T.E.A.M. (Training and Education About the Middle East) San Diego, our community partners and your Federation are proud to announce our upcoming brunch to discuss the Presbyterian Church and the divestment of Israeli Business. Join us on August 12th! Details below:
In 2004, the Presbyterian Church (USA) surprised the world when its General Assembly adopted a resolution favoring selective divestment of US companies doing business with Israel.
What the outside world didn't know, though, was that the overwhelming majority of the Church's own members were also taken by surprise and didn't appreciate the stance their Church had taken.Thus started a remarkable movement within the Church to repeal the 2004 divestment resolution. One of the national architects of this counteroffensive was San Diego-based Mediator Jim Roberts. Jim formed a broad based coalition of liberal to conservative Presbyterian ministers and lay leaders, including former CIA director James Woolsey, a life- long Presbyterian.
This "band of brothers" succeeded against enormous odds in overturning divestment as Church policy in 2006.
Their success helped stop similar divestment efforts in the Episcopal, Methodist and Lutheran churches. Beginning in 2008, again in 2010 and culminating a few weeks ago at the 2012 General Assembly, the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions) Movement pulled out all the stops to try to reverse course and re-impose divestment in PCUSA because historically it was the most receptive to their efforts and with the hope that once again it could become a precedent for other campus and church divestment votes. Once again, they lost.
This is a story that everyone in the Jewish community needs to hear. The dangers that both the Christian and Jewish communities are facing are serious. We can make a difference, and Jim will outline how.
Don't miss this unique event!
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