Marshall Meyer Retreat For Social Justice
The Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Retreat For Social Justice
Program Overview
The Marshall Meyer Retreat is New York City’s principal concourse for interfaith education and dialogue on local social justice issues. Held bi-annually since 1998, the retreat is a professional development and capacity building opportunity for religious leaders, allowing faith leaders to learn about social issues, create networks for mutual support, and meet civic leaders and service providers. The retreats are named after Rabbi Marshall Meyer, who was a religious leader actively engaged in social justice projects and building partnerships with other faith communities.
The retreats focuses on four objectives, seeking to: (1) educate grass roots religious leaders about social issues impacting New York’s communities, from interfaith and secular perspectives; (2) build long lasting formal and informal networks of support for the city’s religious leaders engaged in social justice work; (3) connect the city’s religious communities with society’s secular institutions; and (4) generate strategies for addressing common social justice concerns.
Over the course of previous retreats and related follow-up work, this program has provided a civics education for over 600 diverse local religious and community leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Native American, Jain, and Afro-Caribbean religious communities. While one treat takes place in New York City, another takes religious leaders to Stony Point, New York, giving participants a chance to get away from the hectic pace of the City and to interact and build relationships in a relaxed and friendly environment. The Retreat is the Interfaith Center’s longest running program.
PREVIOUS RABBI MARSHALL T. MEYER RETREAT TOPICS
1998
(1st) Immigration, Police Brutality, Identity, and Youth
(2nd) Patterns of Incarceration and the Prison System
1999
(3rd) Youth and the Search for Identity
(4th) Roots of Violence & the Reimagination of Community
2000
(5th) The Contribution of Religious Communities to the Education of Children and Youth
(6th) Transformative Justice
2001
(7th) Youth Leadership and Social Action- an intergenerational Retreat
(8th) Immigration and Immigrants Rights
2002
(9th) Post 9-11 Challenges to Religious Communities in New York.
(10th)Poverty in New York City
2003
(11th)Poverty and the Justice System
2004
(12th) Religious Diversity in New York’s Public Square: Religious Accommodation New York’s Public Schools and Hospitals
(13th) Getting Health Care Access in New York City
2005
(14th) Religious Communities and Domestic Violence
(15th) Religious Communities and Conflict Mediation
2006
(16th) Mental Health
2007
(17th) Faith as a Force for Recovery: Substance Abuse and Addiction
(18th) Cultivating Hope: Planting Seeds of Environmental Justice in NYC
2008
(19th) Growing Older and Wiser in an Aging City
(20th) Investing In Our Future: The Health of Children & Youth
2009
(21st) Confronting Hate Crimes
(22nd) Immigration: From Estrangement to Engagement
2010
(23rd) Building Economic Resilience in Faith Communities
(24th) Building Sacred Space in the City: Religious Freedom in Bricks and Mortar
2011
(25th) Creating Safety, Preserving Faith: Religious Leaders Respond to Domestic Violence
