(Community Matters) forgot I even took these
I asked David Kurio for a signature flower arrangement – this extraordinary wall of flowers greeted our guests
Larry Connelly & James Armstrong accepting the Maislin Humanitarian Award
Amy Rudy
Amy is the most open and vulnerable person we know. Her short acceptance speech was pure Amy – genuine, piercing and authentic.
Kirk Rudy
They are both, two of my best friends (our best friends). Kirk was poignant, insightful, challenging and quite thoughtful in his remarks. I have pasted them at the bottom of this posting.
Fernando Cutz
Fernando Cutz is the senior class president of Washington University in St. Louis. He and friends were having a senior party at a club when their Black classmates were denied entrance. The ADL helped them pursue this injustice. He talks about it here.
Martin Cominsky, State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, Fernando Cutz, Shawn LaTorre, Niki Newberg, Victor McDonald & Rabbi Komerofsky
Martin Cominsky is our regional ADL director, based out of Houston. The others are all people who ADL helps/has helped and who agreed to give testimonials during the dinner – their short testimonials here.
Amy and her girls – they flew in to be with her. Part of the White Lake family
Ben Kogut & Steven
Doug Ulman & Mary Grace Tharp
Doug Ulman & Dave Shaw offered those attending who might not have had a chance to support ADL already an opportunity to do so. They raised over $27k from the stage – $25k matched by Mickey & Jeanne Klein. Doug’s off to Maryland today for The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adult’s Blue Jean Ball. The fund was established in Doug’s honor after his first fight against cancer. You can donate here.
background: Dave & Emily Shaw, Michael Feferman, Amanda Chiampi foreground: a friend & Rachel Feferman
Michael Feferman, Dave Shaw & Amanda Chiampi were critical leaders in executing Thursday’s dinner. They handled logistics & planning down to every 30 seconds. Dave took primary responsibility for the testimonials – recording them and producing them. Michael oversaw production of the honoree video, led with Dave construction of the microsite for Austin is No Place for Hate and agreed to direct the evening’s production. Amanda co-directed the evening and is handling collections and disbursements from the microsite.
a friend, Marcia Levy & Rochelle Jacobson
Marcia Levy co-chaired the first two Austin Torch of Liberty dinners and virtually co-chaired with Shelley Zausmer and me this year. She was in charge of fundraising which has exceeded all records and is just north of $500,000 gross. Through in-kind partnering, the Four Seasons Hotel serving as a sponsor, and aggressive expense management, we have kept expenses below $80,000. Rochelle Jacobson, a friend& political colleague, was recently honored as Houston’s Torch of Liberty recipient.
Niki Newberg
Her testimonial about facing blatant anti-semitism and subsquently befriending two of the three young men once they knew better also accessible here.
Yigal & Lily Saad
Yigal and Lily Saad two very dear friends and among ADL’s most important supporters internationally, nationally and locally.
Mark Salmanson & Marcia Levy
Mark Salmanson’s a past chair of ADL Austin and a devoted supporter and volunteer. He’s especially hands on and engaged combatting anti-semitism in so many ways. Also a very dear friend and who invited me to participate in ADL several years ago.
Kirk Rudy’s remarks:
Steve Adler describes the ADL’s work beautifully. Steve, you said that sometimes people on the fringe crossover the boundary to unacceptable behavior with little notice. I think the tone of conversation in our country today encourages those people to make that leap. A lot of the dialogue is intolerant and belligerent, and it comes from people who span the political and cultural spectrum. Presidents of both of our political parties have been compared to Hitler. Members of the United States Senate, historically cordial despite their differences, routinely vilify each other. One Senator a couple of weeks ago said, “This body has always prided itself on being the world’s greatest deliberative body; that designation has now been destroyed.” Members of the media and blogosphere build loyalty and ratings by demonizing others. The host of a cable network political show followed by millions shamelessly described the Senator-elect from Massachusetts as an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, who supports violence against women.” Tom Friedman describes the political atmosphere like this, he says, “The American Political system was designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots. But a cocktail of political and technological trends have emerged in the last decade that are making it possible for idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.”
This behavior does paralyze our system. It cheats the American people because it distracts us from focusing on difficult problems that impact all of us, regardless of which lever we pull in the voting booth Steve you are right, we have learned from history the cost of indifference to this behavior, very recent history in fact. Last March, three Americans travelled to Uganda to give a series of talks to thousands about their perspective on homosexuality. They talked about how to make gay people straight and how the gay movement is an evil institution whose objective is to instill a culture of sexual promiscuity. One month later, a Ugandan legislator who bragged of having ties to people in the American government, introduced a bill which called for the death sentence for people who practice homosexual behavior.
I’ve thought about the contempt in our country a lot over the last year, not only because I spend more time talking about issues these days, but also because I know at times in the past my behavior has contributed to the problem. I want to share with you just a few things I consciously think about that I hope will help me and maybe others play a more productive, respectful role in the future.
Irving Kristol, the great, unabashedly neo-conservative intellectual, who died last year once said, “There are no benefits without costs in human affairs. And so there is no idea so true and no movement so pure that it doesn’t require scrutiny. There is no position in this fallen world, he said, without flaws.” Last year, I supported legislation to expand the definition of federal hate crimes to include acts of violence committed against someone because of their sexual orientation. The leading opponent to the legislation in the House of Representatives warned that the law might preclude some of our religious leaders from expressing their views on homosexuality for fear that they might later be linked to assaults. So the benefit of the legislation to me is extra protection from the government for someone who is attacked only because he is gay, and the cost to the Congressman is a limitation to freedom of speech, a right all Americans cherish. There are people in this room tonight who agree with me and there are people who agree with the Congressman. Both of our views are legitimate and neither of us deserves to be demonized because of our positions.
Speaking of demonizing others, it doesn’t solve problems; it reduces the number of people who want to work on solutions. Abraham Lincoln said, “It is the nature of man, when told that he should be shunned and despised and condemned as the author of all vice in the land, to retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart.” From the first time I visited Israel when I was 13 years old, I’ve been infatuated with Israel’s people and her ideals. For years, I have fought for Israel’s right to live in peace, and will until my final days. There is an email I used to distribute as part of my arsenal. It stated that Jews had won 129 Nobel Prizes out of a population of 14 million Jews. It overwhelmed me with pride and continues to today. Only at the bottom of the email, it stated that Muslims had been awarded far fewer Nobel prizes out of a much larger population. Then it posed the question to the recipient, “So who should you support, whose side should you be on?” I mentioned this email to a friend of mine some time ago; he is not Jewish but I knew him to be supportive of Israel, and he told me that I had unwittingly co-opted the accomplishments of others, some of who might have been mortified to know that I had, to further a cause I care about while debasing others. It wasn’t until I looked at the story through his eyes, that I realized the arrogance of my behavior, and that I may have hurt, rather than helped, the cause I feel so strongly about.
Finally, we can push ourselves to reach out to those who have views that are distant from our own. Sam Slavin returned from two tours of duty in Iraq with a debilitating case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had an uncontrollable compulsion to kill anyone he thought was a Muslim. His hatred of Muslims left him unable to function in society. One day, literally almost at the end of his rope and unknown to the doctors overseeing his case, he forced himself to walk into a Muslim Student Association meeting at his college in Illinois. He describes the experience as the most terrifying thing that he’d ever done in his life, including carrying out his combat duties overseas. Eventually, through what he describes as unimaginable anxiety, he made friends with a few members of the organization including the President of the group, and planned fundraisers targeted at non-Muslims in an attempt to foster understanding between Muslims and others. Former soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces and the Palestinian Liberation Organization formed an organization called Combatants for Peace. Their website states, “We all used weapons to kill each other, and looked at each other only through our weapon sights, however today we cooperate and commit ourselves to the establishment of a Palestinian State, alongside the State of Israel, in peace and security. Nitsan Gordon, founded Beyond Words, an organization which has brought Israeli and Palestinian woman entrepreneurs together to build economic partnerships across borders and work on achieving peace. Surely, these people, who shared only generational hatred and mistrust of each other, serve as examples for what we can do to bridge our differences, to work on solving our problems, in a civil way, together.
Amy and I are deeply humbled and honored to be recognized by the Anti-Defamation League tonight along with Larry and James, and we are so grateful to all who worked so hard to make tonight an evening we will always remember. A few years ago when Elie Wiesel was in Austin for Light / The Holocaust and Humanity Project, a student asked him what could be done to eliminate bigotry and hatred and to avoid future genocides. Mr. Wiesel said, “Never sleep, never rest”. For almost 100 years, the ADL has never rested in its fight against intolerance, bigotry and hatred. It has opened our eyes to injustice, and illuminated a path to a more decent world. Every day, it seeks to ensure that each of us, all over the world, regardless of what we look like, what God we pray to, or who we love, has a fair chance in life. It is only because of your generous support, that the ADL will be able to continue it’s most important work for the next 100 years.
you can view Kirk’s remarks here (part I) and here (part II)
Community Matters 