Nobel Laureate to Speak on Interfaith Understanding at JTS
Press Contact: Tom Hopkins
Office: (212) 678-8950
Email: publicity@jtsa.edu
May 4, 2017, New York, NY
Renowned peace activist Leymah Gbowee will be at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) to deliver the annual John Paul II Lecture on Interfaith Understanding, entitled “Mighty Be Our Powers: Standing Together to Confront Tyranny.” Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work leading a women’s peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War. JTS Finkelstein Institute Social Justice Fellow Ruth Messinger, former president and current global ambassador of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), will moderate the discussion. The event will take place on Wednesday, May 10, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. on the JTS campus, 3080 Broadway (at 122nd Street), in New York City. Admission is free, but tickets are required. RSVP at www.jtsa.edu/standing-together.
The John Paul II Lecture on Interfaith Understanding is co-sponsored by the JTS Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue and the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, with help from the Russell Berrie Foundation.
“We are delighted to have Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee return to JTS,” said Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue and Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies at JTS. “In Hebrew we would call her a bat bayit, a regular member of our household. Leymah has inspired our students with her passion and her experience. Still in her thirties, she stood up to the Liberian tyrant Charles Taylor, united Muslim and Christian women, and helped end their civil war. She is a hero for our fractious times.”
LIVE STREAMING
This program will be live streamed at no charge at www.jtsa.edu/live (registration not required for the livestream). JTS invites synagogues and other communal organizations to hold a public screening of this outstanding program. To learn more, please contact publicevents@jtsa.edu.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Leymah Gbowee won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work leading a women’s peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War. She travels the world speaking about gender-based violence and women-led peacebuilding in conflict countries. She is the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa and a co-founder of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa.
Ruth Messinger was president of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) from 1998 through July 2016 and currently serves as the group’s global ambassador. In this role, Messinger is continuing her crucial work of engaging rabbis and interfaith leaders to speak out on behalf of oppressed and persecuted communities worldwide.
ABOUT THE MILSTEIN CENTER
The Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue, established in 2011 and located at JTS, houses the various interreligious activities that have been part of JTS’s public profile for decades. It focuses on Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim engagements of both a communal and academic nature. A partnership between the Russell Berrie Foundation and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue builds bridges between Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other religious traditions by providing the next generation of religious leaders with the opportunity to comprehensively study interfaith issues at the Angelicum.
