Join us for a discussion with Dr. Susannah Heschel, Yolanda Savage-Narva, and Jonathan Prinz.
Dr. Susannah Heschel, daughter of Civil Rights leader Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Jonathan Prinz, son of Civil Rights leader Rabbi Joachim Prinz, will join Yolanda Savage-Narva (Executive Director of Operation Understanding DC) in conversation with Andy Shallal (Busboys and Poets) and Dr. Charles L. Chavis, Jr. (George Mason University) to discuss the role of faith in the struggle for racial justice within the context of the historic Black–Jewish alliance.
This event is part of the A.C.T.O.R. (A Continuing Talk on Race) series at Busboys and Poets and is being co-organized with the Black and Jewish Forum.
This event is being organized in advance of the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. To learn more about the official "Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" being organized on August 28th by the National Action Network, see the march website.
After you RSVP for this FREE event, you will receive an email for instructions on how to join via Zoom.
Want to support a social justice-minded business and its employees? Order your favorite meal and beverage from Busboys and Poets, set your table, and tune in for an engaging discussion.
Want to support programs that seek to realize racial justice through narrative change? Consider making a donation to support the work of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program, which includes supporting students who are committed to racial justice.
Dr. Susannah Heschelis the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. Her scholarship focuses on Jewish-Christian relations in Germany during the 19th and 20th centuries, the history of biblical scholarship, and the history of anti-Semitism. Her numerous publications include Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (University of Chicago Press), which won a National Jewish Book Award, and The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany (Princeton University Press). She has also taught at Southern Methodist University and Case Western Reserve University.
Yolanda Savage-Narva is the Executive Director of Operation Understanding DC. She has devoted her professional career to helping people live their best and most healthy lives. Her work includes collaborating with Tribal governments to promote public health, promoting pedestrian safety and advocacy and advancing health equity. Yolanda currently holds the position of Executive Director with Operation Understanding DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting understanding, cooperation and respect while fighting to eradicate racism, anti-semitism and all forms of discrimination. Yolanda has a master's in Education and a bachelor's in Sociology, with a certification in Gerontology. She is a wife, and a mother of a nine year-old son.
Jonathan J. Prinzwas born in Great Neck NY eight weeks to the day after his parents and two older siblings, Nazi refugees, disembarked in New York. Two years later, his father, Joachim Prinz, who had been one of Berlin’s leading rabbis and a powerful critic of Hitler, assumed the pulpit of a large liberal congregation in Newark, New Jersey where Prinz grew up and attended public schools. A graduate of Brandies University, he was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, then serving the Newark synagogue alongside his father.
Together they attended the 1963 March on Washington where the elder Prinz delivered the speech immediately preceding that of Martin Luther King, Jr. Focusing his attention on local problems, Jonathan Prinz was a founder of the first community action program funded by Lyndon Johnson’s Equal Opportunity Act. It was his growing commitment there, coupled with a lifelong interest, that Prinz began considering the possibility entering politics. With his father’s full support, he left the pulpit and joined a New York consulting firm founded by Kennedy administration alumni who were hoping for a return to government. Robert Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968 put a tragic end to those aspirations.
He then spent a number of years as the communications officer of a fast-growing Wall Street firm before what became a decades long career as a branding consultant. The firm, of which he was a principal, served an array of global clients, among them companies like American Express, Anheuser Busch, Bayer, Eastman Kodak, H.J. Heinz, Nestlé, Novartis, PepsiCo, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble. Perhaps most noteworthy was the work he did for The Coca-Cola Company. During a multiyear relationship Prinz led his firm’s efforts in creating the visual identity and packaging for Diet Coke, then the most successful new product of all time. Some years, after he and his partners sold the firm, Prinz went on to establish an individual branding consultancy first in New York and since 2007 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Today, his primary work is mentoring startups, helping them create their branding.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
The John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race is based at the Center for Peacemaking Practice at George Mason University's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. The program engages with museums, schools, local communities, and state and national partners to complicate historical memory, build peace, and promote racial justice. Find out more at https://www.johnmitchelljrprogram.gmu.edu/home.
Twitter: @jmjp_gmu || Facebook: fb.com/jmjpgmu || Instagram: @jmjp_gmu
Busboys and Poets is a community gathering place. First established in 2005, Busboys and Poets was founded by owner Andy Shallal, an artist, activist, and restaurateur. After opening the flagship location at 14th and V Streets, NW, the neighboring residents and progressive community embraced Busboys, particularly activists opposed to the Iraq War. Busboys and Poets is now located in seven distinctive neighborhoods in the Washington Metro. Find out more at https://www.busboysandpoets.com.
Twitter: @busboysandpoets || Facebook: fb.com/busboysandpoets || Instagram: @busboysandpoets
