A great week (or 2) of peace actions in the NY area

During the next two weeks an incredible wealth of great programs are being held in New York City and the lower Hudson. Here is a "Top Ten" list I have organized, and I hope to see many FOR members and friends at some of these gatherings over the coming fortnight. Short descriptions are immediately below this paragraph, and greater detail is offered about each event further down the message:

1. Tue., 10/16, 6pm in NYC at Judson Memorial Church: general meeting of the Metro NY Religious Campaign Against Torture
2. Wed., 10/17, 7pm in Ossining at Maryknoll: renowned peacemaker John Dear speaks on "The Beatitudes of Peace"
3. Wed., 10/17, 7pm in NYC at the A.J. Muste building: informational meeting on the national War Tax Boycott and war tax resistance
4. Thur., 10/18, 7pm in NYC at Morningside Bookshop: book launch party for Peace, Justice, and Jews: Reclaiming Our Tradition featuring four of the 30 contributors to this edited collection
5. Thur., 10/18, 7pm in NYC at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church: annual dinner for the statewide advocacy organization Rural & Migrant Ministry 
6. Thur., 10/18, 7pm in NYC at Union Theological Seminary: book launch event for On Earth As In Heaven: Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel in the 21st Century featuring responses by James Cone, Joan Brown Campbell, Gary Dorrien, and Randall Balmer
7. Fri., 10/19, 2-4pm in Nyack: film screening and discussion of The Color of Wealth
8. Sun., 10/21, 1:30pm in Nyack at FOR: film screening and discussion of Big Bucks, Big Pharma
9. Sat., 10/27, midday in NYC: United for Peace and Justice national mobilization -- FOR's staff and National Council will travel to Manhattan to participate in this mass rally and march from 12-4pm
10. Sun.-Tue., 10/28-30 in Nyack: Undoing Racism workshop, hosted by People's Institute for Survival & Beyond

(1) Tuesday, October 16th, 6-8 p.m.
General meeting of the Metro New York Religious Campaign Against Torture
Hosted by Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
212.477.0351

This week, an explosion of attention has been given to the Bush administration's policies that do not explicitly oppose torture, including secret memos from within the Justice Department that countenance torture. In the Thursday, 10/11 edition of The New York Times, the lead editorial exorciates the administration, calling it a "Supreme Disgrace." In the Sunday, 10/14 edition of the Times, op-ed columnist Frank Rich compares present-day America to Nazi Germany in "The 'Good Germans' Among Us."

Come and help make a difference!

(2) The Beatitudes of Peace
Speaker: John Dear, S.J.
Hosted at Maryknoll headquarters, Ossining, NY
Info: 914-941-7590

John Dear is a renowned peace activist and speaker who travels throughout the world preaching nonviolence, practicing civil disobedience, and educating people on the role of Jesus as peacemaker. He has authored more than a dozen books and writes a regular column for the National Catholic Reporter. John served as executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation from 1997-2001 and organized a national summer peace presence in Washington DC during his time with FOR.

(3) Informational meeting on the national War Tax Boycott and war tax resistance
Wednesday, October 17, 7 - 8:30 PM , AJ Muste room, 339 Lafayette Street, buzzer #11
(corner with Bleecker St.; nearby subways: #6 to Bleecker; B, D, F to Broadway Lafayette; R to Prince Street)

This is not a workshop but a time to seek answers to your questions, check in with folks who've been resisting, share concerns, support each other's resistance, etc. No heavy agenda but a time to see if the IRS is being problematic, talk about news like the demise of the long distance federal excise tax, and such. Feel free to bring in recent IRS letters.

For more information about this meeting, contact Ruth Benn of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee at 718.768.3420 or nwtrcc@nwtrcc.org

(4) Morningside Bookshop Author Event
PEACE, JUSTICE, AND JEWS: Reclaiming Our Tradition
Featuring

• Murray Polner, author, activist, editor to discuss “Alternatives in Jewish Life”
• Bennett Muraskin, educator on matters of secular humanistic Judaism to discuss “Jewish Secularism”
• Rabbi Michael Rothbaum, rabbi, teacher, and lecturer on the subject of community social justice organization to discuss “Justice, Not “Just Us”
• Kenny Freeman, writer, activist, friend to the homeless and mentally ill, former resident of Israel and the Gaza Strip to discuss “A Dreamer’s Sojourn in the Holy Land”

Thursday October 18, 2007, 7:00 PM
Morningside Bookshop @ Columbia University
2915 Broadway at 114th Street, 212-222-3350

About the book (see also Richard Deats' review in Fellowship magazine)
Peace, Justice, and Jews: Reclaiming Our Tradition
Edited with an Introduction by Murray Polner and Stefan Merken

The ancient Jewish tradition of peace and justice, further nourished during two millennia of the Diaspora, has found Jews at the forefront of struggles for civil rights, labor rights, anti-militarism, and compassion for the most vulnerable among us: the poor, the hungry, and the oppressed. Proponents of this affirmative tradition today recognize that only when human rights are respected for all can Jews find true equality and security.
In this landmark collection of contemporary Jewish thought, editors Murray Polner and Stefan Merken have drawn on the work of a wide variety of thinkers and activists in Israel and the United States, including charity workers, political demonstrators, conscientious objectors, prison workers, animal rights advocates, mothers and fathers, refuseniks, rabbis, soldiers, journalists, and academics. Gathered here are the personal testimonies and practices of an increasingly vocal—and pertinent—number of Jews.
This diverse gathering of voices demonstrates the remarkable depth and range of thinking and commitments among Jews who seek justice by aspiring beyond violence in its many forms. Perhaps most urgently felt are the essays related to the Middle East. As Israel appears to rely increasingly on military superiority as a response to its complex political and territorial problems, the American and Israeli Jews writing here find themselves working through a profound moral crisis: whether to support Israel unconditionally as a bulwark against anti-Semitism or to insist on a compromise grounded in Jewish tradition: a fair and peaceful solution with the Palestinians.

(5) Thursday, October 18th, 7 p.m.
Annual dinner and silent auction benefiting
Rural and Migrant Ministry
Hosted by Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Manhattan's Upper East Side
316 East 88th Street, NY NY 10128
212.289.4100

(6) On Earth As In Heaven: Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel in the 21st Century
Thursday, October 18th, 7 p.m. at Union Theological Seminary
3041 Broadway at 120th Street, New York, NY
James Chapel

On Thursday, October 18, 2007 at 7:00 p.m., Union Theological Seminary will host a panel discussion in celebration of the 100th Anniversary Edition of Walter Rauschenbusch's seminal book Christianity and the Social Crisis. The panel will feature the following participants:

• Dr. Randall Balmer, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of American Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University
• Dr. Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary
• Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Director, Department of Religion at the Chautauqua Institution
• Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church, and President of the Healing of the Nations Foundation

The 100th anniversary edition of the book, Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century: The Classic That Woke Up the Church, was edited by Rauschenbusch's great-grandson Paul Raushenbush '96 and includes responses from Cornel West, Sister Joan Chittister, Stanley Hauerwas, Tony Campolo, James Forbes, Philis Trible and Jim Wallis, as well as a forward by Raushenbush and afterward by Richard Rorty.

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) was a Baptist Minister in New York's "Hell's Kitchen" and the primary theologian of the Social Gospel movement whose mission was to meet social needs through the ministrations of the institutional church.

The book's editor, Paul Raushenbush '96, great-grandson of Walter Rauschenbusch, is associate dean of religious life at Princeton University. He has served as an associate minister at Riverside Church in New York City and has been involved in ministry to street youth in Seattle and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

(7) The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Divide is the first book to answer the question, "Why are people of color poor?" by laying out the government actions that helped white people build wealth and blocked asset-building for African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans.

Presentation and discussion will be led by one of the authors, Meizhu Liu who is returning to Rockland County after a most exciting program on this subject in 2006. The program will take place on:

Friday, October 19, 2007
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Nyack Village Hall, 9 North Broadway, Nyack, NY.

This program is open to the public - welcoming to all.
The cost is $10.00 per person, $5.00 seniors/students.
Copies of The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Divide will be signed and available for purchase.

(8) monthly peace & justice film screening:
Big Bucks, Big Pharma
Sunday, October 21st, 1:30 p.m.
FOR headquarters, 521 North Broadway, Upper Nyack
For more info, contact Phil Greenspan by e-mail or phone at 845.354.4470.

(9) Join the Fellowship of Reconciliation's national staff and National Council (board) at the
National Anti-War Mobilization: "Fall Out Against the War"
Saturday, October 27th, 12-4 p.m.
Organized by United for Peace and Justice
Union Square, New York City (and dozens of other cities nationwide)

(10) Undoing Racism Workshop

Special Discount ~ For those who live or work in Rockland County, NY! (Thanks to the Rockland County Executive, Rockland County Legislature and Rockland County Commission on Human Rights )
$95.00! (discounted from $350.00!) includes continental breakfast, snacks and beverages on Monday and Tuesday. Participants are asked to commit to attend the entire 2½ day workshop.
Sun. . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 28 . . . . . . . . . . 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Mon. . . . . . . . . . .Oct. 29 . . . . . . . . . . 9:00 am - 6:30 pm
Tue. . . . . . . . . . . Oct. 30 . . . . . . . . . . 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Nyack Village Hall, 9 N Broadway, 2nd Floor, Nyack, NY
Register Now - Limited Enrollment
VCS Community Change Project
e-mail or phone: 845-634-5729

Presented by The People's Institute For Survival & Beyond