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Jean Somerville Kotkin Memorial Fund

14 May 2014
Emily
News

The Jean Somerville Kotkin Memorial Fund was recently established by the AEU Board to provide sponsorship support for young people in need who wish to attend the Encampment for Citizenship (EFC). This summer 30 young people, ages 16-17, will take part in an exciting experience in democracy being held at University of Illinois in Chicago, June 30-July 20. Jane Sapp, nationally-known artist and cultural worker, will serve as Program Director. To donate to the Jean Somerville Kotkin Memorial Fund, please send checks made out to the American Ethical Union, with “EFC–JSK Memorial Fund” on the notation line, to 2 West 64th Street, Suite 406, New York, NY 10023.

The EFC came from the Ethical Culture Movement in 1946 and has always been strongly linked to the values, beliefs, and Leaders of the Movement for the past 68 years. As Algernon Black, former Leader of the York Society for Ethical Culture and co-founder of the Encampment said, “It is one thing to teach about democracy and citizenship. It is another thing to learn by living it.”

The idea for the fund was initiated by Jon Kerner (EFC ’65) and Beth Kotkin (EFC ’69) in memory of their mother Jean Somerville Kotkin. Jean, who served as the first female Executive Director of the American Ethical Union in 1976, and the first female Senior Leader in the New York Society for Ethical Culture in 1983, was an ardent supporter of the Encampment for Citizenship (EFC). In the 1960s and 1970s, Jean organized regular charity art auctions and annual dinners in support of the EFC, in response to support requests from her dear friend Algernon Black. Jon Kerner remarks,

    “Now that the reborn EFC is organizing its second year of programming for high school youth, Beth and I felt that it would be fitting and consistent with our mother’s values if we could work with the AEU to build a memorial fund in Jean’s name to support young people in need of financial support to attend the EFC.

    For me, at 15 years of age, the EFC experience expanded my world and transformed me in ways that continue to influence me all these years later. For example, I and my fellow high school students in 1965 picked strawberries in California fields with migrant workers being organized by Cesar Chavez; spent a weekend at Synanon experiencing firsthand the challenges faced by drug addicts trying to kick their habit; and were exposed to the contrast of wealth and power with a field trip to Standard Oil of California.

    These formative field experiences, combined with the opportunity to exchange ideas with my fellow Encampers, who saw the world very differently than did I (guided by the faculty), led to my lifelong professional work and volunteer efforts to address the social determinants of health disparities and to try to redress the societal inequities that remain a challenge today.

    Encampment alums leave their summer experience knowing it’s possible to live in a true democracy and they come to care deeply about issues and people they never would have known otherwise. This is the power of the Encampment: You know a better world is possible because you lived it, and you go out into the world finding ways to take your Encampment experience and translate it into working for a more just and equitable world wherever you go.”

 

This summer’s Encampment will be working with local progressive organizations, including the Institute for Social Justice and using Chicago as a laboratory to look at issues such as: the labor movement past and present, community organizing, violence and criminal justice, and art and music as vehicles for social justice activism. Youth from across the country–-from urban, suburban, and rural settings, and from a variety of racial, ethnic, and tribal backgrounds–-will live and learn together during this unique program. Learn more at encampmentforcitizenship.org or call us at 831-515-6775.

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All Society Platform Featuring Congressman Jamie Raskin

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Congressman Jamie Raskin Salutes Long Walk for Freedom

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Congressman Jamie Raskin shared words of support for the Sindhi Foundation's Long Walk for Freedom, Nature, and Love today.

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www.mymcmedia.org/raskin-trone-urge-hogan-to-open-mass-vaccination-site-in-montgomery-county/ ... See MoreSee Less

Raskin, Trone Urge Hogan to Open Mass Vaccination Site in Montgomery County | Montgomery Community Media

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U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md. 8) and David Trone (D-Md. 6) have written a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland’s Acting Secretary of Health Dennis Schrader urging that the state open a mass vaccination site in Montgomery County. “[D]espite Montgomery suffering the worst casualty rate in Mary...

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In honor of Women's History Month, the AEU highlights the work of Sandra Faber!An astronomer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Sandra Faber has made innumerable contributions to our understanding of the beginnings of our universe, the formation of galaxies, and the origins of our planet. In 2013, President Obama recognized her notable achievements with the National Medal of Science. She is also a publicly declared atheist who finds meaning not in religious doctrine or deities but in the beauty of the natural laws of science. In an interview with PBS, Faber stated that there are only two possible explanations for the origin of the universe: “One is that there is a God and that God made it that way. The only other approach…is to argue that there really is an infinite, or a very big, ensemble of universes out there and we are in one.” In the interview Faber asserted her preference for the latter materialistic explanation rather than theistic faith in a creator, adding, “I take comfort in the fact that it is a beautiful universe, and we belong here and that we fit. This is our home.”#WomensHistoryMonth #WHM #WomenInSTEM #WomenHumanists #WomensHistoryMonth2021 ... See MoreSee Less

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On February 25 a group of U.S. House Democrats including Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), reintroduced the Do No Harm Act, a bill to ensure that religious freedom is not used as a justification for discriminating against LGBTQ people, religious minorities, and others. ... See MoreSee Less

Religious Groups Agree: Pass The Do No Harm Act

www.au.org

The Do No Harm Act will return the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to its original purpose of protecting the free exercise of religion, especially for religious minorities, while making it clear that the legislation should never be used to exempt anyone from laws that protect other people’s basi...

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In honor of Women's History Month, the AEU highlig In honor of Women's History Month, the AEU highlights the work of Sandra Faber!
An astronomer at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Sandra Faber has made innumerable contributions to our understanding of the beginnings of our universe, the formation of galaxies, and the origins of our planet. In 2013, President Obama recognized her notable achievements with the National Medal of Science. She is also a publicly declared atheist who finds meaning not in religious doctrine or deities but in the beauty of the natural laws of science. 
In an interview with PBS, Faber stated that there are only two possible explanations for the origin of the universe: “One is that there is a God and that God made it that way. The only other approach…is to argue that there really is an infinite, or a very big, ensemble of universes out there and we are in one.” In the interview Faber asserted her preference for the latter materialistic explanation rather than theistic faith in a creator, adding, “I take comfort in the fact that it is a beautiful universe, and we belong here and that we fit. This is our home.”

#WomensHistoryMonth #WHM #WomenInSTEM #WomenHumanists #WomensHistoryMonth2021
On this final day of Black History Month, we honor On this final day of Black History Month, we honor Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), a Black playwright and journalist.

Hansberry’s partly autobiographical play “A Raisin in the Sun,” shocked Broadway audiences when a Black character declared, “God is just one idea I don’t accept. ... It’s just that I get so tired of him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no God! There is only man, and it’s he who makes miracles!” She worked with W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson on an African-American progressive newspaper, until her life was tragically cut short at age 34 by cancer.

#BlackHistory #BlackHistoryMonth #BHM #BlackNonBelievers #BlackHumanism
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