The Ethical Culture Society of Essex County
516 Prospect Street, Maplewood, New Jersey 07040 Phone 973-763-1905
csec.nj@gmail.com
Board of Trustees:Tom Cunningham, President; Alice Robinson-Gilman, Vice-President; Jill Farrer;
Lisa Novemsky;Jeanine Rosh; Terri Suess; Andy Weinberger. Leader Emeriti: Martha Gallahue, Boe Meyerson, Jim White
Liz Cunningham, Office Manager
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Join our email list! Write to: ecsec.nj@gmail.com
Recent Programs
For last year's programs, see Schedule 2022-2023
All-Societies Platform: Standing Up to Book Banning
with Dr. Christopher HarrisThis is a Zoom event. You must preregister to participate. The registration link is below.
Attempts to ban books from all types of libraries continue to rise at an unprecedented level across the country. The American Library Association reported attempts to censor 4,249 unique titles of library books and resources in 2023. This is the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago and a 65% increase over 2022.
Learn how concerned people can support the Freedom to Read along with the many partners of the Unite Against Book Bans campaign led by the ALA.
Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ tZAudeqgrD0oG9277tXobUf8_ hifL1Pp9AM5#/registration
About Dr. Christopher Harris
Dr. Christopher Harris is the Director of a School Library System in Western New York and a Senior Policy Fellow with the American Library Association. He was a participant in the first American Library Association Emerging Leaders program in 2007 and was honored as a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2008. His policy work with the ALA has included equity of access to ebooks, coding for youth, and most recently the Unite Against Book Bans campaign. Dr. Harris is an author, speaker, gamer, and member of his local public library board of trustees.
Read two opinion pieces by Dr. Harris:
Censorship and the case for institutional literacy →
Support your local librarians by rejecting book bans →
Father's Day Conversation
Bill Graves Leads a Father's Day Colloquy
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
The Granddaddy of ECS Platforms: Final 2023-24 Platform and Father's Day Colloquy.
Longtime ECS member Bill Graves will lead us in a clear-eyed look at the fathering we experienced, how fathering has evolved, and how that fits in with men's changing roles in contemporary society.
Anisa Mehdi: A Reflection on "the Day After"
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
Anisa Mehdi will reflect on “the day after” as she experienced it in Nineveh with Ezidi and Syriac Catholic Communities, raising questions about what may lie ahead for Gaza and Israel.Emmy Award-winning journalist Anisa Mehdi was executive director of the Abraham Path Initiative from 2017-2023. She led API’s launch of 1500 miles of walking trails in West Asia that are building global connections to the region and are boosting rural revenue in the region through sustainable experiential tourism. In 2023, she traveled to Iraq twice, documenting cultural heritage in the post-ISIS Nineveh region in the north.
Previously, Anisa spent 20 years in mainstream American news broadcasting (CBS News, PBS, ABC News Nightline, National Geographic). She won two Emmys, has multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, a CINE Golden Eagle, and other film festival honors. Anisa is the first American broadcaster to cover the hajj pilgrimage from Mecca (1998) and made documentaries on the hajj for National Geographic (2003) and PBS (2014). She was a commentator for “All Things Considered” (1998-2010), and a global affairs columnist for Stratfor.com (2015-2018).
Anisa holds a BA in Spanish Language and Literature from Wellesley College and has a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan. Anisa is a trustee of the Esalen Institute and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. She is a founding member of the Maplewood Flute Quartet.
Curt Collier: The American Congregation 2.0This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
The percent of Americans who join congregations and civic groups is rapidly declining. From a high 76%, today only about 33% of Americans are a member of a congregation regardless of denomination. Researchers suggest that up to 100,000 congregations will close in the US in the coming decade. Civic groups fare no better, and most have also seen a rapid decline in support. Only 35% of Americans are members of a civic organization, and formal volunteering programs only engage 23% of Americans nationwide, dropping to an average of 16% of New Jersey residents. Community engagement is crucial for a thriving democracy. People who participate in communities also tend to be both physically and mentally more healthy and live longer than those who remain at home. Despite these appalling numbers, 95% of Americans still believe civic engagement is a good thing. If that's true, what explains the rapid cultural changes currently underway in the US. What do congregations need to do? Ethical Culture Leader and biocentrist Curt Collier is a frequent speaker on community engagement and has helped organizations nationwide to better understand their audiences and shift programs to meet current needs.Curt Collier is currently the Leader of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County and consulting Leader for the Ethical Culture Society of Silicon Valley, positions he has held for the past two years. Previously, he was the National Youth Programs Director for a national environmental nonprofit and developed youth and corps programs in 20 cities, with 25 National Parks, and four federal agencies. Collier's work focused on the engagement of diverse audiences on public lands, which he has presented extensively. His youth program won the Centennial Award by the National Park Service under the Obama Administration. In the past two years he has worked with 15 congregations to reimagine their future and to stabilize their finances by exploring other funding streams. He currently sits on the Board of three organizations, and works as a consultant for the National Park Service on community engagement. Collier is a single father who lives on his sailboat in New York harbor, and is an advocate for Ethical Biocentrism.
11 am
We Remember:
A Tribute to Members and Friends of the Society Who Are no Longer with Us
Sunday, May 12, 11 am
How Mothering Has Evolved
Sunday, May 5, 2024
11am
- May Day Performance by the Solidarity Singers,
followed by a discussion about the group's efforts to see justice and peace.
Daniela Gioseffi Speaking on Earth Day, 2024Celebrate Earth Day with the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County and
Author/Activist Daniela Gioseffi
Sunday, April 21, 2024
11:00 a.m.
Celebrate upcoming Earth Day on April 21st, Sunday at 11am at the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, 516 Prospect St. Maplewood, NJ 07040, with Speaker/Author/Activist Daniela Gioseffi. Learn about the latest regarding climate crisis and how New Jersey residents can think globally and act locally.
Speaker Daniela Gioseffi is an American Book Award winning author of 18 books from major and university presses on social justice themes and environmental issues. She has been certified as a Climate Leadership Speaker by Al Gore at The Climate Reality Project, and giving given talks on environmental subjects at colleges, universities, schools, and for congregations. She’s lectured throughout the NY/NJ Met. Area and in Europe on campuses, in libraries, and schools, as well as on NPR and BBC radio— from Harlem to Scarsdale, Princeton University to Montclair State University and at book fairs from London, to Miami and Barcelona. She is an activist with the coalition of one hundred and twenty New Jersey environmental organizations known as www.EmpowerNewJersey.com Daniela edits www.EcoPoetry.org Her YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com@danielagioseffi579/
More info: www.DanielaGioseffi.com and wwwAuthorandActivist.com After the presentation, there will be a Q & A discussion with the audience. All are welcome https://www.essexethical.org/
Steve Sklar: Stories R Us
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
With his storytelling, Steve Sklar aims to achieve resonance, poignancy or insight. He writes:"I'm happy if my stories elicit laughter, but my greater hope is to achieve resonance, poignancy or insight. It's possible I'm in denial...
"Lately and particularly on my visits with my mom (who recently turned 96), it's occurred to me that the stories we accumulate about our lives and our memories of moments with those around us, in some way define who we are.
"I've heard or read somewhere that human memory is not so much actual memory of the events we remember as it is a repeated neurological revisiting or rewriting of the initial experience. Perhaps in a similar way, story is our attempt at revisiting and thereby somehow understanding the experience of being alive."
April 7 Program was Nancy Kislin & Moms Demand Action of Essex County: Promoting Gun Safety and How to Talk with Your Children About School Violence
Moms Demand Action of Essex County & Nancy Kislin: Promoting Gun Safety and How to Talk with Your Children About School Violence
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
Peg Zitko and Lorraine Lombardi of Moms Demand Action will speak on gun safety and what we can do to promote sensible gun laws. They will introduce keynote speaker Nancy Kislin, Licensed Certified Social Worker, author of LOCKDOWN: Talking to Your Kids About School Violence. Moms Demand Action https://momsdemandaction.org is a grassroots movement
fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.
Nancy Kislin (https://nancyjkislin.com) is author of LOCKDOWN: Talking to Your Kids About School Violence, a book that offers unprecedented professional insight and critical therapeutic guidance to help parents, teachers, school administrators, and social service professionals successfully nurture and heal children in this era of school shootings. She has been interviewed on television and radio and facilitated numerous parent, teen, and children’s programs in schools, summer camps, and religious institutions. She is passionate about helping parents and children navigate the complex issues of today’s society, so that they can lead productive, balanced lives.
Peg Zitko and Lorraine Lombardi of Moms Demand Action of Essex County will discuss the urgency of gun violence prevention, the importance of safe gun storage in the home, and how to be involved in the movement for gun and school safety, as well as legislative action we can participate in to help advance common sense gun laws. There are various ways we can contribute and join in the vital work of Moms Demand Action of the Everytown for Gun Safety citizens movement.
Please spread the word about this important event. We invite you to share this email with friends and neighbors.
Sunday, March 31, 11 am
March All-Societies Platform: Opening the Door for Democracy with YVote (Why Vote)
This is an online program.
Please RSVP using the link below.“YVote is creating a youth-led civic movement. We equip young people to channel their passions into positive action—at and beyond the ballot box.”
Sanda Balaban, co-founder of YVote, and Audrey Kindred, of the NYSEC will present on how they collaborate to bring Voter and civic engagement activities to hundreds of youth in ongoing democracy reinforcing programs. They will show how other Ethical Societies can do similar civics/voter actions.
The program will include youth who will tell of their concerns and how YVote has prepared them for action and leadership.
Sanda Balaban is passionate about helping young people understand their individual and collective power, at and beyond the ballot box. In response to the complex times we’re living in, the vulnerability of democracy being demonstrated, and the desire to support young people in being on the front lines of change, she co-founded and directs cross-partisan youth civic engagement nonprofit YVote / Next Generation Politics, aiming to equip leaders of tomorrow for their roles and responsibilities as citizens shaping a more just world.
Sanda has held leadership roles in education and youth development for over 25 years, in the public sector at the New York City Department of Education, in education philanthropy at the Ford Foundation and the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and in nonprofits including Facing History and Ourselves, the Boston Private Industry Council, and The Teachers Network.
Sanda is proud to serve on the founding Board of Directors of Generation Vote and The Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund and on the National Reader Advisory Board for Chalkbeat. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Audrey Kindred is Director of Ethical Education for children, youth & families at The New York Society For Ethical Culture.
Sunday, March 24, 11 am
Susan Haig: Why a Broad "Civic Space" in News Is Key to Successful 2024 Elections
This is a hybrid program: in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Susan Haig will discuss the work of CivicStory, a nonprofit newsroom focused on solutions-based stories about civics and sustainability, particularly crucial media topics in this election year, and how America's youth deserve two ethically-functioning political parties.Susan Haig is conductor of the South Orange Symphony Orchestra, and VP/founding trustee of CivicStory. CivicStory’s current programs are a NJ ecology-justice reporting fellowship for university student journalists, and a humanities reporter project that explores connections among news, humanities, and democracy.
Haig conducted orchestral and opera performances in the U.S. and Canada over 20 years before returning to New Jersey to develop short-form cultural videos for TV news broadcasts. A resident of South Orange, Haig's volunteer work includes the South Orange Public Library Foundation and Green Team, Summit-New Providence Rotary, and First Presbyterian & Trinity Mission & Community Committee.
March 17, 2024
11:00 a.m.
Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad
Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad:
Erasing Essex County's Boarders
This is a hybrid program: in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad, founder of Erasing Essex’s Borders, will talk about her efforts to create a movement to unify Essex County and create a sense of belonging that transcends lines, borders, and boundaries.
Stephanie is a Managing Director at Accenture in the Cloud First Practice based out of the New York Office. She has nearly 30 years of experience spanning infrastructure development, engineering, implementation, and operations. The first 20 years of her career were in the wireless industry starting at Motorola, then Lucent Technologies, and culminating in 11 years at Verizon Wireless.
Stephanie has always been one to split her time between her career and her commitment to civic engagement. After relocating to South Orange in 2011 she was elected to the SOMSD School Board and served for 6 years. She also served as a trustee of Bloomfield College for 7 years.
Stephanie is currently the chair of the South Orange Community Police Collaborative and serves on the board of Trustees of SOMA Action.
She is an avid runner and member of the SOMA Foxes and is training for her first triathlon in July 2024.
Stephanie has a MS in Electrical Engineering Systems from University of Michigan, a BS in
Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Mathematics from Spelman College.
Paul LaClair & Jieun Yu
Hear the People Sing: Human Values in Music
Paul LaClair was President of Essex Ethical in 1998-99. Since then, he has devoted much of his time, outside his law practice, to the development of a human values model, consistent with Ethical Culture's tenets. Paul's ethical commitments, coupled with his passion for music, have resulted in what is to be a four-volume book series about how music expresses our values.
Jieun Yu is an artist, marketer and creative designer. She met Paul in 2023, and quickly took an interest in his work. Jieun is illustrating the book series; together, they are creating a product that is greater than either of them could have created alone. Born in Korea, where she lived for the first thirteen years of her life, Jieun brings Asian culture, her generation, her sex and gender to the project.
Together, Jieun and Paul form a powerful creative team, bound together in love for our troubled world, and a desire to do their part to heal it. Using visual and audio media, they will present a sample of their work at this platform.
Sunday, March 3, 11 am
Ellen Zisholtz: Restoring a Civil Rights Landmark and
Revitalizing a Community
This is a hybrid program: speaker online via Zoom, audience in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Ellen Zisholtz will speak as Project Director for the Preservation of All Star Bowling Lanes which was the sight of a deadly civil rights protest in 1968 known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Although few Americans ever learned about this, Ellen took ownership of the site and succeeded in getting it put on the African-American Civil Rights Network of the National Park Service. Learn how substantial grant funding and partnerships from a variety of sources has brought All Star Bowling Lanes into public recognition, and how restoring the original bowling alley has sparked a community wide effort to create a cultural center and revitalize the community.
A native New Yorker with degrees in History and Arts Management, Ellen Zisholtz now lives in Orangeburg, SC where she taught art and was Director/Curator of the I.P Stanback Museum and Planetarium at South Carolina State University, one of the historically Black colleges in the South. Now retired, Ellen founded and serves as President of Center for Creative Partnerships, an organization of conscience and social justice that promotes community involvement through the arts and humanities, including civil and human rights. Ellen has an extensive background in civil rights history and activism. Her honors include the 2023 Social Justice Award from South Carolina State University; 2017 Leadership Award for "the preservation, promotion and interpretation of African and African American art, history and culture" from the Association of African American Museums; 2015 Medal for Social justice and Civil Rights, National Civil Rights Conference, Philadelphia, Mississippi; and the first SC State Faculty Award in Creativity awarded at commencement by Congressman James Clyburn. Under her leadership, the IP Stanback Museum was awarded the Governor's Award for the Humanities and the first Social Justice Award, Orangeburg Massacre Commemoration at SC State. Ellen is also a visual artist having studied at the Arts Student League and has worked in a variety of art forms with experience all over the world.
11 am
We Remember:
A Tribute to Members and Friends of the Society Who Are no Longer with Us
Sunday, May 12, 11 am
How Mothering Has Evolved
Sunday, May 5, 2024
11am
- May Day Performance by the Solidarity Singers,
followed by a discussion about the group's efforts to see justice and peace.
Leila Saad & Mindy Greenspan: Supporting a Local Ceasefire Resolution
in person and by Zoom
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.Local residents and members of the SOMA Collective for Palestine, Leila Saad and Mindy Greenspan, will describe their campaign for a halt to the conflict in Gaza.
They will outline the background and goals of the organization and describe its ceasefire resolution. To provide context, they will discuss the history and present-day reality of Gaza.
Daniela Gioseffi Speaking on Earth Day, 2024Celebrate Earth Day with the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County and
Author/Activist Daniela Gioseffi
Sunday, April 21, 2024
11:00 a.m.
Celebrate upcoming Earth Day on April 21st, Sunday at 11am at the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, 516 Prospect St. Maplewood, NJ 07040, with Speaker/Author/Activist Daniela Gioseffi. Learn about the latest regarding climate crisis and how New Jersey residents can think globally and act locally.
Speaker Daniela Gioseffi is an American Book Award winning author of 18 books from major and university presses on social justice themes and environmental issues. She has been certified as a Climate Leadership Speaker by Al Gore at The Climate Reality Project, and giving given talks on environmental subjects at colleges, universities, schools, and for congregations. She’s lectured throughout the NY/NJ Met. Area and in Europe on campuses, in libraries, and schools, as well as on NPR and BBC radio— from Harlem to Scarsdale, Princeton University to Montclair State University and at book fairs from London, to Miami and Barcelona. She is an activist with the coalition of one hundred and twenty New Jersey environmental organizations known as www.EmpowerNewJersey.com Daniela edits www.EcoPoetry.org Her YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com@danielagioseffi579/
More info: www.DanielaGioseffi.com and wwwAuthorandActivist.com After the presentation, there will be a Q & A discussion with the audience. All are welcome https://www.essexethical.org/
Steve Sklar: Stories R Us
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
With his storytelling, Steve Sklar aims to achieve resonance, poignancy or insight. He writes:"I'm happy if my stories elicit laughter, but my greater hope is to achieve resonance, poignancy or insight. It's possible I'm in denial...
"Lately and particularly on my visits with my mom (who recently turned 96), it's occurred to me that the stories we accumulate about our lives and our memories of moments with those around us, in some way define who we are.
"I've heard or read somewhere that human memory is not so much actual memory of the events we remember as it is a repeated neurological revisiting or rewriting of the initial experience. Perhaps in a similar way, story is our attempt at revisiting and thereby somehow understanding the experience of being alive."
April 7 Program was Nancy Kislin & Moms Demand Action of Essex County: Promoting Gun Safety and How to Talk with Your Children About School Violence
Moms Demand Action of Essex County & Nancy Kislin: Promoting Gun Safety and How to Talk with Your Children About School Violence
This is a hybrid event: in person at the Ethical Culture Society and also via Zoom. The Zoom link is below.
Peg Zitko and Lorraine Lombardi of Moms Demand Action will speak on gun safety and what we can do to promote sensible gun laws. They will introduce keynote speaker Nancy Kislin, Licensed Certified Social Worker, author of LOCKDOWN: Talking to Your Kids About School Violence. Moms Demand Action https://momsdemandaction.org is a grassroots movement
fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence.
Nancy Kislin (https://nancyjkislin.com) is author of LOCKDOWN: Talking to Your Kids About School Violence, a book that offers unprecedented professional insight and critical therapeutic guidance to help parents, teachers, school administrators, and social service professionals successfully nurture and heal children in this era of school shootings. She has been interviewed on television and radio and facilitated numerous parent, teen, and children’s programs in schools, summer camps, and religious institutions. She is passionate about helping parents and children navigate the complex issues of today’s society, so that they can lead productive, balanced lives.
Peg Zitko and Lorraine Lombardi of Moms Demand Action of Essex County will discuss the urgency of gun violence prevention, the importance of safe gun storage in the home, and how to be involved in the movement for gun and school safety, as well as legislative action we can participate in to help advance common sense gun laws. There are various ways we can contribute and join in the vital work of Moms Demand Action of the Everytown for Gun Safety citizens movement.
Please spread the word about this important event. We invite you to share this email with friends and neighbors.
Sunday, March 31, 11 am
March All-Societies Platform: Opening the Door for Democracy with YVote (Why Vote)
This is an online program.
Please RSVP using the link below.“YVote is creating a youth-led civic movement. We equip young people to channel their passions into positive action—at and beyond the ballot box.”
Sanda Balaban, co-founder of YVote, and Audrey Kindred, of the NYSEC will present on how they collaborate to bring Voter and civic engagement activities to hundreds of youth in ongoing democracy reinforcing programs. They will show how other Ethical Societies can do similar civics/voter actions.
The program will include youth who will tell of their concerns and how YVote has prepared them for action and leadership.
Sanda Balaban is passionate about helping young people understand their individual and collective power, at and beyond the ballot box. In response to the complex times we’re living in, the vulnerability of democracy being demonstrated, and the desire to support young people in being on the front lines of change, she co-founded and directs cross-partisan youth civic engagement nonprofit YVote / Next Generation Politics, aiming to equip leaders of tomorrow for their roles and responsibilities as citizens shaping a more just world.
Sanda has held leadership roles in education and youth development for over 25 years, in the public sector at the New York City Department of Education, in education philanthropy at the Ford Foundation and the Goldman Sachs Foundation, and in nonprofits including Facing History and Ourselves, the Boston Private Industry Council, and The Teachers Network.
Sanda is proud to serve on the founding Board of Directors of Generation Vote and The Hope Reichbach Memorial Fund and on the National Reader Advisory Board for Chalkbeat. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Audrey Kindred is Director of Ethical Education for children, youth & families at The New York Society For Ethical Culture.
Sunday, March 24, 11 am
Susan Haig: Why a Broad "Civic Space" in News Is Key to Successful 2024 Elections
This is a hybrid program: in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Susan Haig will discuss the work of CivicStory, a nonprofit newsroom focused on solutions-based stories about civics and sustainability, particularly crucial media topics in this election year, and how America's youth deserve two ethically-functioning political parties.Susan Haig is conductor of the South Orange Symphony Orchestra, and VP/founding trustee of CivicStory. CivicStory’s current programs are a NJ ecology-justice reporting fellowship for university student journalists, and a humanities reporter project that explores connections among news, humanities, and democracy.
Haig conducted orchestral and opera performances in the U.S. and Canada over 20 years before returning to New Jersey to develop short-form cultural videos for TV news broadcasts. A resident of South Orange, Haig's volunteer work includes the South Orange Public Library Foundation and Green Team, Summit-New Providence Rotary, and First Presbyterian & Trinity Mission & Community Committee.
March 17, 2024
11:00 a.m.
Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad
Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad:
Erasing Essex County's Boarders
This is a hybrid program: in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad, founder of Erasing Essex’s Borders, will talk about her efforts to create a movement to unify Essex County and create a sense of belonging that transcends lines, borders, and boundaries.
Stephanie is a Managing Director at Accenture in the Cloud First Practice based out of the New York Office. She has nearly 30 years of experience spanning infrastructure development, engineering, implementation, and operations. The first 20 years of her career were in the wireless industry starting at Motorola, then Lucent Technologies, and culminating in 11 years at Verizon Wireless.
Stephanie has always been one to split her time between her career and her commitment to civic engagement. After relocating to South Orange in 2011 she was elected to the SOMSD School Board and served for 6 years. She also served as a trustee of Bloomfield College for 7 years.
Stephanie is currently the chair of the South Orange Community Police Collaborative and serves on the board of Trustees of SOMA Action.
She is an avid runner and member of the SOMA Foxes and is training for her first triathlon in July 2024.
Stephanie has a MS in Electrical Engineering Systems from University of Michigan, a BS in
Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Mathematics from Spelman College.
Paul LaClair & Jieun Yu
Hear the People Sing: Human Values in Music
Paul LaClair was President of Essex Ethical in 1998-99. Since then, he has devoted much of his time, outside his law practice, to the development of a human values model, consistent with Ethical Culture's tenets. Paul's ethical commitments, coupled with his passion for music, have resulted in what is to be a four-volume book series about how music expresses our values.
Jieun Yu is an artist, marketer and creative designer. She met Paul in 2023, and quickly took an interest in his work. Jieun is illustrating the book series; together, they are creating a product that is greater than either of them could have created alone. Born in Korea, where she lived for the first thirteen years of her life, Jieun brings Asian culture, her generation, her sex and gender to the project.
Together, Jieun and Paul form a powerful creative team, bound together in love for our troubled world, and a desire to do their part to heal it. Using visual and audio media, they will present a sample of their work at this platform.
Sunday, March 3, 11 am
fMEllen Zisholtz: Restoring a Civil Rights Landmark and
Revitalizing a Community
This is a hybrid program: speaker online via Zoom, audience in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Ellen Zisholtz will speak as Project Director for the Preservation of All Star Bowling Lanes which was the sight of a deadly civil rights protest in 1968 known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Although few Americans ever learned about this, Ellen took ownership of the site and succeeded in getting it put on the African-American Civil Rights Network of the National Park Service. Learn how substantial grant funding and partnerships from a variety of sources has brought All Star Bowling Lanes into public recognition, and how restoring the original bowling alley has sparked a community wide effort to create a cultural center and revitalize the community.
A native New Yorker with degrees in History and Arts Management, Ellen Zisholtz now lives in Orangeburg, SC where she taught art and was Director/Curator of the I.P Stanback Museum and Planetarium at South Carolina State University, one of the historically Black colleges in the South. Now retired, Ellen founded and serves as President of Center for Creative Partnerships, an organization of conscience and social justice that promotes community involvement through the arts and humanities, including civil and human rights. Ellen has an extensive background in civil rights history and activism. Her honors include the 2023 Social Justice Award from South Carolina State University; 2017 Leadership Award for "the preservation, promotion and interpretation of African and African American art, history and culture" from the Association of African American Museums; 2015 Medal for Social justice and Civil Rights, National Civil Rights Conference, Philadelphia, Mississippi; and the first SC State Faculty Award in Creativity awarded at commencement by Congressman James Clyburn. Under her leadership, the IP Stanback Museum was awarded the Governor's Award for the Humanities and the first Social Justice Award, Orangeburg Massacre Commemoration at SC State. Ellen is also a visual artist having studied at the Arts Student League and has worked in a variety of art forms with experience all over the world.
Sunday, March 3, 11 am
Ellen Zisholtz: Restoring a Civil Rights Landmark and
Revitalizing a Community
This is a hybrid program: speaker online via Zoom, audience in-person at ECS or online via Zoom (link below).
Ellen Zisholtz will speak as Project Director for the Preservation of All Star Bowling Lanes which was the sight of a deadly civil rights protest in 1968 known as the Orangeburg Massacre. Although few Americans ever learned about this, Ellen took ownership of the site and succeeded in getting it put on the African-American Civil Rights Network of the National Park Service. Learn how substantial grant funding and partnerships from a variety of sources has brought All Star Bowling Lanes into public recognition, and how restoring the original bowling alley has sparked a community wide effort to create a cultural center and revitalize the community.
A native New Yorker with degrees in History and Arts Management, Ellen Zisholtz now lives in Orangeburg, SC where she taught art and was Director/Curator of the I.P Stanback Museum and Planetarium at South Carolina State University, one of the historically Black colleges in the South. Now retired, Ellen founded and serves as President of Center for Creative Partnerships, an organization of conscience and social justice that promotes community involvement through the arts and humanities, including civil and human rights. Ellen has an extensive background in civil rights history and activism. Her honors include the 2023 Social Justice Award from South Carolina State University; 2017 Leadership Award for "the preservation, promotion and interpretation of African and African American art, history and culture" from the Association of African American Museums; 2015 Medal for Social justice and Civil Rights, National Civil Rights Conference, Philadelphia, Mississippi; and the first SC State Faculty Award in Creativity awarded at commencement by Congressman James Clyburn. Under her leadership, the IP Stanback Museum was awarded the Governor's Award for the Humanities and the first Social Justice Award, Orangeburg Massacre Commemoration at SC State. Ellen is also a visual artist having studied at the Arts Student League and has worked in a variety of art forms with experience all over the world.
Sunday, Feb. 18, 11 am
Chuck Carter: Environmental Theology
This is a hybrid program, in-person at ECS and online via Zoom .
"I use the term Environmental Theology broadly to refer to biblical and theological reflections on the care for our physical world. This is more than theoretical but must move us to work directly to establish social, economic and racial justice in environmental contexts. Because I am primarily a biblical scholar rather than a systematic theologian my theological reflections emerge from biblical texts. In doing theology, I also explore medieval and mystical traditions, Catholic Social Teaching on the environment (including Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical and his more recent pastoral letter) and reflect on a variety of other religious traditions. Among the key areas of agreement across religious communities are the inherent dignity of humankind, the inherent goodness of ‘creation’ (the universe), and our responsibility to love, live in harmony with, care for, defend and protect the world in which we live."
Charles (Chuck) Carter is a Professor of Religion at Seton Hall University where he has taught for 31 years. He grew up in Bath, Maine, holds a BA in Biblical Studies from Barrington College, a Certificate in Urban Ministry from New York Theological Seminary, an MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Archaeology from Duke University. He has taught at Bethlehem Bible College in Palestine, Duke University, Drew Theological School, Union Theological Seminary, and in 2003-2004 he was the Catholic Biblical Society Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Biblical Seminary in Rome and the École Biblique et archéologique française in Jerusalem. Among the courses Chuck has taught are Intro to Bible, Contemporary Moral Issues, Faith and Justice, The Prophets, Women in the Biblical Tradition, Jesus in Film and Theatre, The Bible, Film and Popular Culture, and Environmental Theology. He has served as chair of the Department of Religion, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Director of the University Teaching Fellows Program. He is a member of the Seton Hall University Choir and of the Solidarity Singers. He is involved with the Poor People’s Campaign and regularly participates in SOMA Coalition for Palestine’s Cease Fire Sundays. Chuck is also an ordained American Baptist Minister. He lives in South Orange with his partner, Karen Roche. Together they have four adult children who live in the New York-New Jersey area.
Tracy Carluccio:
The Greenwashing of Hydrogen Fuel
Sunday, February 11, 2024
11:00 a.m.
Greenwashing is misinformation disguised to sound environmentally beneficial. With several "clean energy" bills up for consideration in our State legislature, our speaker will shed light on what is really "clean and green" and what is not. Learn the facts about renewable natural gas and hydrogen fuel from an environment.
Tracy Carluccio is Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), where she has worked as an environmental advocate since 1989, working throughout the Delaware River Watershed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. Carluccio focuses on opposing fracking, oil and gas developments such Liquefied Natural Gas exports, fossil fuel and shale gas infrastructure and related “false energy solutions” issues such as hydrogen and “renewable natural gas”; promoting clean and renewable energy and action on the climate crisis, and addressing PFAS and other toxic contamination. She works for the Watershed’s protection addressing water quality, healthy habitats, streams, and communities, defending its exceptional values, and working to restore the Watershed where needed.
This is a hybrid program, in-person
at ECS and online via Zoom
February 4, 2024
Update on Everything
You Ever Wanted to Know
About Electric-Cars
Andy Weinberger
Andy Weinberger will update some of the issues surrounding electric vehicles (not hybrids) that he addressed in an earlier talk. He will speak about electric vehicles and their positive and negative points as well as some general thoughts on why to choose one and what things to consider in selecting one.
He will discuss some specifics of the vehicles and some of the myths about them. He will answer questions at the end and notes that, although he is familiar with electric vehicles, he does not maintain he is an expert in all aspects of them!
Andy, a resident of Orange, is also a current ECS Board member and past president, husband of Meredith Sue Willis, father of ex-youth member Joel, and a grandfather of three.
Sunday, January 28, 2024
Zoom with Bergen Society:
Prof William Heffernan:
"Amazing Grace" (from Cordelia to Spongebob and Nelson Mandela).
We will be joining the Bergen Ethical Society for their platform: Amazing Grace. From the Bergen Society: "We tag along with Cordelia of “King Lear,” Jane Bennet of “Pride and Prejudice,” and Sponge Bob Square Pants in their Adventures Beyond the Justice Zone, with our guide William Heffernan, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Professor Heffernan will conclude his talk with ruminations on Nelson Mandela’s fusion of justice and personal grace."
Coming Up:Sunday, Feb. 4, 11am - Andy Weinberger: The Electric Car, Part II - Our longtime member, past president and current Board member, Dr. Andy Weinberger, the happy I went if an electric car, will help us understand the what/what and /how of these new-fangled vehicles. (This is a hybrid program; in person at ECS and online via Zoom.)
Sunday, Feb. 11 - Tracy Carlucci: The Greening of Hydrogen Fuel -
Tracy Carluccio is Deputy Director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), where she works as an environmental advocate since 1989, working throughout the Delaware River Watershed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. Carluccio focuses on opposing fracking, oil and gas development such Liquefied Natural Gas exports, fossil fuel and shale gas infrastructure and related “false energy solutions” issues such as hydrogen and “renewable natural gas”; promoting clean and renewable energy and action on the climate crisis; and addressing PFAS and other toxic contamination. She works for the Watershed’s protection addressing water quality, healthy habitats, streams, and communities, defending its exceptional values, and working to restore the Watershed where needed.
Sunday, Jan. 21, 11 am
Alan Richter: Ethics in Business & Government
This is a hybrid program, in-person at ECS (with the speaker appearing via Zoom) and online via Zoom (email ecsec.nj@gmail.com for link)
Dr. Alan Richter will provide an overview of the US view of ethics vs the global view, and an exploration of ethics, values, culture and leadership in business and government. Time allowing, we will be able to explore some specific ethics cases with him.
Dr. Richter is the founder and president of QED Consulting. He has consulted to corporations and organizations for many years in multiple capacities, primarily in the areas of leadership, ethics and values, diversity, inclusion, culture and change. He has provided strategic consulting and facilitation and program design and delivery for varied organizations globally and has been involved in innovative instructional product design. He is a recognized pioneer in both the diversity & inclusion and business ethics fields.
Alan is the co-creator of the Global Diversity Survey -- a self-assessment tool which measures how we deal with difference, the Global Gender Intelligence Assessment – a gender intelligence self-assessment, the Global Leadership Survey – a leadership style self-assessment tool, The Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Benchmarks and The Global Ethics & Integrity Benchmarks -- which help organizations measure their Diversity and Ethics initiatives, respectively, against global best practices. He also co-produced Global Words for Global Leaders -- an inspirational leadership video, and co-authored Lost in Cyberspace -- a team-decision based tool that explores the nature of global virtual teams.
He has worked closely with many leading organizations worldwide, including CERN, NASA and the UN, many Fortune 500 Global companies, such as American Express, AXA, BP, BDO, ConEdison, Deloitte, GE, LockheedMartin, Nokia, RBS, UBS, Unilever, etc., and in the academic world has worked with Columbia University, Wharton, Ohio State University, and UC Berkeley among others. Within the UN system he has worked with FAO, ICAO, ICC, ICTY, IMF, ITU, OPCW, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, UNSSC, WFP, WHO, WIPO, WMO and WTO, as well as with CGIAR, GAVI, The International Rescue Committee, OXFAM, and The Global Fund. He has facilitated workshops across Africa, Asia and Europe, in addition to the Americas. He has also been a presenter at many conferences across the globe. He has been recognized as a Diversity Pioneer (2007) and was listed on the Economist’s Global Diversity List (2015).
Prior to founding QED, he consulted extensively in the emergence of on-line services, taught philosophy, psychology, and interdisciplinary courses at the Open University in the UK and worked as a lexicographer and writer. He is the author of several book chapters and articles, covering aspects of business ethics, diversity and globalization. He is the co-editor of a recent book on global values seen through the lens of comparative jurisprudence. Dr. Richter has an M.A. and a B.A.B.Sc. from the University of Cape Town, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Birkbeck College, London University.
Sunday, Jan. 14, 11 am - MLK Colloquy:
We will explore how Dr. King's life and legacy have impacted us and how our views of him have changed in the decades since his death.
January 7, 2024
11:00 a.m.
By Zoom Only!
“The Sweetest Man
Who Ever Lived:”A reading and discussion
with Meredith Sue Willis
Things to read:
"The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived (scroll down)
An essay on Writing and Cultural Appropriation
Have you ever been shocked by a skeleton in the family closet? What were your reactions? Do we have any responsibility for the actions of our ancestors?
Writer (and long time Essex Ethical member) Meredith Sue Willis will read portions of her short story “The Sweetest Man Who Ever Lived” and lead a discussion about issues raised in it. It is recommended that you take a look for yourself at the story online in Cold Mountain Review at https://coldmountainreview.
appstate.edu/submission/the- .sweetest-man-who-ever-lived/ Meredith Sue Willis, who grew up the Appalachian Mountains, is a novelist and teacher. For more about her and her publications, see her website at www.meredithsuewillis.com. She has been a Distinguished Teaching Artist of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, leading workshops for children and young people from Newark to Mountain Lakes and many points beyond and between. She is presently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at New York University, School of Professional Studies, where she teaches novel writing.
Locally, she is a founding member of the South Orange/Maplewood Community Coalition on Race and the chair of our Essex Ethical Culture Society Social Action Committee.
She lives in Orange with her husband Andy Weinberger, a retired rheumatologist. Their son Joel, a graduate of the Ethical Culture Sunday School, is a software engineer for Snap, Inc. in Los Angeles, where he and his wife Sarah, Director of Quality Consulting at Kaiser Permanente, are raising three terrific kids, Shira (7), Eli (4), and Lev (2).
Sunday, Dec. 31, 11 am
Human-I-Tree
AEU All-Societies Platform
This is an online program. Please RSVP using the link below.December is a month that moves us toward Winter’s balance of light and dark with short days and full nights. For many, it’s a time to mark the rhythm of our days, years, and seasons.
December is also a time to turn toward each other and gather together in celebration and remembrance of our interconnection. Our All-Societies Platforms have become one place we connect with each other as an Ethical movement.
Join Audrey Kindred, the American Ethical Union, and Societies from across the country on December 31 at 11:00 AM ET for the next All-Societies Platform: Human-I-Tree.
About Human-I-Tree
Human-I-Tree Concept 3
Human-I-Tree is an original vision grown through community engagement at the New York Society for Ethical Culture by Audrey Kindred‘s collaboration with artists, activists, and children of all ages. It honors how every breath we take as humans is integral to the life of trees.
Audrey brings Felix Adler into dialogue with ecological hero and 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace recipient Wangari Matthai by proposing that “bringing out the best in one another and thereby ourselves” is not truly peace unless we honor our interconnectedness by respecting the earth together. Human-I-Tree branches into a whole family of tree concepts that can inspire our human community building processes.
This tree-inspired platform includes gifts from several artists with whom Audrey has collaborated for Human-I-Tree. Among them are our own ECSEC member, Daniela Gioseffi, as well as Simba Yangala, Jody Sperling, Alexa Babakhanian, Annie Lanzillotto, and Bonita Oliver.
About Audrey Kindred
Audrey Kindred
Audrey has led Ethical intergenerational programming for 25 years and currently serves the New York Society for Ethical Culture. She is the co-author, with Dr. Anne Klaeysen, of a brand new course published by the American Humanist Association called “Humanist Family Life Ceremonies.”
She is currently completing a master’s degree that centers mindful Climate Justice education. Audrey is focused on how creativity and embodiment impact our ethical development. She honors retired Ethical Leaders Lisel Burns and Martha Gallahue as her Ethical roots.
Sunday, December 31, 2023
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.New Year's Eve
Fund-Raiser
and FUN!Suggested donation, bring a dish,
RSVP jeaniner2@verizon.net
Sunday December 24, 2023
11:00 a.m.
This Little Light of Mine!Joining forces with Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture
via Zoom, for a solstice celebration:
“This little light of mine: how we make it shine”
December 17, 2023 11:00 a.m.
Lenape: Their Culture & History
Dan Kaslow
Dan Kaslow will focus on two aspects of the Lenape Indians. The first is their influence and cultural impact on not only early European settlers, but also our current society.
The second focus will be on tracing the history of the Lenape from their earliest ancestors who arrived in New Jersey towards the end of the last Ice Age into the 21st century.
Dan’s discussion is based on more than a year of serious research into the history and culture of the Lenape people and discussions with leading Lenape scholars.
Dan is a long-time resident of Maplewood who has been active in a variety of roles with many local and civic organizations. He is the author of the highly popular Maplewood Compendium, a collection of information about notable people, places, organizations and events in the 350-year history of Maplewood.
12-10-23
History Behind the Israel-Hamas War
Paul Rabinowitz
Paul Rabinowitz is an author, screenwriter, photographer and founder of ARTS By The People. He is the author of 5 books including
Confluence; The Clay Urn; Limited Light; and Grand Street, Revisited.
Rabinowitz co-writes screenplays with Brittney Bertier including the TV pilot called Bungalow.
Rabinowitz’s poems and fiction are the inspiration for 8 award winning experimental films, including Best Experimental Short at Cannes, Venice Independent Film Festival, Oregon Short Film Festival, Florence Indie Film Festival and Paris Film Festival.
In the 1980s, Paul lived in Israel. He served in an infantry unit in the Israel Defense Forces and an elite reconnaissance unit in the reserves. He completed his post graduate work at The Hebrew University and worked for the Ministry of Tourism guiding Muslim, Christian and Jewish groups from overseas and lecturing on the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He returns to Israel twice a year to work on film and musical composition projects with a diverse group that includes Arab and Jewish Israelis.
See Paul Rabinowitz's new novel: The Clay Urn
The Clay Urn is a gripping story of humanity, love, and finding beauty in a war-torn life. Rabinowitz has an eye for delicate sensory details, which he sets brilliantly amongst a jagged landscape of fighting, destruction, and pain. The Clay Urn is a must read. ~Erin Jones, author of Tinfoil Crowns
Folk Friday
at Ethical
Sing-along & jam
December 8, 2023
Ethical Culture Society
516 Prospect St
Maplewood, NJ 07040
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
lnovemsky@comcast.net
bring acoustic string and rhythm instruments
join in playing, singing, or listening with us
Everyone is invited!
Sunday December 3, 2023 11:00 a.m.
Ian Grodman: Redeveloping Homes and Thereby Improving Neighborhoods
Ian is an attorney and mediator, and four years ago, founded Good Home Property Solutions as a side business. The business has redeveloped ten distressed properties in Maplewood, South Orange, Orange and Iselin, New Jersey. Ian prefers the term "residential redeveloper" to the term "flipper," which often has negative connotations. Ian would like to believe that the work the business does improves not only the houses that they work on, providing updated homes in great condition for new owners, but the surrounding community and neighborhood as well. The business has also helped distressed property owners avoid foreclosure and bankruptcy and on two occassions to get a fresh start after overcoming difficult circumstances.
He has lived in Maplewood now for 28 years, having moved here from Jersey City with his wife, Lisa Mainardi. They have raised their sons Max and Carlos here, where they went to Seth Boyden Elementary, Maplewood Middle and Columbia High Schools. He has served on a number of non-profit boards, including the Community Coalition on Race and the Achieve Foundation locally, as well as serving twice on the Maplewood Township Committee, and the Chair of the Maplewood Democratic Committee.
Sunday, Nov. 26, 11 am
Member Profile: Jie Saczi: Bridging Health Traditions of East and West
This is a HYBRID event:in person at the ECS building in Maplewood and
online via Zoom (link is below)
Jeanine Rosh will interview Jie Saczi about her life, as a healer, an immigrant, and a teacher. Jie and her husband, scientist Ali Saczi, joined ECS in 2022. Building on a lifetime of study, Jie received her doctorate in Acupuncture from the Pacific College of Health and Science earlier this year. Together they run the Chess Academy at the Millburn Library, as a means to promote creativity, self-awareness, and social wellbeing for children, teens and adults.
Pre-Thanksgiving Music Treat
This is a HYBRID event:performers live at the ECS building in Maplewood and
online via Zoom
Come join us on Sunday morning to hear a showcase of local high school musicians! Two Columbia High School a cappella groups will be performing, The Unaccompanied Minors and Noteworthy, as well as four student pianists - Jasper Cunningham, Leo Somerheil, Parker Howell, and Gabriel Tarrow, performing Beethoven, Debussy, and Mendelssohn.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Jesse Ribot Oppression and Justice in Africa (Migration and more)
Climate Refugees? Why Senegal's
Farmers are Crossing the Sahara Toward Europe
While called Climate Refugees, Sahelian youth leave to Europe for many reasons. In this talk, through the case of farmers in Eastern Senegal, I will explore why youth are emigrating and will discuss the ways in which climate change narratives are clouding out the real reasons for their plight. The talk will outline how a focus on climate change, while important, is hiding these farmers' true struggles and concerns.
Jesse Ribot's current research is on the social and political-economic causes of precarity and social suffering in natural-resource-dependent communities. He explores these problems through case studies of struggles over natural resource access, attempts to establish local democracy, and communities at risk in the face of climate stress. His fieldwork has been in the West African Sahel – mostly in Eastern Senegal -- and he has conducted comparative studies across Africa and in Asia and Latin America. Ribot has a background in physics and linguistics, followed by training in energy and environmental policy, and then in human geography. He served on faculties of planning, geography, anthropology and environmental studies at MIT and University of Illinois. He is currently on the faculty in the School of International Service at American University in DC.
Sunday, November 5, 2023
11:00 a.m. In person and by Zoom
Daniela Gioseffi:
The Vital Role of Trees in This Time of Climate Crisis
Daniela Gioseffi
Daniela Gioseffi, ECS member and writer, educator and activist, will address how trees communicate scientifically and how essential they are to human and animal life on Planet Earth, especially now with the climate crisis facing us.
Daniela Gioseffi, a retired professor, is a trained climate leadership speaker, with certification, from Al Gore. She's given talks on climate concerns at colleges, universities, and public libraries, and recently at Columbia High School in Maplewood. She edits www.EcoPoetry.org, with editorials on Climate Crisis and links on what we can do to think globally and act locally.
Sunday, October 29, 2023
All-Society Program ( Zoom only)
Author and labor journalist
Sam Pizzigati on Felix Adler:"Adler and Inequality"
All-Society Program (on Zoom Only) -
Author and Labor Journalist Sam Pizzigati on Felix Adler's Views on EqualityRegistration for this event is required. After filling out the form, you will receive the link to the platform.
Felix Adler established America’s first free kindergarten for working families in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, he led the first successful national campaign against child labor and came very close to achieving his egalitarian vision in the mid-20th century. Recently, we have moved in the completely opposite direction with the widening of the wealth gap making inequality in this country too obvious for anyone to ignore. How can we best turn things around? As Adler puts it, how can we tax away “pomp and pride and power”?We are thrilled to have Sam Pizzigati, currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and former Director of Publishing at the National Education Association, answer these questions as our special guest for this All-Societies Platform. Sam will explore some of the fascinating new approaches to addressing inequality both here and abroad by demonstrating how the best way to chip away at this issue is to start locally.
We will also be joined by AEU Board President Khandra Sears, Vice President Jé Hooper, and Philadelphia Ethical Society and Baltimore Ethical Society Leader Hugh Taft-Morales who will be our MC! Khandra will kick off this event with opening remarks and Jé will lead us through an interactive libations ceremony. We are also asking for you to support the AEU’s All-Societies Platform and the IPS where Sam is an Associate Fellow. Please donate generously. Your contribution will go towards the artists who perform, our partners presenting, and the AEU. Click on the links below to RSVP for what will be an amazing event and to support the All-Societies Platform. See you there!
About Our Speaker:
Sam Pizzigati is currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of Inequality.org, an online portal that has been tracking global inequality for over 20 years. He was the Director of Publishing at the National Education Association, our country’s largest union, for over ten years. Sam is also an esteemed labor journalist with his op-eds appearing in outlets across the globe from The New York Times to Le Monde Diplomatique. He has written multiple books on inequality as well, exploring Adler’s story in his 2012 book, The Rich Don’t Always Win. To read his latest work, check out The Case for a Maximum Wage.
Sunday, Oct. 22
(Hybrid: at the Society Building and by Zoom)
Weird Beliefs: A Pre-Halloween Discussion
With Jeanine Rosh
Exploring personal, societal and cultural superstitions.
Sunday, October 15, 2023
The Social Action Committee Presents its 2023 Local Hero Award to Paula Rogovin
Sunday October 8
An interactive look at being Sweet Sixteen - the celebration and the complication that comes with being that magical age, led by a group of Columbia High School students.
On Sunday, October 15, 2023 the Social Action Committee presented
its 2023 Local Hero Award to Paula Rogovin
Jackie Herships
Sunday, Sept. 24, 11 am
Longtime Essex Ethical member and activist Jackie Herships, a coach and connector par excellence, will lead a discussion on how we can live up to our central tenet, to bring out the best in everyone, and thereby bring out the best in ourselves. She will explore the values of goal setting and lead an interactive exercise. (HYBRID).
Sunday
September 17, 2023
11:00 a.m.
Jim White
Why Is Critical Race Theory So Threatening?
Focus on the 1619 Project
Jim White, following up on the presentation by Mia Charlene White last season, will explore how the 1619 Project evolved into the Right's favorite scare tactic. His talk will also serve as an introduction to a series of discussions Jim has offered to lead over the next few months starting Monday, Sept. 18th, via Zoom.
Jim White joyfully served as clergy leader of the Essex Society from 1989 to 1995 and has continued as a member since then.
He retired as a mental health lawyer in 2016 and shares retirement with his wife, the singer-nurse Eileen Karlson. They wonderfully enjoy life with their sons Jacob and Paul and four incredibly talented (and very nice) grandchildren!
Also, join Jim for a Monthly Book Group
on Critical Race TheoryMonday December 18
7:00 p.m.
By Zoom
Sunday, September 10, 2023
11:00 a.m.
Society President Tom Cunningham
Learning to Love and
To Be LovedJoin us at the Ethical Culture Society as we kick off the 2023-2024 season of programs and platforms.
President Tom Cunningham will share an inspiring reflection on what it means to learn to love each other and ourselves, exploring ideas of love in an ethical and humanist context.
Enjoy refreshments afterwards at the ECS building.
This is a HYBRID event--in person and via Zoom.
Snapshots
October 8, 2023
The Meaning of Sweet Sixteen:
Social Action Committee and other Society members
writing non partisan Get Out the Vote cards 10-16-22:
Local Hero Presentation 2022
9-25-22: Social Action Committee Gives Local Hero Award 2022
to Cecilia Zalkind (See Local Hero)
An Appeal
February 8, 2023
Dear Ethical Culture Members and Friends,
Thank you for your commitment to the Ethical Culture Movement that strives to bring ethics into all walks of life by "acting so as to bring out the best in others, and thereby in ourselves" and by working in community to positively impact our personal lives, our communities, as well as ethics in business, politics, education, and health care. By being a Member or Friend of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, you make this ongoing journey of analysis, inquiry and action for ethics possible.
As you know, our building at 516 Prospect Street, Maplewood, on the border of Maplewood and South Orange, has provided space for over 70 years for not only our Ethical Culture Sunday morning platform presentations, and our Family Sunday School Program, it has also hosted many important community programs and events including Chamber Music Workshops, AA Groups, Folk Fridays Music, The Human Faith Movement meetings, ethical summer study groups, personal goal setting and achievement workshops, philosophy groups, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reading groups, as well as a variety of musical recitals, concerts and art exhibits.
The Building also hosts The South Orange Maplewood Coalition on Race offices and events, and has welcomed SOMA Adult School Classes. We have also contributed to the Interfaith Hospitality Network, the Community Food Bank, Community Coat Drives and NJ Peace Action. And over the years we have raised funds for schools in Afghanistan, supported reform movements to end police brutality, and have dedicated ourselves to racial and sexual equality, an end to ageism and to support Labor Movements.
The Ethical Culture Society of Essex County is also the world's first Peace Site, dedicated to finding pathways to Peace. For these and many other reasons having our building as a base for our activities has made the work of the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County possible. Together with our location and our dedicated and active members and friends, we have had positive impacts on our community, our county, state, nation and the world.
As you may have heard, we have large building expenses looming that require our stewardship. We are committed to taking care of one of our most valuable assets, our building. The roof will need replacement, and the exterior walls are desperately in need of maintenance. We also have had an immediate chimney repair required. In addition, our ramp, making the building accessible, has worn out and been removed, prompting research into replacement ramps or possibly a mechanical lift. Combined, these repairs are estimated to cost more than $100,000. This would more than deplete our modest savings, and remove our cushion on hand. It is important that we take action to raise funds now.
The Board has decided to embark on a Capital Campaign to raise funds to meet the costs of these building repairs and improvements. This will be a multi-pronged effort. As Phase One, we called on Board Members, Members last year to kick off the campaign. Phase Two of the campaign is this appeal to our Members and Friends, and Phase Three will be a series of fundraisers and grant requests, reaching out to the wider community for support.
Today, we are appealing to our Members and Friends to give generously to the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County 2023 Capital Campaign. If you have thought of leaving a bequest to the Society in your will, perhaps you would contribute now, as an alternative or in addition to your other plans.
Our first phase of the Capital Campaign has raised almost $20,000 in donations from our Ethical Culture Society of Essex County Board. We hope that with Member and Friends donations we can reach the halfway mark toward our $100,000 goal.
Please consider your own history with the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County and consider making a generous contribution to this capital campaign. Please send your donation now or write your pledge amount to me or Jeanine via email and we will assemble them by the end of February, 2023. We hope that pledges to the capital campaign will be donated via check to the office, by March 2023.
We will then know what we have raised internally, in the aggregate, and we will move forward to the wider community with our appeal. Planned, so far, is a spring on-line art auction, a grant request and a possible ad journal for a late spring event.
Thank you for your contributions to the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County over the years. We are honored to have worked alongside you and to have enjoyed your contributions to our community. As a Member or Friend, please carefully consider this appeal and give generously to bring our building back to good repair. We hope we can continue to offer a home for the next generation of those who will carry the banner of ethical study and action into the future.
Thank you.
Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, Capital Campaign, Co-Chairs,
Terri Suess
Jeanine Rosh
Please make donations payable to
Ethical Culture Society of Essex CountyInclude on the check "Capital Campaign 2023"
Send donations to
Ethical Culture Society of Essex County
516 Prospect St.
Maplewood, NJ 07040
Recent Events and Platforms
Programs from Past Years
Minutes of Board Meetings
Past Newsletters
Society By Laws
Notes about Members, Obituaries, etc,
Minutes of the last Social Action Committee Meeting
Interested in Joining the Ethical Society? Click here!
Next Social Action Committee
Friday, February 16, 2024 5:00 pm by Zoom.
Social Action Committee Minutes here.
Monthly Book Group
on Critical Race Theory/ The 1619 Project
Third Mondays by ZoomLed by Jim White
Reading Schedule:
Dates and Chapter(s) to Read:
9-18-23 Chapter 6 Capitalism
(from here, tentative dates, two chapters a month. Third Mondays)
0-16-23 Chapter 1 Democracy
11-20 Chapter 2 Race (rescheduled)
2-18-23 Chapter 3 Sugar1-15-24 Chaps 4 & 5 Fear and Dispossession
2-19-24 Chaps 7 & 8 Politics & Citizenship
3-18-24 Chaps 9 & 10 Self-Defense & Punishment
4-15-24 Chaps 11 & 12 Inheritance & MedicineWe will tentatively finish chapters 13-18 during three fall sessions to be scheduled.
This book is widely available. Try your local bricks-and-mortar bookstore, or order online from the non-profit bookstore that shares proceeds with various brick-and-mortar stores, Bookshop.org.
Article in the Boston Review on Cedric Johnson
Free .pdf handbook on global slavery
Also, a list of resources from Mia Charlene White, Ph.D., who spoke to us last year.
Minutes of the Board Meetings
3-9-22 Board meeting
2-9-22 Board meeting
1-12-22 Board meeting
11-10-21 Board Meeting
10-13-21 Board Meeting
9-8-21 Board Meeting
8-12-20 Board Meeting
8-23-20 Annual Meeting
9-9-20 Board Minutes
9-18-20 Board Meeting
10-14-20 Board Meeting
11-11-20 Board Meeting
12-9-20 Board Meeting
1-13-21 Board Meeting
2-10-21 Board Minutes
Past Newsletters
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
A Selection of Past Years' Programs:
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule03-04.html
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule07-08.html
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule08-09.html
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule2010-2011.html
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule%202016-17.html
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule%202017-2018.html
https://www.essexethical.org/schedule%202018-19.html