GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM • Atlanta, Georgia • April 11, 2013
The Selig Center 1440 Spring Street, NW

A partnership of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta
With JFNA Network of Independent Communities

Part 1: Local Issues, Global Impact

11:00 am-2:00 pm
Program and lunch

Questions that we grapple with right here at home reverberate around the world in JDC’s work to reduce poverty among Jewish communities and beyond. We’ll focus on how to empower women and girls as key change-makers in their communities, and how to create conditions that allow disabled people to become contributing members of their families and communities.

And finally, we’ll bring the issues home in a discussion of the ethical dilemmas involved in allocating desperately needed, finite resources and care around the world.

• 11:00 am Welcome: The continuity of local and global in caring for those in need
• 11:15 am Changing the World through Women
• Noon Breakout sessions — lunch served
  Ethical dilemmas in humanitarian care
• 1:00 pm Empowering the People we Serve: Case study of JDC’s work to enhance opportunities for the disabled in Israel
• 2:00 pm Closing
• 2:00 - 2:30 pm Optional Tour

Part 2: International Hot Spots

2:30 pm-5:30 pm

JDC works in over 70 countries, helping Jewish communities and individuals and sharing Israeli and Jewish know-how in global crisis situations.

We’ll investigate the substantial but often overlooked challenges facing Israel internally and how American Jews are helping to innovate solutions to build a stronger, more cohesive State. In a conversation with Atlanta natives George Stern and Michelle Simon, we’ll consider the history of Jews China — and how one family intersected meaningfully with JDC’s work there in the past and today. And we’ll look at current hot spots in the former Soviet Union, including Atlanta’s partner city, Minsk, and the rapidly changing dynamics of key countries in Latin America.

• 2:30 pm Welcome: JDC’s work around the world
• 2:45 pm Strengthening Israel from Within: The little-known story of Israel’s long-term challenges and how we can help
• 3:30 pm Breakout sessions — Coffee/tea and snacks
  “Roll up your sleeves,” and engage actively with solutions building:
  1. Reviving Meaningful Jewish Life in (Eastern) Europe and the former Soviet Union — focus on Minsk
  2. Rapid Changes and their Implications in Latin America — from Argentina to Cuba
• 4:30 pm A Jewish Role in Global Development
• 5:30 pm Closing

Part 3: Responsibility and Opportunity — Today and Tomorrow?

5:30 pm-7:15 pm

What is our responsibility as we look toward the future — for Jews and for others in need? How can we build our passion for this work, insuring that we provide the best humanitarian care and embody the highest Jewish values? We’ll talk with a comedian who is a leader in JDC's 20s-30s service programs, and we'll hear from three generations of the Simon/Stern family about how they connect to their own story of rescue from Shanghai. Finally, we’ll talk about opportunities for learning, travel and action that could change your life.

• 5:30 pm Welcome: Buffet dinner served
• 6:00 pm Jewish stand-up: A younger generation
• 6:20 pm Jews in Shanghai: A family story spaning three generations with Michelle and Aaron Simon and George Stern
• 6:45 pm Experiencing our Global World: travel opportunities in 2013
• 7:00 pm Bringing it All Together: Our Part in the Jewish Future
• 7:15 pm End