Humanity in Action
hosted their annual Fall Benefit Dinner at the
Cultural Services of the French Embassy on October
13, 2011. The guests arrived and were served cocktails
and conversation on the ground floor. After the
cocktail hour, the guests were summoned "by
the bell" to the upper floor for dinner.
As we climbed the marble stairway, Ms. Goldstein
warmly greeted each guest personally, welcoming
them to the dinner. Humanity in Action was founded
by the tireless work of Ms. Goldstein (the Executive
Director of the organization) to combat the oppression
of minorities by creating a network of young informed
activists. I only met Ms. Goldstein on this one
occasion, but if there is an award for National
Treasure, she would be in the running.
Honorees Adam Hochschild,
James Bennet and
John Rossant with HIA Executive Director Judith
Goldstein
When Humanity in
Action first began, the goal of the organization
was to send fellows to talk to the remaining resistance
fighters in Denmark (Denmark famously managed
to save its Jewish citizens from the Nazis) to
learn from these activists how they were able
to prevent the murder of the Danish Jews when
so many countries stood idly by as the Nazis rounded
up their neighbors.
The Danish resisitance
fighter are now gone and Humanity in Action's
fellows travel the world,
"promoting human rights, diversity and active
citizenship—in their own communities and
around the world."
Honorees at the Annual Benefit
were author Adam Hochschild, James Bennet (the
fourteenth editor of The
Atlantic) and John Rossant, Executive Chairman
of Geneva-based PublicisLive. During dinner, the
honorees spoke to the group about the necessity
of constant vigilance and the importance of speaking
out about injustice and oppression because the
oppression of minorities can raise its ugly head
in a hurry, leaving a slow moving world incapable
or unwilling of launching a rapid response.
Fellows from Humanity
in Action were seated at various tables throughout
the dining room so they could share their experiences
with their fellow guests. After the dinner, I
asked if a few of the fellows would please send
a photograph and and a paragraph about their experience
with Humanity in Action.
Here are their stories:
Christina Antonakos-Wallace
Christina
Antonakos-Wallace: My involvement in Humanity
in Action began in July 2006, with the New York
summer program. Surrounded by a group of brilliant
and dedicated peers, we spent four weeks deeply
examining the difficult questions of how to create
a more just and equitable society. It was a unique
opportunity to engage questions in a multi-national
group of young people committed to rigorously
and creatively thinking about, and working towards,
social justice. Through the program I found a
network of young people in different fields, but
sharing a determination to work for a better world
in a reflective and considered way. Following
the summer program, I was able to intern with
Berlin’s UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) facilitated
and supported by HIA. As BA/BFA undergraduate,
my thesis work had been to explore, through film
and theoretical work, the concept of assimilation,
focusing on the perspectives of children of immigrants
in New York. Prior to participating in HIA, I
had been considering undertaking a larger, bi-national
film project that could look at these issues comparatively
with a major European City. When I arrived in
Berlin, I realized it was the perfect place. However,
it was through my HIA fellowship that I had the
support to begin to undertake the project in Germany
– connecting with not only peers but an
extensive network of NGO’s in Berlin. In
2007, I began working on a feature-length documentary
and education project, entitled with WINGS and
ROOTS. The project seeks to reframe the immigrant
integration debates in the USA and Germany through
the voices of children of immigrants in Berlin
and New York. The feature film is nearly complete,
but we are already actively screening two short
films which are of the project, conducting workshops,
and are developing a participatory website. Most
recently, we won the EuroMedia Awards for Culture
of Diversity, and the Changemaker Award in the
Media that Matters festival. HIA has been incredibly
supportive of the project as it continues to grow,
and I am honored to be part of the network.
Ebone
Bishop: I was a
Humanity in Action Fellow in the 2004 Amsterdam
program. My Interest in HIA was two fold: first,
as a Politics major with an emphasis on international
relations, I was attracted to the transatlantic
exchange and learning aspect of the program. Specifically,
I was drawn to the opportunity to study and dialogue
with nine other American Fellows and ten Dutch
counterparts on pressing sociopolitical issues
in The Netherlands and to compare these issue
to my own experiences and insights within the
American context.
HIA places heavy emphasis on
active citizenship, human rights and minority
rights. As such, HIA urges fellows to challenge
their presumptions and core understandings around
these complex matters. For me, HIA reaffirmed
and clarified tow invaluable lessons I had earlier
struggled to articulate. First, to see myself
as a global citizen tasked with the responsibility
of challenging violations of human rights in ways
that coincide with my personal and professional
interests, and second, that the knowledge and
access to information that I have demands that
I not be a bystander to injustices that transpire
around me. I believe HIA’s mission is critically
important and I remain active in HIA as a Senior
Fellow and member of the American-Planning Board.
Here
is a quote from the Humanity
in Action website about the goals of the
organization "Humanity in Action is an international
educational organization. HIA educates, inspires
and connects a global network of students, young
professionals and established leaders committed
to.
Last year Humanity in
Action published a study last year with NYU/Stern
about the impact of the HIA fellowship on our
alumni. Click
here for the online version.
.
