Conference for Religious Educators to Ask “What Will We Teach Our Children About Each Other?”

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 22, 2012 -
Aspiring and emerging religious educators – Christian, Jewish, and Muslim – are invited to apply to participate in a ground-breaking conference to be held in late June 2012 to ask the vital question “What will we teach our children about each other?” and, through the support of generous donors, all those chosen to participate will do so free-of-charge.

The conference, scheduled for June 24-27, 2012 at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in the Connecticut Berkshires, is the result of a unique partnership between the Retreat Center and the Manhattan College Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center.  

Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, the new Director of the Manhattan College center, is the first Muslim to serve as the director of a Holocaust center in North America and stresses the value of teaching the next generation lessons in interreligious respect and understanding.  “This will be a unique opportunity to engage future religious leaders in a multi-day setting,” says Dr. Afridi, “not only to listen to and learn from one another but to begin to engage in real hands-on collaborative work in creating new models for religious education.”

According to Dr. Afridi, the conference’s goals include fostering relationships among future religious educators; exploring existing practices in religious education that help to shape narratives that lead to suspicion, misunderstanding, mistrust; and exploring potential practices, both within communities and through interreligious partnership, that would foster a new narrative promoting respect, understanding, and cooperation.

The conference is set to include a combination of plenaries, facilitated group conversations, and collaborative work between diverse groups of participants, all under the guidance of experienced conference leaders with histories in interreligious dialogue and education.  Leaders for the conference are set to include Michel Andraos of the Catholic Theological Union; Haifa Bint Kadi, a New York-based Arts Educator; Nancy Fuchs Kreimer of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Hussein Rashid of Center for Spiritual Inquiry; Rabbi Or Rose of Hebrew College; and Dr. Afridi.

With the support of generous partners including the Common Sense Fund, Ken Orce, Michael Somoroff, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, and the New Light Foundation, all selected participants will be able to attend the conference free-of-charge, including lodging and meals.  

“We are excited not only to be able to offer such a ground-breaking event,” says Isabella Freedman Executive Director David Weisberg, “but to be able to offer it in a way that removes the financial obstacle that could prevent some young emerging religious educators from attending.” According to Weisberg, potential participants range from those engaged in university studies leading to a career in religious education to those actively working as religious educators, whether in religious, secular private, public schools, or other venues.  While the conference aims to engage aspiring and emerging educators, there is no age restriction for applicants.

Those interested in applying for conference participation should visit www.isabellafreedman.org/interfaitheducators or call 860-824-5991, extension 305.

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Sports of The Times: Induct Steinbrenner? Let’s Think About This

George Steinbrenner died on July 13. It’s now November, and he is on a short list for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

We were just getting used to the gross plaque honoring the Sun King of the Bronx. In the heady rush of deserved respect and understandable nostalgia, we need to slow down and evaluate the Boss.

First we need to remember that Steinbrenner narrowly escaped going to prison after pleading guilty to illegal campaign contributions and that he could have been barred from baseball forever after consorting with a lowlife gambler to discredit Dave Winfield, one of his own players.

Steinbrenner has been named to the eligible list of distinguished baseball people from the expansion era, 1973 on. He will be judged by a solid group of 16 executives, writers and former players.

Yes, character is one criterion for the Hall, particularly for people in uniform. Joe Jackson is barred for being involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal, and it is too late for him. Pete Rose is barred for gambling and then lying about it while he was managing. I personally think Rose the player belongs in the Hall, but I totally understand why he is barred. He made it hard on himself, the knucklehead, and may never get into the Hall in his lifetime. Then again, the Boss made it hard on himself, too.

Steinbrenner was a builder, a successful club owner, but does he deserve to be in on sheer baseball merit? There is one argument that Steinbrenner was better than moral, better than smart. He was lucky. He turned a modest personal investment, said to be $168,000, into a $10 million package that, enriched by unforeseen cable television revenue, became the most lucrative franchise in baseball, worth $1.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Then Steinbrenner got lucky all over again while barred by Commissioner Fay Vincent for conspiring with the gambler — the best thing that ever happened to him and his beloved Yankees.

While Steinbrenner was verifiably out of power, his front office, most notably General Manager Gene Michael, protected the best young players in the farm system. You might have heard of them: Jeter, Posada, Williams, Rivera, Pettitte. For once, the Yankees did not trade away their future for expensive old stars. George came back and presided over one of the great eras of Yankees baseball.

So, maybe the voters should instead pick Joe Torre and Michael and even poor, addled Billy Martin, who is actually on this makeup ballot.

But Steinbrenner got most of the credit and most of the profit from the golden era that began during his absence. What a guy. He bent the rules and used his money to get his way, but there are already a few owners like that in the Hall. Besides, if high character were to become a standard, who would run the banks and the stock market and the corporations?

Am I getting soft on the Boss? With the flick of a finger I can find columns I wrote in the 1980s when he was younger and so was I, when I called him the Man From Tampa and told him to get out of town, that he dishonored New York by his bullying of employees, his diatribes against baseball officials, his putdowns of players, his apologies for losses, his blustering about legal and moral issues. I often blamed three signature men of the ’70s — Murdoch, Trump and Steinbrenner, a veritable three-person Page Six of crudeness — for the lowering of civil discourse in New York.

But that was then. We have all since accepted that Steinbrenner was spontaneously generous to good causes, to the needy. We also watched him grow old, start to fade from sight, much like our grandparents, our parents and, good grief, maybe even people in our own generation. He was, after all, human. In his later years, a lot of us came to miss that force of nature.

Ultimately, to my chagrin, I cannot work up any major moral or legal long-term argument for keeping Steinbrenner out of the Hall. He paid his penalties, and he came back.

I think he belongs in the Hall — eventually.

Let’s look at it this way. The oversight panel exists to right wrongs, and there already is one major injustice in the Hall of Fame: Marvin Miller, who is also on the ballot before the veterans committee this year, is not a member.

As head of the players union, Miller outsmarted the owners, including Steinbrenner, to bring about free agency in the ’70s. Cable riches and free agency have probably widened the gap between the richest and poorest teams, but that gap has always existed.

Everybody makes more money because of Marvin Miller. But voters have tended to ignore Miller because baseball people have a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. That is, they identify with their captors and become fearful of truly smart people with vision, like Marvin Miller. In recent years, even some baseball people seem to have come to understand that a truly great innovator and leader has been shortchanged.

At least one member of the panel feels that way. Jim Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher, said in an e-mail: “My vote has been and will always be for Marvin. He gave the modern day player a voice, completely changed the landscape.” He spoke positively about Steinbrenner, but added, “There are enough marks against him to warrant a later entrance.”

Marvin Miller is 93. He deserves to be present at his induction into the Hall of Fame. Then, when the first wave of emotion has passed and we are all thinking a bit more clearly, let’s get back to the discussion about George Steinbrenner.

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Luchi Cruz-Valdez Reports About Looming Water Crisis in DOKYU5′s ‘Huling Patak’

Huling Patak Ulat ni Luchi Cruz-Valdes on DOKYU5 airs this Sunday (August 28) on TV5.

An archipelago, the Philippines is surrounded by bodies of water. Yet, by 2025, experts predict a severe water shortage in the country. The rapid increase in population, urbanization and industrialization has reduced the quantity and affected the quality of Philippine waters.

Today, the signs of the imminent crisis are palpable. Access to clean and adequate water is an acute seasonable problem in urban and coastal areas. Only 36% of the country’s river systems are classified as sources of public water supply; up to 58% of groundwater sampled by government agents is contaminated with coliform and needs treatment; and 31% of diseases monitored over a five-year period are due to water-borne sources.

“Huling Patak,” a one-hour documentary to be aired nationwide on TV5 and Aksyon TV Channel 41, presents the state of water resources in the Philippines and the looming crisis.

Based on the compelling stories of six localities – Tawi Tawi, Davao, Camarines Sur, Quezon, Antipolo, and Metro Manila — and accounts of people living in the cusps of danger due to lack or absence of potable water – NEWS5 chief Luchi Cruz-Valdes weaves a story of decades of neglect and abuse of a resource more important than oil. Luchi explores the whys and wherefores of an impending disaster as well as the risks faced by Filipinos as we live with life threatening water scarcity.

Together with experts and examples of best practices that ensure sustained and efficient delivery of safe, clean water despite very limited resources, Luchi tells a story of doom and despair, and a promise that every Filipino can do something to avert a looming crisis. This special DOKYU5 presentation aims to tell them how.

“Huling Patak” airs this Sunday (August 28) at 10:30pm on TV5 with simulcast airing over Aksyon TV (Channel 41 in Mega Manila, Channel 29 in Metro Cebu and Davao, Channel 1 on Cignal Digital TV and Channel 59 on Sky Cable).

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Hungry man tweets about steak, gets surprise delivery

Twitter

You've been traveling all day, are hungry, and want nothing more than a delicious steak to be waiting for you when you land at your next destination. So you tweet about this craving. What would you think if your wish came true and a stranger met you at the airport — steak and sides in hand?

Well, this whole series of events did happen to one man — and he shared his exact thoughts in a blog post. 

Peter Shankman, an angel investor who appears to spend a great deal of time jetting from city to city, had a rough day on Wednesday. His alarm went off at 3:30 a.m., he had to catch a 7 a.m. flight from Newark, New Jersey to Tampa, Florida, have a lunch meeting in Clearwater, Florida, and then catch a 5 p.m. flight back to Newark.

By the time he was ready to board his return flight, he was starving — the "healthy piece of grouper" he had at lunch just wasn't enough to hold him for the rest of the day. His stomach growled as he took his seat and visions of steak started floating through his head. He decided to cope with the hunger the same way any other social media-obsessed individual would: He jokingly tweeted that Morton's Steakhouse, one of his favorite restaurants, should have a steak waiting for him when he lands in Newark.

Two and a half hours later his flight landed, he grabbed his things, and started walking towards the area where a car would be waiting for him.

Then something strange and wonderful happened:

Looking for my driver, I saw my name, waved to him, and started walking to the door of [the airport], like I’d done hundreds of times before.

“Um, Mr. Shankman,” he said.

I turned around.

“There’s a surprise for you here.”

I turned to see that the driver was standing next to someone else, who I just assumed was another driver he was talking to. Then I noticed the “someone else” was in a tuxedo.

And he was carrying a Morton’s bag.

...

He proceeds to tell me that he’d heard I was hungry, and inside is a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, an order of  Colossal Shrimp, a side of potatoes, one of Morton’s famous round things of bread, two napkins, and silverware.

Shankman was shocked. Not only had he merely been joking when he wrote his original Twitter message, but he also knew that the nearest Morton's was over 20 miles away from the airport. Someone at Morton's corporate offices had seen his tweet, ordered the meal, and had someone drive over 20 miles to deliver it.

Yes, it may have been a publicity stunt — someone may have noticed that Shankman has more than 100,000 Twitter followers who'd hear about the whole thing, after all. And yes, Shankman may have gotten lucky because he is known to be a frequent Morton's customer.

But this its still one fantastic story and a display of what great customer service looks like.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tweet about my travel plans and food cravings ...

Related stories:

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.

View the original article here

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Hungry man tweets about steak, gets surprise delivery

Twitter

You've been traveling all day, are hungry, and want nothing more than a delicious steak to be waiting for you when you land at your next destination. So you tweet about this craving. What would you think if your wish came true and a stranger met you at the airport — steak and sides in hand?

Well, this whole series of events did happen to one man — and he shared his exact thoughts in a blog post. 

Peter Shankman, an angel investor who appears to spend a great deal of time jetting from city to city, had a rough day on Wednesday. His alarm went off at 3:30 a.m., he had to catch a 7 a.m. flight from Newark, New Jersey to Tampa, Florida, have a lunch meeting in Clearwater, Florida, and then catch a 5 p.m. flight back to Newark.

By the time he was ready to board his return flight, he was starving — the "healthy piece of grouper" he had at lunch just wasn't enough to hold him for the rest of the day. His stomach growled as he took his seat and visions of steak started floating through his head. He decided to cope with the hunger the same way any other social media-obsessed individual would: He jokingly tweeted that Morton's Steakhouse, one of his favorite restaurants, should have a steak waiting for him when he lands in Newark.

Two and a half hours later his flight landed, he grabbed his things, and started walking towards the area where a car would be waiting for him.

Then something strange and wonderful happened:

Looking for my driver, I saw my name, waved to him, and started walking to the door of [the airport], like I’d done hundreds of times before.

“Um, Mr. Shankman,” he said.

I turned around.

“There’s a surprise for you here.”

I turned to see that the driver was standing next to someone else, who I just assumed was another driver he was talking to. Then I noticed the “someone else” was in a tuxedo.

And he was carrying a Morton’s bag.

...

He proceeds to tell me that he’d heard I was hungry, and inside is a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, an order of  Colossal Shrimp, a side of potatoes, one of Morton’s famous round things of bread, two napkins, and silverware.

Shankman was shocked. Not only had he merely been joking when he wrote his original Twitter message, but he also knew that the nearest Morton's was over 20 miles away from the airport. Someone at Morton's corporate offices had seen his tweet, ordered the meal, and had someone drive over 20 miles to deliver it.

Yes, it may have been a publicity stunt — someone may have noticed that Shankman has more than 100,000 Twitter followers who'd hear about the whole thing, after all. And yes, Shankman may have gotten lucky because he is known to be a frequent Morton's customer.

But this its still one fantastic story and a display of what great customer service looks like.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tweet about my travel plans and food cravings ...

Related stories:

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook. Oh, and she can be found on Google+, too.

View the original article here

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Dad protests shutdown of blog about ex

Former prosecutor and legal commentator Star Jones and psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz talk about the battle over the controversial website "ThePsychoExWife.com." NBC's Amy Robach reports.

A dad whose very personal blog called The Psycho Ex Wife was ordered shut down by a family court judge is challenging that ruling, saying it violates his First Amendment rights.

In late 2007, Anthony Morelli started the blog, describing it as "the true account of a marriage, divorce, and subsequent (child) custody fight between a loving man, his terroristic ex-wife who we suspect suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder (at least from our armchair psychologist diagnosis), and the husband's new partner."

We hope that by sharing this story, we will effect change in the divorce cartel. We don’t sugarcoat issues, although we do try to protect the innocent. You will read actual e-mails, transcripts, false child abuse charges, and custody evaluations, the result of over $80,000 in legal fees (not including the psycho ex wife’s legal bills) and 4-years of litigation.

A good way for Morelli to work through his anger? Well, sure, but there's also kick-boxing, Zen and a million other ways to do it. Still, the blog was his way, and it had a title that appealed to angry ex-spouses, especially those in the middle of vitriolic child custody battles like Morelli's. The blog drew 200,000 visitors a month. Morelli even started selling advertising for it.

No words about his ex were minced there — at all — with an elaborate "cast of characters" listed on the blog, including the villainous protagonist, referred to as the "PEW" in shorthand. She was described as many things, none of them nice:

She’s on the precipice of 40 and probably looks all 50-years of it. Imagine if you will, Jabba The Hut, with less personality. She spends her time ... drinking her days away bemoaning her victim status, when she isn’t stuffing the children with fast food, buying them toys, or pushing them towards the TV or computer.

Readers wrote in about their own "PEWs," venting their own frustrations about exes and custody battles.

Morelli, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and his wife share custody of their two sons, ages 10 and 12. He thought he'd handled things so anonymously on the blog that his ex-wife and sons would never see it. But his ex-wife did see it. It's not clear whether the boys have.

Earlier this summer, at yet another custody hearing, Family Court Judge Diane Gibbons took both parents to task for their behaviors, but ordered Morelli to close down the blog, which she said goes beyond "venting" to "outright cruelty."

"Your children are being hurt because you are bad mouthing the woman they love in public," Gibbons said, in part. "Should I put them with the man who is publicly browbeating their mother?"

Now Morelli is appealing the judge's decision to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, citing violation of the First Amendment, as well as the 14th Amendment, the latter because the judge ordered the blog taken down without giving him the chance to present evidence or to object.

He's hired an attorney and even has a new website where he's soliciting donations to help pay for his fight. His attorney, Kevin J. Handy, says in a press release on the site that the judge's order "is a classic example of an overly broad and unenforceable prior restraint on free speech.”

Allison Morelli told PhillyBurbs.com that she was "so relieved, this judge has finally seen what I’ve had to deal with for the past seven years," since the beginning of the divorce.

She just wants the legal battle to end, she told UPI: "What the judge said in court made perfect sense to me. Stop doing what you're doing, and do the right thing for your children."

In an interview with The TODAY Show aired Tuesday, Allison Morelli said that no matter what she has done over the years, "there's a negative spin somehow — the website spins everything."

Anthony Morelli told TODAY his main goal in having the blog was "to connect with other people who were going through similarly high-conflict divorce and custody situations."

Psychiatrist Gail Saltz said that while Morelli may win his legal case to continue the blog, the couple's children will suffer because of it.

"He may be right legally, but he’s not right, in terms of the family," she told Matt Lauer. "Because at the end of the day, when a couple gets divorced you know the fallout for children. And the only way to try to help to be the healthiest for them is to preserve two good parents, even if they don’t want to be together. But it’s your job to help say to some degree, 'Your mom’s an okay person and loves you.' "

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

View the original article here

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Dad protests shutdown of blog about ex

Former prosecutor and legal commentator Star Jones and psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz talk about the battle over the controversial website "ThePsychoExWife.com." NBC's Amy Robach reports.

A dad whose very personal blog called The Psycho Ex Wife was ordered shut down by a family court judge is challenging that ruling, saying it violates his First Amendment rights.

In late 2007, Anthony Morelli started the blog, describing it as "the true account of a marriage, divorce, and subsequent (child) custody fight between a loving man, his terroristic ex-wife who we suspect suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder (at least from our armchair psychologist diagnosis), and the husband's new partner."

We hope that by sharing this story, we will effect change in the divorce cartel. We don’t sugarcoat issues, although we do try to protect the innocent. You will read actual e-mails, transcripts, false child abuse charges, and custody evaluations, the result of over $80,000 in legal fees (not including the psycho ex wife’s legal bills) and 4-years of litigation.

A good way for Morelli to work through his anger? Well, sure, but there's also kick-boxing, Zen and a million other ways to do it. Still, the blog was his way, and it had a title that appealed to angry ex-spouses, especially those in the middle of vitriolic child custody battles like Morelli's. The blog drew 200,000 visitors a month. Morelli even started selling advertising for it.

No words about his ex were minced there — at all — with an elaborate "cast of characters" listed on the blog, including the villainous protagonist, referred to as the "PEW" in shorthand. She was described as many things, none of them nice:

She’s on the precipice of 40 and probably looks all 50-years of it. Imagine if you will, Jabba The Hut, with less personality. She spends her time ... drinking her days away bemoaning her victim status, when she isn’t stuffing the children with fast food, buying them toys, or pushing them towards the TV or computer.

Readers wrote in about their own "PEWs," venting their own frustrations about exes and custody battles.

Morelli, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and his wife share custody of their two sons, ages 10 and 12. He thought he'd handled things so anonymously on the blog that his ex-wife and sons would never see it. But his ex-wife did see it. It's not clear whether the boys have.

Earlier this summer, at yet another custody hearing, Family Court Judge Diane Gibbons took both parents to task for their behaviors, but ordered Morelli to close down the blog, which she said goes beyond "venting" to "outright cruelty."

"Your children are being hurt because you are bad mouthing the woman they love in public," Gibbons said, in part. "Should I put them with the man who is publicly browbeating their mother?"

Now Morelli is appealing the judge's decision to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, citing violation of the First Amendment, as well as the 14th Amendment, the latter because the judge ordered the blog taken down without giving him the chance to present evidence or to object.

He's hired an attorney and even has a new website where he's soliciting donations to help pay for his fight. His attorney, Kevin J. Handy, says in a press release on the site that the judge's order "is a classic example of an overly broad and unenforceable prior restraint on free speech.”

Allison Morelli told PhillyBurbs.com that she was "so relieved, this judge has finally seen what I’ve had to deal with for the past seven years," since the beginning of the divorce.

She just wants the legal battle to end, she told UPI: "What the judge said in court made perfect sense to me. Stop doing what you're doing, and do the right thing for your children."

In an interview with The TODAY Show aired Tuesday, Allison Morelli said that no matter what she has done over the years, "there's a negative spin somehow — the website spins everything."

Anthony Morelli told TODAY his main goal in having the blog was "to connect with other people who were going through similarly high-conflict divorce and custody situations."

Psychiatrist Gail Saltz said that while Morelli may win his legal case to continue the blog, the couple's children will suffer because of it.

"He may be right legally, but he’s not right, in terms of the family," she told Matt Lauer. "Because at the end of the day, when a couple gets divorced you know the fallout for children. And the only way to try to help to be the healthiest for them is to preserve two good parents, even if they don’t want to be together. But it’s your job to help say to some degree, 'Your mom’s an okay person and loves you.' "

Related stories:

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

View the original article here

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