You are invited a series of events when Rabbi Lerner speaks in NYC and Rockland County! The President of Brooklyn College has invited him to make a major address Thursday Oct 19 in the series she set up in response to the growth of hate in U.S. politics. That morning he will speak on a panel at Medgar Evers College. And then on Friday night and Saturday he will be the scholar-in-residence at a synagogue in north Nyack in Rockland County where on Friday night he will address “Developing Empathy for BOTH Israel and Palestine” and on Saturday morning he will address the Torah reading (about Noah) and the theme of “Environment and How it is Impacted by Ethics and America’s Spiritual Crisis.”
All of these events are free. Details are below:
1. Brooklyn College. 3:40-5:00 pm on October 19, in the Gold Room of the Student Center. A reception in the Penthouse of the Student Center immediately follows the lecture.
Rabbi Lerner’s topic: “Strategies to Combat Racism and Anti-Semitism: The Psychodynamics of American Politics.”
He will discuss the psychopathology in American life that creates the climate in which racism against African Americans and Anti-Semitism grow and strategies to take the country in a different direction. Dinner reception for guests in attendance immediately following in the Student Center Penthouse.
If you wish to attend this event, we have to send your name and snail mail to the office . of the Brooklyn College president so that they have it at the door to the student union. To do that, send that info to chris.tikkun@gmail.com by Wednesday morning Oct 18th and say “I wish to hear Rabbi Lerner at the Brooklyn College event Thursday Oct 19.”
Rabbi Lerner, mentored by Abraham Joshua Heschel at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and possessor of 2 ph.d.s (one in philosophy from U.C. Berkeley in 1972 and a second in Psychology in 1977) is the executive director of the Institute for Labor and Mental Health, the editor of Tikkun magazine (which won the mainstream media’s Religion Newswriters Association from which Tikkun wo nthe “Best Magazine of the Year” Award in 2014 and again in 2015), chair of the interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-welcoming Network of Spiritual Progressives www.spiritualprogressivess.org, and is the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley, California. Lerner is the author of two national best-sellers: Jewish Renewal: a Path to Healing and Transformation, and The Left Hand of God: Taking Back America from the Religious Right. He has written 11 books including The Politics of Meaning, The Socialism of Fools: anti-Semitism on the Left, and with Cornel West Jews & Blacks: Let the Healing Begin.
Lerner’s visit to NYC is sponsored by the Kurz Family Foundation.
2. Earlier in the day Oct 19, Rabbi Lerner will be speaking on a panel discussion of 4 people addressing “Creating a New Social Justice Movement” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Medgar Evers College, the Edison O. Jackson Auditorium, 1638 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, N.Y. It will be followed by lunch for attendees.
3. Reform Temple of Rockland
330 North Highland Avenue (Route 9W)
Upper Nyack, NY 10956
On the evening of Friday, October 20 Rabbi Michael Lerner will be in town from Northern California and will be the Scholar-In-Residence at the Reform Temple of Rockland. He will be making a special presentation on Israel and Palestine: Can we Heal the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Afflicting Both Sides?
This is free and open to the public. Prior to the service at 6 pm there will be a catered dinner. The cost of the dinner is $18 but no one will be left out even if you do not have the funds to pay for the meal. Just let them know and appropriate arrangements will be made. If you would like to attend the dinner please RSVP to Jolie Levy: jolielevy@rtrny.org
On Saturday morning, at 9 a.m., Rabbi Lerner will lead a Torah study of this week’s Torah portion on Noah and the flood. Then from 10:30-11:30 there will be a Shabbat morning service and Rabbi Lerner will give a short talk on the relationship between “Spiritual/ethical health and the well-being of the environment”
4. Saturday, October 21, 2018
12:30 pm
CEJJES Institute
5 Cooper Morris Drive
Pomona, NY 10970
During the afternoon of Saturday, October 21 come join us for lunch and the start of a dialogue. Dr. Edmund Gordon and Rabbi Michael Lerner will talk on Black-Jewish relations: “Where We Come from and Looking to the Future.” This dialogue will be introduced and moderated by Rabbi Benjamin Sharff of the Reform Temple of Rockland.
The lunch is free but please try to RSVP to Cassandra Edwards: cedwardsd@afchange.org
If you don’t have the chance to RSVP please come anyway. We are preparing for a few extra people.
Dr. Edmund Gordon is the co-founder of Head Start and the co-founder of CEJJES, the Pomona, NY based African-American Museum and Study Center. Professor Gordon’s career spans professional practice, minister, clinical and counseling psychologist, research scientist, author, editor, and professor. Gordon was recognized as a preeminent scholar of African-American studies when he was awarded the 2011 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award from Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education. He is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Yale University, the Richard March Hoe Professor Emeritus at Teachers College, Columbia University, and founder of the College’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education. He is the founding Director of the Institute for Research on African Diaspora in the Americas and Caribbean (IRADAC) at The City College of New York. Dr. Gordon is a Senior Scholar in Residence at SUNY Rockland Community College and had a Chair named in his honor at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey.