Dr. Harold Kasimow will present the lecture “What is Essential to Know About the Buddhism” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the Congregational United Church of Christ, 308 E. Second St. N. in Newton.

Kasimow is a professor emeritus of religious studies at Grinnell College. His books include “The Search Will Make You Free: A Jewish Dialogue with World Religions,” “Beside Still Waters: Jews, Christians, and the Way of the Buddha” and “John Paul II and Interreligious Dialogue.” He spoke at the church last year on the topic of Judaism. 

Born in a small shelter near Vilnius — now the capital of Lithuania but formerly in Poland — just in time to face the Holocaust as a four-year-old boy, Kasimow experienced suffering and violence during his earliest years. A Holocaust survivor, he owes his life to a Polish peasant who risked his own and his family’s lives to hide and sustain the Kasimow family during the Nazi occupation of the region. Since 1949, Kasimow has lived in the United States. He is deeply committed to promoting interfaith dialogue as a path to peace.