Rita Semel's 100th Birthday

Our founder, Rita Semel, turned 100 on November 15th. The Interfaith Center at the Presidio Board of Directors honored her with an Interfaith Service in the historic Presidio Chapel, on Thursday, November 18th. The Keynote Speaker was the Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, Founder and President, United Religions Initiative, Seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California (Ret.) Also present were Faith leaders, public officials, family, and friends. Rita Semel's mantra is the Hebrew "Tikkun Olam" (Repairing the World), a reflection of her Jewish Faith. Her life and work are living proof of those famous words uttered by Margaret Meade sixty years ago, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has". What is most astonishing is that Rita, at 100, is still at work in the vineyard!  She is, without question, the best of us.
 
A Short List of Rita's Faith, Interfaith & Humanitarian Work and Honors

• First Associate Editor, Jewish Community Bulletin
• Public Relations – America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Israeli Consulate, and March of Dimes
• San Francisco Conference on Religion and Race
• Associate Director and Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council
• Founder, Interfaith Center at the Presidio, Member of the Board and Treasurer
• Founder and Board Chair, San Francisco Interfaith Council
• First Chair, Global Council for the United Religions Initiative
• Catholic Charities CYO, Member of the Board
• Family Services America, Member of the Board
• San Francisco Resource and Leadership Council, Member of the Board
• Friends of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, Member of the Board
• Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Member of the Board
• San Francisco Children’s Rights Coalition, Member of the Board
• San Francisco Family Service Agency, Member of the Board
• San Francisco Homelessness Board, Member of the Board
• Intergroup Clearinghouse, Member of the Board
• Board of Trustees, Graduate Theological Union
• Honored by Islamic Society of San Francisco, Bay Area Cultural Connections, and United Muslims of America
• Honored by the California State Assembly, Woman of the Year 13th District
• United Way’s Mortimer Fleishacker Jr. Volunteer Award
• National Council of Jewish Women’s Hanna G. Solomon Award
• Women in Community Service Rosa Parks Award
• Delegate to the fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in China
• Honored by Islamic Society of San Francisco
• San Francisco Foundations’ Community Leadership Award
• Honored by Catholic Charities CYO Loaves and Fishes Gala
• Clinic by The Bay, Member of the Board
• Congregation Emanu-El, Member of the Board
• Grace Cathedral, Member of the Board
• In-Home Health Service Public Authority, Member of the Board
• Commissioner, Human Services Agency Human Services Commission, City & County of San Francisco

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We support the San Francisco Interfaith Council's statement against the rise in anti-Semitic attacks. Read their full statement below, or click here to share. 

Messages of Hope

This year both Passover and Easter fall within a week of each other. Since our family always observes both feasts, the values of both faiths come together. They should come together – for I find that these two observances are two sides of one and the same coin. It is no coincidence that Jesus’ final religious act was that of observing the Seder.
We recount the struggle for freedom, justice and the pursuit of a meaningful life. In every age, including our own, some new freedom is won and established, adding to the ongoing development of humanity. Yet each age inevitably creates new Pharaohs and enslavements that require new liberations. The victory over the first Pharaoh in Egypt was but a paradigm of all the emancipations that would follow in the centuries to come. 
As some of you may know, the word Egypt means “the narrow place” - that symbolic place that squeezes the life out of a human soul and body. We are all, each one of us, still enslaved in some form of Egypt because we are all still struggling to be free in some individual, personal way. We are forever moved to work for the time when all the Pharaohs of the world - and of our personal lives - will be vanquished; when right will conquer might; when the highest values of life alone will rule, and all peoples - and individuals - will enjoy freedom and peace of mind. Passover and Easter remind us that there is redemption and deliverance from oppression in all its varied forms. Degradation will rise to dignity and slavery will advance to freedom.
We see in our own time contemporary versions of the ten plagues that blighted ancient Egypt:
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1. apathy in the face of evil
2. brutality against the helpless
3. cruel exploitation and mockery of the weak
4. corruption of innocence
5. envy of others’ possessions
6. bold faced political lies
7. greed and the theft of earth's resources
8. belittling of learning and culture
9. instigation of aggression
10. justice delayed and justice denied

I regret to say that the formal religious establishments, for the most part, have not succeeded in facilitating our liberation. Indeed, some have unwittingly become other Pharaohs through the prison of dogmatic pronouncements and social-political agendas that unwittingly foster religious ignorance, bigotry and worse. 
In this hopeful season let us pray that each of us confronts whatever Pharaoh resides in our personal life – that from which we need release and redemption – and that we experience a personal going forth from Egypt or a personal form of resurrection in our lives.
Shared by Rev. Gerald P. Caprio, Executive Director & Board Chair
Interfaith Center at the Presidio

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​The Healing Power of Gratitude
From the writing of Zen teacher Roshi Joan Halifax:
Wise hope is not seeing things unrealistically but rather seeing things as they are, including the truth of suffering - both its existence and our capacity to transform it. It's when we realize we don't know what will happen that this kind of hope comes alive; in that spaciousness of uncertainty is the very space we need to act.
Too often we become paralyzed by the belief that there is nothing to hope for - that our cancer diagnosis is a one-way street with no exit, that our political situation is beyond repair, that there is no way out of our climate crisis. It becomes easy to think that nothing makes sense anymore, or that we have no power and there's no reason to act.
Wise hope doesn't mean denying these realities. It means facing them, addressing them, and remembering what else is present, like the shifts in our values that recognize and move us to address suffering right now.
As Buddhists, we share a common aspiration to awaken from suffering; for many of us, this aspiration is not a "small self" improvement program. The bodhisattva vows at the heart of the Mahayana tradition are, if nothing else, a powerful expression of radical and wise hope - an unconditional hope that is free of desire.
Shared by Tara Mochizuki
Board Member
Interfaith Center at the Presidio

The Healing Power of Gratitude
 
These are difficult times for all of us with the pandemic and the difficult trials we are all facing. Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently offered some advice for those of us who are suffering spiritually.  He suggests that a remedy for our spiritual woes and maladies is Gratitude. 
 
President Nelson quoted 1 Thessalonians 5:15-19 in the New Testament where Paul spoke to the people and said:  “Rejoice evermore.  Pray without ceasing.  In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  Quench not the Spirit.”
 
The Psalms are also a good place to read about gratitude, President Nelson said, such as Psalm 95:  “O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a. joyful noise unto him with psalms.”
 
Even when life looks bleak, there is beauty in nature and art and music.  Gratitude does not prevent traumas that we face, but it is good therapy for our spirits and soothes our sorrows during difficult times. Looking for things we are grateful for helps us see beyond the current crisis. Gratitude provides us with a greater perspective on the very purpose and joy of life.

Shared by Camilla Smith, Vice President for Development
Interfaith Center at the Presidio