International Women’s Day Pre-Passover Seder Celebrating Female Voices of Freedom
Thursday, March 12, 2020, 6-7:15PM
Thurgood Marshall Center, 1816 12th St NW, D.C. 20009
As the United States prepares to mark a centennial of women’s suffrage, Sephardic Heritage International (SHIN) DC, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and partners invite you to participate in an International Women’s Day Pre-Passover Seder Celebrating Female Voices of Freedom. In the tradition of the Passover Seder that uses narratives, quotes, folklore, song, and rituals to retell the story of a people’s journey out of slavery, this event celebrates female voices of freedom and honors the struggles of diverse women for social justice and equality.
SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS to apply 3 questions, customarily asked at the Levantine Passover Seder, to progress for women: (a) “Where are you coming from?” (b) “Where are you going?” (c) “What are the provisions that you need to get there?”
• NAACP Representative • TAMMY BEN-HAIM, Minister, Embassy of Israel • DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, 100Reporters founder, author and award-winning veteran national foreign correspondent at The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun; and SHIN member • SHARON Y. EUBANKS, nationally recognized attorney and author • Representatives from other partnering organizations
JOIN US by recognizing the female voices of freedom whose struggles for social justice and equality have made a positive impact in your life and community. To do so, please submit the following:
• Name of the woman you wish to honor;
• An inspiring quote by or about the woman (if available);
• A 1-5 sentence description of the woman’s life, including important dates and contributions;
• A photo of the woman (if available);
• Your name and affiliation or name and logo of the organization you represent (if applicable).
Please send your submissions to info@shindc.org no later than Saturday, March 10th. Your submission and that of other participants will be woven together in a powerful narrative tapestry to be read on Thursday, March 12th. The event booklet will include your name along with your quote and affiliation or name of the organization you represent.
REGISTRATION IS FREE until 11:59PM on March 11th ($15 on March 12th and At The Door). Single serve wine and water provided. People of all backgrounds and gender are welcome.
You are not required to attend the reading on March 12th, in order to send in a nomination for a woman who has made a positive impact in your life and community. However, we urge you to both send in a submission and attend the event, in the spirit of unity and the diverse female voices of freedom of our various communities. We also request that participants read from their submissions, if possible.
Please feel free to share this invitation with your colleagues, friends and family. We look forward to adding your voices to ours in a great show of unity for International Women’s Day.
Examples of what Female Voices of Freedom would look like based on your submissions:
Barbara Charline Jordan (1936-1996)
Barbara Charline Jordan was an American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. She was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Barbara Jordan said, "If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority." - Submitted by the NAACP
Maud Nathan (1862-1946)
Maud Nathan, a Sephardic Jewish woman, was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement and was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt as the head of the women’s suffrage committee in his National Progressive Party. She felt that group hatred and bigotry were increasing in New York during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was outspoken in her criticism of antisemitism and racial prejudice. Maude Nathan said, "Prejudice produces humiliation which is not easy to bear. And the sad part is that the nature becomes warped and the spirit of kindliness and friendliness is changed into bitterness and resentment. To live in peace, there must be mutual confidence, trust, cooperation, no antagonism. How often, instead of mutual respect for differing spiritual values, there is suspicion, intolerance. Does not this intolerance find its final expression in the un-American principles of the Ku Klux Klan?" - Submitted by Sephardic Heritage International (SHIN) DC