Two Upcoming WISDOM events in June, 2009

Dear WISDOM Subscribers,

Please read about two very important events coming up!!

1) This is to let you know that you are all invited to join an Interfaith Book Club that WISDOM is going to participate in jointly with the Troy Interfaith Group. The first book club session will be at the Troy Public Library, 510 West Big Beaver Road, on Monday June 8th at 7:00 PM. Please see attached invitation.

Please register for this book club via email by replying to troy.interfaith@gmail.com and including “Book Club” in the subject. Once you register, you will be sent downloadable information.

This first book club session will deal with Dan Buttry’s books entitled Interfaith Heroes. You can access some of the Interfaith Heroes at
http://www.readthespirit.com/interfaithheroes/

Rev. Charlotte Sommers, the Convener of Troy Interfaith Group and pastor of the congregation at Northminster Presbyterian Church (home of the Community Interfaith Labyrinth) will be leading the book discussion. I will be part of this exciting interfaith book club. I hope to see other WISDOM subscribers there!!



2) You are also invited to an event at the West Bloomfield Jewish Community Center event featuring Her Excellency Ambassador Houda Ezra Nonoo, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States, the first Jewish ambassador from an Arab nation!! This event is sponsored by the Institute for Retired Professionals (IRP), and the Seminars for Adult Jewish Enrichment (SAJE), and co-sponsored by WISDOM among other organizations.

The event will be about “Women’s Rights: A View of Life in Bahrain.”

Houda Ezra Nonoo is ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United States. Appointed in 2008, she is the country’s first non-Muslim ambassador, the first Jew to be appointed by any Arab country as ambassador to the United States and only the third Bahraini woman ever named ambassador to any nation. Ambassador Nonoo was born in 1964 in Bahrain, a close U.S. ally whose Jewish community of about 50 dates to Talmudic times. Descended from Iraqi merchants, Ambassador Nonoo received her MBA from the International University of Europe in Waterford, UK. In 2006, the King of Bahrain, Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah, appointed Nonoo to the Shura (consultative) Council, in the upper chamber of parliament, where she served on the Committee for Finance and Economic Affairs. Ambassador Nonoo is one of the founding members of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society and has worked to improve conditions in factories, as well as raise awareness about the rights of women, children and domestic workers. She is married and has two teenage sons.

Advance registration and payment are requested by Thursday, June 18, 2009. Cost is $10.00 in advance and $12.00 at the door. Please fill out the response form below with payment or call 248-432-5692 to charge by phone. For questions or more information about this event, please contact Sharon Levine, IRP director, at 248-967-4030 ext. 2018 or slevine@jccdet.org


Number of attendees: ___________________ Total enclosed ___________________________

Name(s): ______________________________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________________________

City: ____________________________State: _______________________ Zip: ______________

Phone: _________________________________ Email: ________________________________

Method of payment: (please circle) Check (enclosed) Visa Mastercard

Name on card ___________________________________________________________________

Card number: ____________________________________________________________________

Signature: ______________________________________________________________________

Please make checks payable to JCC of Metropolitan Detroit
Kindly RSVP by June 18, 2009. Return response card with payment to:

Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
Attn: IRP/SAJE
6600 West Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322

It would be so wonderful to have a WISDOM presence at this event. I will definitely be there as WISDOM president, and I hope that you will join me.

Gail

WISDOM Annual Dinner and Installation Ceremony, May 2009

Dear WISDOM Subscribers:

On Thursday evening, May 7, 2009 the WISDOM Board of Directors held their Second Annual Dinner and Installation Ceremony at the Peking House in Royal Oak. What a wonderful evening!! The food was outstanding, and the warmth and friendship in the room was priceless.

Gail Katz, WISDOM President, welcomed everyone, and the Rev. Sharon Buttry gave a blessing over the meal. Following a dinner of vegetarian choices, Chinese chicken and peapods and beef, Professor Charles Mabee, Director of the Religious Studies Program at Oakland University and the MDIV Program at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary, gave a presentation entitled "Inter-Religious Dialogue in Metro-Detroit."

Following his presentation the following board members were installed with a beautiful candle ceremony:

Executive Board

Gail Katz (Co-Founder) - President
Shahina Begg (Co-Founder) - Vice President
Patricia Harris (Co-Founder) - Vice President
Paula Drewek - Secretary
Bhavna Mehta - Treasurer

General Board

Sharon Buttry
Ellen Ehrlich
Fran Hildebrandt
Claudine Kafi
Padma Kuppa
Rehana Qureshi
Gigi Salka
Sheri Schiff
Elaine Schonberger
Betty Sheehan
Supreet Singh
Noelle Sutherland
Anjali Vale

Advisory Board

Beth Applebaum
Marsha Foster Boyd
Brenda Rosenberg
Freda Sampson
Judy Satterthwaite

Gail Katz then gave a review of WISDOM's accomplishments since the first annual dinner in May of 2008 and the evening closed with a beautiful interfaith prayer delivered by the WISDOM Program Committee Chair Judy Satterthwaite.

Thanks to all of the WISDOM Board members who have given of their time, their energy, their creativity and their financial resources to help make WISDOM the lively vital organization that we have become!!

Here's to a productive 2009-2010 year.

Enjoy the photos of the evening below.

Peace, Gail

WISDOM Honors the Rev. Sharon Buttry

WISDOM honored the Rev. Sharon Buttry at the Birmingham Bloomfield Race Relations and Diversity Task Force Tenth Annual Diversity Champion Honor Roll on April 30, 2009.

Sharon lives in Hamtramck and serves as outreach director at Acts 29 Fellowship, a Christian mission dedicated to meeting the critical needs of neighbors of 26 different language groups. "My neighborhood is a United Nations: next door is Yemen, Libya and Poland; the smell of good cooking fills the air as I walk home each night."

Since moving to Michigan in 1996, Sharon has made many interfaith friends through the Hamtramck "Call to Prayer" ballot question and as a WISDOM Board member. Sharon and her husband Dan have facilitated workshops in conflict transformation in Poland, Thailand, Italy, India and Ethiopia.

Sharon has been an incredible asset to WISDOM. She facilitated our WISDOM retreat last January, and served a secretary on the Executive Board.

Thank you Sharon for all that you have done for WISDOM!!

Please enjoy the photos below.