in two years in New York. When they met in New York in May of 1983, a constitution for JAINA was approved, and Dr. Manoj Dharamsi of Washington was elected as the first President of JAINA.
The 1985 JAINA Convention was held in Detroit, and at that time Dr. Tansukh J. Salgia was elected as president. Jain Digest, a Ouarterly News Magazined was launched under the editorship of S.A.Bhuvanendra Kumar. The next Convention was held in 1987 in Chicago with 2,000 attendees. Dr. Tansukh Salgia was re-elected as President. The JAINA Convention has become a notable event for the North American Jain community.
The 1989 Convention was held in Toronto in the month of July and was attended by over 2,500 people. It was at this time that a permanent date of the July 4th weekend was established for the Convention. Also that year, the first “Jaina Ratna Award” was given to Dulichand Jain of New York. Dr. Suleck Jain of Cincinnati was elected as president.
The 1991 Convention in San Francisco drew 4,000 conventioneers to the campus of Stanford University. Dr. Prem Gada of Lubbock, Texas was the recipient of the Jaina Ratna Award, and Dr. Suleck Jain was re-elected as president
Pittsburgh was the site of the 1993 Convention, and this was the year that the Convention was first held in a Hotel/Convention Centre. This year over 5,000 people attended, and they elected Dr. Jagat Jain of Buffalo as president and Dr. Dhiraj Shah of Buffalo was recipient of the Jaina Ratna Award.
The 1995 Convention was held in Chicago, and coincided with their Pratistha Mahotsav held on the temple grounds. The total attendance was said to have reached 10,000 and set a new high water mark. At that Convention a lot of youth activity was organized,
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
