The Ethical Action Committee’s mission is to educate our members and the larger community about vital local and global ethical and social matters. The Ethical Action Committee (EAC) recruits speakers for BSEC platforms, organizes seminar and workshop programs, and sponsors book discussions and video events. Committee members network with neighborhood groups that share our concerns. We honor people who exemplify our goals and ideals at our annual Peace Site Awards Platform. To publicize and implement our positions, we also participate in direct and other actions. We want to explore ways to involve more BSEC members in our activities. We are committed to increasing the diversity within both EAC and BSEC.
Lucy’s Children
We have launched a community effort to examine the fiction of Race in order to address the fact of Racism. Our plan is to provide information, opportunities and events that can help us come together as a society to end racism. We meet most Fridays at BSEC to plan our efforts, to share resources and related experiences.
Please join if you are interested and available. Everyone is welcome to join us.
We are a volunteer membership group convening to be a catalyst for conversations at BSEC as well as in the outside world on Ending Systemic Racism and White Supremacy. We seek to engage in conversations, develop programs, promote personal development, and deepen our interpersonal connections. We seek to learn from our individual and shared experiences and engage in advocacy on racial issues in the wider world.
Lucy was discovered in 1974 by paleontologists in Ethiopia. At that time she was the earliest known ancestor of the human species. This is why we call our group Lucy’s children.
Enhanced Discussion
We gather monthly to talk about various issues at BSEC which offers a safe place to talk about interesting and sometimes difficult and complex topics. Participation and interchange is encouraged. Who comes? People who are willing to ask questions, probe the depths, sort the details and want to know more. Enhanced Discussion meets from May to November yearly.
Divestment from Fossil Fuels
The Ethical Action Committee led the way to the Society’s decision to divest from fossil fuels.
Read more: Brooklyn Society Divests
Charley Horwitz Memorial Platform
Every year, the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture invites a speaker to explore a social justice theme for the Charley Horwitz Memorial Platform. Charley Horowitz was a former president of the Society who was a longtime civil rights and labor activist.
Ethical Action Peace Site Award
Each year the Society’s Ethical Action Committee recommends a person or group to the Board to be honored with the Peace Site Award. The Award recipient is honored at a special Sunday Platform as the featured speaker. The work of these partners for peace informs and inspires us to continue our community’s efforts for peace and justice.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BSEC’S PEACE SITE
The Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture was declared an International Peace Site in 1983. Each year since, the Society has presented the Peace Site Award to an exemplary individual or group whose actions and ideals promote the cause of peace. Members who had long worked for peace leant their vision and energy to make the idea a reality, most especially Bea Rubin and Marion Kronheim.
“Marion made a name for herself in this community by her ceaseless efforts to promote the cause of peace on earth. This she did as the chairperson of SANE (the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy), the city’s leading peace organization. Small of size but large in energy and passion, Marion put these qualities into her campaign for world peace.” Marion, herself, was the award recipient in 2000. When she died in 2002, Marion bequeathed $1,000 for the Peace Site.
Bea Rubin is a political artist and long time peace advocate. In recent years Bea has focused her advocacy on behalf of political prisoners in the U.S. through her prisoner portrait project. Their work inspired BSEC to partner with Brooklyn Parents for Peace (now Brooklyn for Peace) to organize the first Brooklyn Peace Fair in October 2003. Bea “was thrilled to recognize so many old friends and fellow peace activists she had worked with over the last 40 years and also to see the new generation taking their part in what she described as a ‘manifestation of the ideals of the Peace Site.’”
Each year the Society’s Ethical Action Committee recommends a person or group to the Board to be honored with the Peace Site Award. The Award recipient is honored at a special Sunday Platform as the featured speaker. The work of these partners for peace informs and inspires us at BSEC to continue our community’s efforts for peace and justice.
In 2004, the Society dedicated the Garden of Peace and Remembrance, a special space in our beautiful garden. Circular in design, the four stone benches, representing the four major continents, face each other, symbolizing the need for communication on an equal basis and without obstruction in the service of peace. The garden was designed to be a living symbol of our commitment as a Peace Site and to remind us that we belong to one human family no matter where we live. It provides a tranquil spot to remember and honor our heroes in the cause of peace. Small plaques commemorating beloved friends and relatives of members have been affixed to the benches and some of the Belgian stones which enclose the seating area. Plants in this area all belong to the Ericaceae or heath family, one of the few plant families whose members can be found on all the continents of our world.
PREVIOUS AWARDS
2015 NATIONAL ETHICAL SERVICE
2014 350.ORG
2013 CODEPINK
2012 NATIONAL LAWYER’S GUILD
2011 SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (VT)
2010 TENT OF NATIONS
2009 WOMEN FOR AFGHAN WOMEN
2008 SISTER DIANNA ORTIZ AND THE TORTURE ABOLITION AND SURVIVORS SUPPORT COALITION
2007 IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR
2006 THE GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE
2005 CONGRESSMAN MAJOR OWENS
2004 RACHEL CORRIE, 1979-2003 (POSTHUMOUS)
2003 BROOKLYN PARENTS FOR PEACE & BROOKLYN HTS PEACE ACTION
2002 SEPTEMBER 11 FAMILIES FOR PEACEFUL TOMORROWS
2001 LUIS GILBERTO MURILLO
2000 MARION KRONHEIM
1999 PHILIP METLING
1998 SISTER EILEEN STOREY
1997 KARL GROSSMAN
1996 CAPTAIN LAWRENCE P. ROCKWOOD
1995 LINDA LANTIERI AND TOM RODERICK
1994 SONYA OSTRAM
1993 AMY GOODMAN AND ALLAN NAIRN
1992 ROBERT KNIGHT
1991 CORA WEISS
1990 DANIEL BERRIGAN
1988 REV. JO TOLLEY
1987 DAVID MCREYNOLDS
1986 MIRIAM FRIEDLANDER
1985 DAVE DELLINGER
1984 MICHIO KAKU
1983 THE REV. WILLIAM SLOAN COFFIN
Contact Chair: M. Tillinghast
