8/3/2019 Ethically Speaking: November & December

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ethically-speaking-november-december 1/4 Ethically Speaking ~ Nov & Dec 2011 1

Newsletter of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture

 November & December 2011

 Dear Members and Friends,As you’ve noticed, we’ve had

a lot of new facesjoining usthese past weeks. Iwant to takea moment to thank 

you for yourwarmnessand for

how welcoming you’ve been.I’ve seen you greet peoplecoming in the door, chat it up with new parents beforeplatform begins, lean over totalk with a newcomer duringthe gathering activity, and get to know people during lunchwith the bunch. Keep it up!I’m so proud to be a part of a

community that is so friendlywhen new people walk in thedoor.

Have you found yourself wondering “who is that guy”who has been fiddling with thesound at every platform since9/11? Some of you have askedand I’m happy to share that his name is Ben Halberstam.He is our new communicationsassociate, and he’s been testingsystems to get us up to speed

with the podcasting world! If you haven’t met him yet, pleasedo introduce yourself.

With peace,Catherine

Greetings from the BoardDear BSEC Members,

It is with great joy that we announce themembers of Brooklyn Ethical’s executivecommittee for the 2011-2012 year.Jean Rohe is honored to serve as yourpresident this year, aided by RebeccaLurie as V.P. Lucy McNair, who served usall so well last year, has agreed to stay onas secretary, organizing our documentsand taking notes at board meetings.Tom Castelnuovo will again steer our

inancial ship for the year as he has in thepast, keeping us on course through fairweather and foul. Lastly, Fiona Bonehamwill be our pledge secretary, helping usto support our beloved BSEC through ourpledge contributions. You should haverecieved her pledge letter by now, whichdetails how we each can ensure theinancial health of our community.

Together with our other fellowboard members, Louise Daniel, AlecGershberg, and Joel Shatzky, we areset to have a productive year. We havea lot to look forward to as a society:

exciting new curricula in the Children’sSunday Assembly, fresh faces as wellas old friends at Sunday platforms,programming to engage our minds,hearts, and souls, and lots of ways forthe membership to be involved in thelife of our community. In a time of great challenges for our planet, our country,our city, and our families, we on theboard want to work with BSEC membersto support and nurture each other andthe sturdy roots of this community, evenas we branch out.

Please keep in touch with us. The board

will meet every irst Thursday of themonth from 7-10 pm in the library, andall are welcome to attend. If you can’t make it but want to stay up to date, all theminutes from our meetings are postedto the BSEC website. Also, our contact information is available in the Sundayplatform program each week and we’rehappy to hear from you. We hope you’llbe a part of this special year ahead.

Sincerely yours,

Jean Rohe and Rebecca Lurie,

Walking for PeaceI was moved last month by the recitalover the radio o the names o those whohad been killed on September 11, 2001.Teir humanity and the loss o so many parents, children, brothers and sisters wasembodied by the sometimes dispassionate,oen emotional voices o those who werethemselves bere o amily and riends(One Sunday at Brooklyn Society o EthicaCulture where I am a member, I met a manwho told me that he lost ourteen riendson that day, all killed in one o the topoors o the win owers.).

Tat aernoon, since I wanted toparticipate in some expression o my owneelings on the tenth anniversary o 9/11,I went on “Children o Abraham PeaceWalk,” which was coounded eight yearsago by Brooklyn Ethical and Charley Horwitz Participants met at 2:00 P.M. at thDawood Mosque in downtown Brooklynwhich all were invited to visit. Te march,consisting o about 150 people, many, likemysel, activists rom the 60’s but also anencouraging proportion o younger peoplesome with children, heard speeches rom

a number o community and religiousleaders. Tese included Ellen Lippmann,Rabbi o Kolot Chayeinu Synagogue,a spokesman or the Mosque, and theubiquitous President o the Borougho Brooklyn, Marty Markowitz, whosepresence was very much appreciated. Mostnotable was the appearance o DebbieAlmontaser, the ormer principal o theKhalil Gibran High School Te tenor o all the speeches was that o reection, thehope or peace, and a recognition thatmany o us there had had their losses,whether literal or spiritual.

Te march then proceeded to the BrooklynHeights Synagogue where we were greetedby Rabbi Serge Lippe and spent a ewminutes visiting the synagogue aer whichwe went to All Souls Bethlehem Churchwhere we were briey hosted by Rev. omMartinez. Beore concluding the walk acrosthe Brooklyn Bridge, we visited a localrehouse some o whose members had losttheir lives in the collapse o the win owerand the children in the march presenteda card o appreciation and a bouquet o owers to the remen.(continued on p. 3)

8/3/2019 Ethically Speaking: November & December

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ethically-speaking-november-december 2/4

2 Ethically Speaking ~ Nov & Dec 2011

Leonie Haimson is a ghter, no doubtabout it. For the last 13 years, she hasled Class Size Matters, a small nonprotorganization dedicated to ght or thisproven approach to improving educationor poor and minority students, especially in the lower grades. Yet “New York City has the largest class sizes in the state,”she told a packed room at Brooklyn

Ethical during a Sept 25 platorm hostedby the Ethical Action Committee.

Te city developed a gradual plan orreducing class sizes aer the successulresolution o a lawsuit by the Campaignor Fiscal Equity that also challengedthe ormula or state aid to city schools.But while more money came down romAlbany, the city has expanded its orceo administrators exponentially while itsteacher corps stagnates. “Out-o-classroompositions grew by over 10,000 whileteachers shrank by more than 1600”

between 2002 and 2009, she said.

Te teacher ranks are constantly in ux,with many teachers not making it to a hyear. Smaller class sizes encourage teachersto stay, she said, potentially providing city children with the experienced teachersthey need. At this point, Haimson said,three quarters o city high school grads needremedial classes when they go to college.

Haimson also challenged the idea promotedby the Obama administration that increasedcompetition rom privately operated butpublicly nanced charter schools improveseducation, citing research rom the well-known CREDO study that 37 percent o charters do worse, 17 percent do better and46 percent do about the same as regularpublic schools. High stakes testing tiedto teacher accountability, another eaturepromoted by Obama’s Race to the opinitiative, may even be damaging,

according to a National Academy o Sciences study that got little mainstreamnews attention, she said. Finally, the city wants to expand online learning to 400schools although even the military doesnot accept recruits with high schooldegrees rom online learning, and itseectiveness is unproven.

Haimson painted a picture o a City 

Hall that was impossible to access anddisinterested in parent input. Advocatesor Children is suing the City on behal o the NYC Parents Union and Class SizeMatters opposing the ree services givencharters in violation o a state law thatrequires charters to pay or such items asspace. In response, she told Ethical, theBloomberg Administration is arguing that“parents have no status to sue … becausewe can’t prove harm to our children.”

— Abby Scher 

Special Fall/Winter EventsTaking a Stand Against Tar Sands

Wed. November 2: Political Social! Joina political discussion over pizza inthe library, 6:30pm. Topic: OccupyWall Street. The Ethical ActionCommittee will provide a short readingbeforehand. Email gtewks@gmail.com.

Fri. November 4: Emma’s Revolution CD

release Party, ($18advance/ $20 Door)This performance by the duo of activist musicians Pat Humphries & Sandy O. isa fundraiser for Brooklyn Ethical!

Sun. November 13: Ethical Action meeting,1pm in the meeting room.

Sun. November 20: Wampanoag BrooklynEthical’s own intergenerational festivalof appreciation inspired by NativeAmerican tradition and led by RemiGay, a former board oficer and long-time member of Brooklyn Ethical.

Fri. December 2: Completely Clara, 8pm

Musical Journey into the life of a Great Musician and Wife - Written by BSECMember Joel Shatzky

Sun. December 4: Fall Member Meeting,1pm.

Wed. December 7: Political Social! Join apolitical discussion over pizza in thelibrary, 6:30pm. Topic: TBA.

Sun. December 11: Ethical Action meeting,1pm in the meeting room.

Sat. December 17: Holiday Craft Fair 10am-4pmReally fabulous crafts for

sale at our craft market. Handmadeitems that will make unique gifts foryour friends and family.

Three Brooklyn Ethical members wereamong the 1,253 people arrestedbetween Aug. 20 and Sept. 23 in protest of a massive oil pipeline proposed to cut through Midwestern aquifers. They wereMartha Gallahue – who is also leader of the Essex Society and National EthicalService – Greg Tewksbury and AbbyScher, who are cochairs of the Ethical

Action Committee. On Nov. 13, theyare hosting a platform, “Climate Crisisand the Ethics of Direct Action.”

Led by Bill McKibbon of 350.org, theTar Sands Action against the proposedconstruction of the 1,600 mile longKeystone XL pipeline seeks to createmore transparency about a project that, if approved, will send the messageto the world that US greed for energyfar outweighs its concerns for basicethical principles of proportionality andconsequences. The Action hopes also toreverse the backward trend to searchaggressively for carbon fuel rather than

to build a green economy with emphasisupon alternative sources of energy. Finally,it seeks to educate US citizens about thefallacy of natural gas as clean energy.

The Keystone Pipeline system alreadytransports synthetic crude oil fromAthabasca Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada toIllinois, Oklahoma, and the US Gulf Coast.The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, anexpansion of the system, will pass throughMontana, South Dakota, Nebraska,Kansas, Missouri, and Texas throughnearly 2,000 waterway systems. Theproject must be approved by President Obama in order for it to proceed, and

the aim of the protest is to convince thePresident to reject the project.

 Ethical Action News - Leonie Haimson: Fighting for the City’s Children

On June 23, 2010, 50 members of Congress spoke out against the KeystoneXL pipeline. They warned that “buildingthis pipeline has the potential toundermine America’s clean energy futureand international leadership on climatechange.”

On July 21, 2010, the EnvironmentalProtection Agency ordered an impact study on the project and its lengthy

report was issued on August 26, 2011.The report stated that the pipelinewould pose “no significant impacts”to most resources if environmentalprotection measures are followed, but it would present “significant adverseeffects to certain cultural resources.”

Between one and three billiondollars is being cut from the 2012EPA budget. Many of the countiesthrough which the pipeline will

pass have fewclean waterregulatorypolicies in

place. Therewere 11 oilspills last yearin the present KeystonePipeline.There is littlelikelihood that environmentalprotectionmeasurescan or will beimplemented.A Presidential

decision is expected toward the end of theyear.

— Martha Gallahue

8/3/2019 Ethically Speaking: November & December

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ethically-speaking-november-december 3/4

 Ethically Speaking ~ Nov & Dec 2011 3

  CSA CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

Nov. 4 Parent Night Out: Our amazingCSA Lower Assembly sta aredelighted to bring back this old-timeavorite Out. We will be oeringcommunal childcare on a Friday night rom 5:30pm-10pm at a cost o $20 per amily or members ($40 or

non-members). Our abulous Sunday School sta hosts the children or play in the backyard and movies or games inthe Library/Basement.

Nov. 13 & Dec.18 Parent Sharing Circle10 am: Parents are an important part o each child’s Sunday School experience.We strive to make the Sunday Schoolexperience as relevant to our children’slives as possible. Tere is no part o ethics that the children cannot directly relate to in some way. At our monthly 

Parent Circles, parents are invitedto share ethical dilemmas that theirchildren are acing. Our Parent Circlesare also a time to check in with eachother, to get to know one another, andto deepen our own sense o community as parents. Tese discussions arehelpul or identiying needs in thecommunity o parents; everyone iswelcome.

Dec. 3 CSA Sleepover: It’s ofcially inthe calendar: we will be hosting a CSASleepover in our historic mansion here

at BSEC. Please ll out a registrationorm or your child(ren) to attend.Parents & Friends, we will need a ewhands to help out that night as well ascooks or pancakes in the morning!

 C    h

    i    l  d  r  e

  n s  S und a  y   A 

s  s   e   m  

b    l         y    

We have kicked o the year with a greatstart! In September, our children allread the book 14 Cows or Americaand learned about the importanceo community, cooperation, andrelationship. Tey learned about theMaasai, developed their own ethicalclassroom agreements, wrote a song,and made peace ags. I hope you’ll join me in thanking our AMAZINGteaching sta – Alva, Otis and Simba– who developed the lessons and shineevery single Sunday morning.

Just a reminder or parents: you arewelcome to bring your amilies to BSECby 10:30 am as there is supervised play happening on the playground every Sunday. In addition, all children in theUpper Assembly will be dismissed at12:30 promptly while all children in theLower Assembly need to be picked up by their parents by 12:40. Please rememberto do this so we can all respect ourteachers’ time.

We are asking that all parents register

their children or CSA. Tere are many ways to do this, including an onlineregistration orm. With one orm peramily, it won’t take very long, andyou’ll be helping our teachers to teachyour children better. I you have any questions or concerns about nancingyour registration, register anyway and mention that you’d like to ask Catherine about scholarships. We haveMANY scholarships available thanks toour generous membership.

(continued rom p.1)

A handout given to us when we irstmet at the Mosque embodied thesent im ents o m a ny p a r t ic ip a nts :

We Jews, Christians, Muslims, andall people o good will, are walkingtogether today to demonstrate that it ispossible or us to walk in peace and livepeaceully as neighbors. We understandourselves to have grown rom the sameroots, starting with the Biblical Abraham,and so we call ourselves the Childreno Abraham. Like many children o thesame ather, we have disagreements andarguments, and in too many parts o theworld those arguments erupt in hatredand violence. We abhor that violence andpledge to continue to work together herein Brooklyn in peace and or peace.

Among sponsors o the Peace Walk werethe Arab Muslim American Federation,Brooklyn or Peace, Brooklyn HeightsSynagogue, Jews Against Islamophobia,Women in Islam, Church o Gethsemaneand a total o over thir ty Muslim, Jewish,Christian and secular peace organizations.

I would have wished that there weremany such marches in New York City and around the country on thissigniicant day. It would have beeninstructive to young learners to makecommon cause with children o otheraiths, begin to get to know them, andthus be able to resist through their ownexperiences the stereotypical demonizingo one group by another.

I would have also hoped that, deeply 

wounded as many Americans still areover the loss o their loved ones, therebe some acknowledgement, publicly and in the schools, o the losses o thecountless thousands o loved ones inIraq and Aghanistan, some o whomwere relatives o American citizens.his would require the leadershipo civic and political igures who arewilling to recognize that as we havebeen victimized, we, in the namae o theUnited States, have also been victimizers.Admitting our mistakes and pledging tolearn rom them in the uture, I believe,would be the most itting tribute to the

 victims o 9/11.

— Joel Shatzky

This article was originally published inthe Huffington Post on September 15,2011.

BSEC President Jean Rohe andfriends performed at the October15 fundraiser to support theNEGES Foundation’s work inLeogane, Haiti. Organized bythe Society’s Ethical ActionCommittee, member CarolynMeiselbach solicited items

to auction from Park Slopebusinesses, raising a total of $4,348!

Haiti Fundraiser Raises Over $4000!Photo Credit: Mohammed Hussain

uilding a Brooklyn Bridge Haiti Fundraiser 

8/3/2019 Ethically Speaking: November & December

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ethically-speaking-november-december 4/4

 4 Ethically Speaking ~ Nov & Dec 2011

Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture

53 Prospect Park West

Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-768-2972

www.bsec.org

 Don’t Forget to Send in your Annual Pledge!

The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture is a humanistic fellowship in which we help each other develop ethical ideals,

navigate our life journeys, and work to realize a more just and compassionate world.

Tom CastelnuovoLouise Daniel

 Alec GershbergReina Horowitz (on leave) 

Rebecca LurieLucy McNairJean RoheJoel Shatzky

Catherine Bordeau, Leader in TrainingDamal Edmond, Administrative DirectorBen Halberstam, Communications Manager

 Board of Trustees 2011–2012 BSEC Staff 

Joel ShatzkyBen Halberstam

 Newsletter Editors

Long time BSEC memberXena Brooks (with art supplies in tow) before

departing for Indiawhere she will travel andvolunteer at an orphangeover the next severalmonths.

Follow her travels andsend and send her words of encouragement on her blog:www.xenabean.blogspot.com

Stay informed, connected, andinvolved with BSEC on the web:

Website: www.bsec.org

Blog: www.bsec.org/BSEC/Blog.html

Meetup: www.meetup.com/Brooklyn-Society-for-Ethical-Culture/members/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/bsec53/

And be sure to friend BrooklynEthical on Facebook to stayinformed on upcomingevents.

Join our new and improvedmailing list: subscribe at 

our website to recieve ourweekly community builderand E-blast reminders forupcoming events.

Colloquy Childcare Now Avail- able 

Chilcare will now be

available for most Sunday11am colloquies, includingthe one Thanksgivingweekend. No Childcare isscheduled for Dec. 25thcolloquy.

Member abroad: Xena