John Dawson: Well, welcome everyone. My name is John Dawson, and me along with my cohort Julie Kenny will be doing the technical support for this meeting today. I want you to know first off, we are recording this event. Before we switch over to introductions, I'd also like to go over event logistics.
Closed captions and a transcript will be provided today by a certified real-time captioner. Thank you, Tina.
You can enter any questions you have for today's speakers via the Q&A feature down below on your task bar. Finally, if you are encountering any technical issues during the event, please alert us via chat.
Now, I'd like to turn it over to Megan Momtaheni who will give a brief overview of UMass President's Office DEIA and today's event. Megan, it's all yours.
Megan: Thank you, John. Hello, everyone. We are thrilled to have so many of you join us for this event. My name is Megan Momtaheni. I manage our financial applications at the UMass President's Office. I'm also a volunteer on the DEIA Advisory team. We are a team of volunteers who work on the latest communications, newsletters, event planning, storytelling, and much more, all of which have been very well received by many of our employees and other guest attendees.
Now, about today's event. January 27 was chosen to commemorate the date when the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945. The day remembers the killing of 6 million Jews, two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population, and millions of others by the Nazi regime, and its collaborators.
Today, the world pays tribute to memory of the victims and reaffirms the unwavering commitment to counter anti-semitism, anti-gypsyism, racism, ableism, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance that may lead to group targeted violence.
As a we are remembering what happened on this day, we should listen closely to the echoes of history and avoid replaying the discordant notes of the past. As Mark Twain wrote, "History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme."
I am now going to light a candle, and ask you all to join me in observing a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the holocaust.
[Megan holds up a lit candle and puts it back down. She sits silently on screen for a minute].
I would now like to turn it over to our UMass Amherst colleague, Jonathan Crowley, Director of Development,
Academic and Student Programs, at the Office of Advancement, who will introduce our first guest speaker, Artemis Joukowsky III. Jonathan?
Jonathan: Thank you, Megan, and thank you for that moment of silence. It is an honor and a pleasure for me to introduce Artemis, who is a personal friend of 40 years.
Artemis Joukowsky III is a director, author, producer, and disabilities activist. He is also a venture capitalist, asset advisor, and social entrepreneur. He is the grandson of Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp, who helped hundreds of endangered Jews and refugees escape from Nazi camps.
Artemis spent decades researching his grandparents story and connecting that story to the current refugee crisis. To honor his grandparents, he co-directed the film - which we will be seeing a clip of shortly - "Defying the Nazis: The Sharps War" in 2016, along with renowned film director, Ken Burns. The film's PBS broadcast attracted an audience over 3.5 million viewers and over 1.1 billion social media impressions.
Artemis also published an accompanying book that offers a rare glimpse of high risk international relief efforts during World War II. As as a teenager, Artemis was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, a debilitating disease that greatly weakens his arms and legs.
In 2020, he co-directed "The Genetics of Hope," a documentary that features the patients, families, and scientists who rallied together to create the first approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy.
In 2001, Artemis co-founded No Limits Media, a nonprofit organization focused on changing perceptions regarding what it means to be disabled and how we are all differently abled. Artemis currently resides in Sherborn, Massachusetts, and is a member of the same congregation his grandfather ministered at, which is the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills.
It is a proud pleasure for me to welcome Artemis, and I look forward to seeing his clip.
Artemis: Alright, thank you. Well, thank you, Jonathan, and thank you, Megan, and thank you to the whole UMass team.
I have a tremendous affinity to what UMass does in the world and the impact it has of being an educator. So many people over the years that I feel have stood up for social dignity and the support of others, and made an amazing difference in our community, in Massachusetts and throughout the world.
And I'm so pleased to be working with UMass on many different fronts. I am collaborating with the University Without Walls in Amherst to create a program around learning to learn, but really the thing I am most honored by is that I have been working alongside UMass for a number of years to promote the stories of all rescuers and to really look at how we can connect, the story of what the U.S. did or did not do during this terrible period of time.
And it really is an honor for me to share this clip about my grandparents and to share the work I've done to document their work, and the relevance, of course, today, is the tremendous refugee crisis that we have throughout the world.
To highlight that conversation, I will be introducing you to my dear, dear friends, Latifa and Colin Woodhouse, who, after experiencing our film, decided, with their grown children, to go to Lesbos, Greece and Athens, and help refugees from Syria and Afghanistan come into Europe and be rescued from a similar plight of the Jews during World War II.
With that short introduction of myself, I hand it over to you, Megan, to share this clip.
Megan: Yes, John, could you please play the video clip?
John: Sure thing.
[John Dawson shares his screen. A PBS video appears. He presses play].
Mordecai: Martha and Waitstill Sharp, left the comfort of a peaceful, small Massachusetts home, in order to go into Europe on the verge of war. They were motivated from the beginning to go out there into the kingdom of hell and try to get some people out.
Male narrator as Waitstill: It was the second Sunday night of 1939. I had done a full day's work
at the church, and decided to spend an evening in front of our fireplace.
[Telephone rings in distance].
The telephone rang, and it was probably the most momentous telephone call that I had ever received.
"Hello, Waitstill."
I knew whose voice it was - the voice of my closest friend, Everett Baker.
"Would you and Martha come over to talk with me at our house here?"
"Yes."
He said, "Waitstill, Martha, I'm inviting you to undertake the first intervention against evil by the denomination to be started immediately overseas."
Woman Narrator as Martha: My husband, and I felt that something should be done. Refugees in the Sudetenland had been murdered. And people had been imprisoned and hurt.
Waitstill: We had two small kids, including a very tiny daughter. I said, "How many men have you offered this too?"
"Seventeen," he said.
I said, "Do I understand they've all turned you down?"
Everett: Yes. They think a war is definitely coming, and they don't want to be in danger.
Waitstill: I reassured Martha, missionaries leave their children. I'm sure ours can be left in good hands. I want to go, but I won't go without you.
[Video ends, John Dawson ends his screen share, and Colin and Latifa appear on screen].
Colin: Nice.
Latifa: Yeah.
Artemis: Yeah, I feel their presence with me right now as we speak to you. What Megan invited me to consider in speaking with you all today is altruism - the act of giving to others, the act of risking your own freedoms, to support other people's freedoms, and what it means in our emotional experience of life to be altruistic, to give to others when we can.
This example for me is really very tender in my heart because I feel as a immigrant, of coming to this country that I feel the plight of people who are searching for safety, searching for a better life somewhere else, who feel endangered, who have been persecuted, and what America represents in the broadest context for being altruistic as a country.
You know, every day, we watch the news and we focus on really horrific stories at times about how people are not altruistic, how people are selfish, or how people hurt one another. And so much of the stories of those can be counteracted by all the good things that are done every day to help each other.
Those don't get the news. What gets the news are the bad stories, but the good news is really featured in people like Latifa and Colin Woodhouse, my dear friends, who when they heard this story about my grandparents, decided to go to Europe and go to Athens and start helping refugees who are fleeing the war in Syria and the wars in Afghanistan and instead of leaving their children the way my grandparents left my mother, who was only 2, and my uncle was 6. Their grown children chose to go with them. And I think that's one of the most amazing stories - that this is a family effort.
All their children have been involved in their work, and it is an honor and pleasure, Latifa and Colin, to introduce you in the spirit of the Sharps, and in the spirit of this day and feature your work now in Afghanistan, specifically in Kandahar, to bring aid and support for schools, after this terrible period of what Afghanistan has gone through.
Megan: Artemis, before we go to Latifah and Colin, would you mind to touch on Righteous Among the Nations, and the coin and what the back of the coin says.
Artemis: Sure. So the state of Israel, after World War II, established an award, the highest civilian award that they give to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the holocaust. There are 27,000 honored by
the State of Israel for doing that. Many of them actually are European, and of those 27,000, there are only five Americans. My grandparents are 2 of those 5 Americans.
They left their children in Wellesley, Massachusetts, as you heard from the clip, and went to Prague in 1939, and arrived just as the Nazis were starting to take control of the Czech Republic, and really decided to stay. Even though they were asked by the U.S. ambassador to leave, they chose to stay and work in the Underground and for saving about 400 people that we can document between 1939, and 1940 in Southern France, they were honored in 2006 as Righteous Among the Nations.
That designation is a very special one, because imagine any country, imagine Armenia giving awards to the Turks that helped Armenians escape from the genocide of 1950. Imagine any country choosing not to focus on just the negative stories of what happened to their people, but to focus on who were the ones who took a risk to help others.
And my grandparents, as a couple, who were one of the very first couples ever honored by Yad Vashem. And as a husband and a wife, and as a man and woman, they worked together in tremendous coordination and with tremendous intention to do the right thing.
My grandfather even learned to launder money in order to rescue people. He had gone to Harvard Law School, and he always remarked that the only laws he could imagine breaking were laws that benefited human survival and that Germany had violated all the laws of human dignity, and so he could break those laws to help people escape.
So Righteous Among the Nation is a very special honor and today working with members of the Jewish community in Boston and around the world, we are taking a moment to acknowledge the liberation of the camps in 1945 and what it means today to do that same work around the world, whether it be Ukraine, whether it be in Afghanistan, whether it be on the southern border.
We have the capacity to do more to help others, and the question is what is the way that we can learn from the Sharps? What are the ways we can change our own view of the other and to be in a place of gratitude for our own position, and really to take risks for others?
It never stops - this love of humanity, this desire of altruism, to step into the shoes of others and to help them get to safety.
Megan: Thank you. Could you briefly talk about how you got to tell the story of your grandparents, because I know when you co-directed the documentary with Ken Burns, Ken said he didn't do a single interview. Tell us about that.
Artemis: Well, it really started when I was in the ninth grade. My history teacher gave me an assignment to interview someone of moral courage. And I went home, I said, Mom, who should I interview, what should I even talk about with moral courage?
And my mother said, "Go talk to your grandmother. She did some interesting things during World War II."
And I interviewed her and it was the only A I got in high school, and it was something that really made me feel inspired that I could help others, and since the ninth grade, I spent the last 45 years documenting my grandparents work, and bringing their names into the righteous place in history.
They never published what they did. They always viewed what they did as a secret. They also knew that by doing what they did, they caused sadness and a feeling of abandonment of my mother. So they did not want to promote themselves in that way, but it was left to me to tell that story.
And I went to the same college that Ken Burns went to. In fact, my mother, would often say, "Why are you at Hampshire College? You could be at Brown where I am teaching?"
And I said, "Well, I want to be like Ken Burns."
And then over the years, as I'm putting the footage together and making, you know, creating these interviews with all the survivors - and now we have about 250 hours of survivor footage of people that were rescued by the Sharps, we were able to honor them at Yad Vashem.
That was the first time where historians took the story seriously - that these people had, in fact, done what what I had been talking about, and when Ken saw the footage, and saw the depth of human courage, he was inspired to help me get it on to PBS.
That took three years of editing with Ken. He was very generous in how he made himself not just available to do it, but then he became a partner in doing it, and then he became my co-director.
And so I was honored to have him as a partner on the film, and to work with PBS and other organizations
like Facing History and Ourselves, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum to really document this story. And now there's a significant archive at the Holocaust Museum of 20 to 30,000 documents that relate to my grandparents, an archive of over 200,000 documents that relate to the Unitarian effort to help Jews and others during World War II.
And really, for me, it became a love story of these two beautiful people who I came to know later in life and became devoted to telling their story.
Sadly, my grandparents later divorced, so I never knew them as a couple together ever, I never saw them together, so I had to piece these stories together really from their letters.
You know, there's a very famous line in the film where my grandmother is missing my grandfather, and she says, "I've been reading a book called Lady Chatterley's Lover and I would like to discuss this with you at some point."
And here I am, "My God! Like this is my grandmother talking - this dotty, old, lovely, grandmother talking about how much she's in love with my grandfather."
So I just feel like I had the fun of bringing their life to a very relevant storytelling. And Ken improved and made the film possible.
And you heard in the opening that it was Tom Hanks who read the role of my grandfather. That happened because of Ken Burns. And now the film has been seen millions and millions of times from Netflix to Amazon, and largely because it is embedded in educational curriculum that talks about what it is
to be righteous.
Megan: Thank you so much, Artemis. I know that we need a whole day to hear about your fascinating stories. Thank you for sharing the story of your grandparents and your journey. I would like not to turn it over to Latifah and Colin Woodhouse.
If you could provide an overview of how you and your children became involved in helping Afghan, and Syrian refugees in Greece, and the work done by Shared Humanity USA for people in Afghanistan and refugees.
Latifa: Do you want to go first?
Colin: No, you go.
Latifa: Well, thank you very much, and thank you, Artemis, for all that great information which you know we have, but I love to hear the story again and again and again.
So how did we start? Well, I don't know where to start from, because there's so many different things that have happened that motivated us. But years ago, when we first met Artemis, as he mentioned, through the service committee, which Colin and I were both regional coordinators for the Service Committee, and the Service Committee was actually, I found out, as I was working there with them in Cambridge, Massachusetts that it was started by Waitstill Sharp, you know, and Martha Sharp's work when they were saving all the Jews from World War II.
So I was quite curious and motivated and wanted to know about these - I call them our celebrity - about their work.
At that time the President of the Service Committee brought a film that showed us - it was called The Hero of the Spirit - and I watched that film and the work of the Sharps were there, and it was the crisis of Darfur, so we kind of, you know, watched that and I was very, very taken by it, and I wanted to show it to the entire community of Long Island in New York City.
So I wanted to connect with somebody. I didn't know Artemis. This is... I am talking about 20 years ago. So I talked to the head of our reach program, which we have in the congregations, and said, "What can we do to make this known, this wonderful, amazing work and of altruism?"
And, of course at that time, we invited our Jewish community and we showed that film and it was a great success. but then, five years later when we went to general assembly, which is the UU Gathering in different states of the United States, every year, we met our celebrity's grandson which was Artemis Joukowsky, who was the Keynote Speaker, for the Service Committee, and boy were we both, Colin and I were taken in and my daughter Sophia, who was with us, and my son Evan, and we were totally taking like wow! This is the grandson of the Sharps, you know. Now he's alive and here with us and having dinner. And we heard his speech and we were really impressed.
And then he had changed the movie to another title and done a lot of interviews and research, which was "The Two Who Dare" at that time was the title of the film.
And, of course, Artemis and Colin and I connected immediately, you know, over lots of issues of altruism in the work that his grandparents had done and the work that he planned to do and he challenged the people when he was speaking. He said, "Who would like to walk in the shoes of my grandparents?"
And of course I am always the person who accepts challenges, and I, you know, I took that in with my heart and my soul, and later, many years later, when, Alan Kurdi came to the shore of the Aegean Sea, and this little 3 year old boy, all beautifully dressed and dead, you know, both Colin and I were so taken by that - wow, this crisis is repeating itself, and it's happening again, you know.
So I didn't know Colin's plans but I went to my congregation - and I was serving at the Board of Trustees, and also on the Social Justice Committee. I said, "We have to do something. And I know Unitarians are known
for a lot of great work."
I said, "Here's the crisis. And Lesbos, Greece, and all these refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq are coming. We must do something."
So the congregation, of course, I had a petition, and we signed a petition, and we give lots of big grants, so we did give a grant to the Service Committee for $200,000, and also to UNICEF and some other organizations that were considered.
But that takes a year, so that happened.
Before that happened, Colin... it's Thanksgiving morning, and Colin's talking to my children at the breakfast table and saying,
"You know, I'm gonna go to Greece."
And I was coming down and the girls are saying,
"You are not going to tell mom about that?"
And Colin said, "Yeah, of course we could share with Mom, but I don't think she wants to come."
Well, when he said, "I'm going to Greece to work with the refugees in this crisis, it really, you know, impacted his heart and his soul.
And I said, "Of course I'm gonna go with you for several reasons: I speak the language. I know the culture of those people. I am one of them. My parents came to this country as refugees. Why wouldn't I be involved in that work?"
So here we were - Colin arranged everything and I went back to my congregation and recruited certain people to come with us. One was a pediatrician, a doctor, who served with me on the Board of Trustees. And Colin, myself, the doctor, my daughter, Alexandra, and my daughter Sophia, we went to Lesbos. And for the first time in Lesbos, in years, in maybe 30 years, they had snow. We had a hotel in a resort where there were no heaters.
But we started our work, and it was unbelievable. Camp Moira was something I had never ever experienced in my lifetime, which there were, what was it, on any given night there were 7 to 12,000 people would come just for two days and they would screen them through, give them numbers, put them on a bus to go back to Athens or, no on the boat, to go to Athens, and then from Athens, they were bused to Germany, Sweden, whatever country. This was the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. Those were good days for the refugees.
Well, Colin, with his limited Persian, he was also helping of course. I got a job right away. I mean they needed me in the Health clinic with the doctors and nurses, and I was also all around the camp, and everybody was calling - I was Khâleh. Khâleh means auntie. I was their Khâleh. I was their sister.
I was running around. I was making fires.
[Latifa looks at Colin].
This guy got so involved - not only he built little tents, and a clothing store and a shoe store and a tea house, but with other people's help, too. There were a lot of Germans, a lot of Swedish, you know, other people.
Unfortunately, there were very few Americans, and also very few, none, you know, no Unitarians that we met, you know. So that was bothering me, like, where are we, you know, we are such good people. And why aren't we here? But Europe is much closer to Greece.
So what we did - he was asked to translate because there were thousands of people waiting on line, women that cried to me and fainted and said, I've been waiting from 8:00 and now it is 12:00 at night for them to process them.
And these big, tall, tall, big men, soldiers, Greek soldiers were at the door, and they would push them away, and everybody would fall. It was really a terrible situation.
And I am a fighter, and I'm little, and I'm very short. I would go through that, and I would challenge these policemen and say, "Wait a minute. This is humanity, and they're in need, and they need our help."
So you know, we negotiated, and the the women who were holding their children, or they were pregnant, we were able to get them through.
But I would like Colin to speak a little bit more about our experience.
After that, we went nine more times to Camp Moria, to Lesbos, to Chios, another island, to Tsakalonisi, to many, many camps, in Greece, all over Greece, not the good places that we used to go like like Mykonos and Santorini, but all the islands that had refugees.
And among those ironic and crazy stories was that I found one of my cousins, my aunt's daughter, with her husband and their kids and that was really heartbreaking to see a member of your family that you left when she was two years old, and now she's married with kids, and she looked like a skeleton living in one Camp, so it, you know it hits me, in my heart and my soul, because this is something that we all feel if we know about it.
And we are all... I consider, although I did not come as a refugee. I came under Fulbright scholarship to the United States.
But we are all coming together as humanity to this wonderful country, the United States of America, or Europe, or where ever the developed country.
But these refugees have been through wars, devastation, economic deprivation. So, therefore they are all on the move, and there are millions of them. And today, what's happening in Afghanistan, what's happening in Iran, what's happening in Ukraine, it just breaks my heart.
Go ahead, Colin.
Colin: How much time do we have?
Megan: We are, you're kind of running out of time, but I'd like you to speak at a little bit. Please go ahead.
Colin: Yeah, I just wanna convey to the audience that it really is a personal decision. For some weird reason, when I was in college I said, I'm going in the Peace Corps. I just felt I had to do that and I was gonna do it.
And I did it, and that's how I got to know the Afghan people.
And then, when I saw, you know, we got married, and we sponsored 15 members of her family during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and we had no money. We were graduate students. But we got that call in the middle of the night and we were able, at that time, we did what we could, and actually, with the help of the local community, with the Catholic Church, the Jewish synagogue, and the Methodists, we bought a house for, like, yeah, they gave us $2,500, and we got a house.
So it... in that response, it was really an interesting time. People wanted to know Afghans. They wanted to know what was going on, and our government said they were mujahideen, they were liberators if you will, because they were fighting the Russians.
But a lot has transpired since then. All I can say is that if you open your heart, if you... I mean looking at this little baby on the shore in Turkey just ripped my heart out.
And I couldn't understand how this was happening, and I wrote or contacted some of the rescue groups.
I said, "How come this is happening? Why aren't you in the middle of the water taking people in?"
And I didn't realize that it was also a fight between Turkey and Greece, and that it wasn't international waters. It was water that had a border and the two countries would fight over it and push refugees back and forth.
But I learned that when I got there.
But I also saw a picture of a little girl. She was pressed up against the fence... against a fence with a lock on it. And it was pouring rain and her head was tipped back, screaming, and she was holding a little, ripped blanket in her hand. I thought this... I gotta go.
Latifa: Afghan girl.
Colin: Yeah, Afghan girl.
I've got to go and then I did some quick research. I didn't tell anybody in the family I was thinking of it. I secretly went to a presentation, a concert about Syria and then I was convinced, I gotta go.
And then we as a family - I was grateful that our kids came. They learned a lot.
What is really affirming is that we have met some of the refugee families that we were able to help get to Europe, and they are flourishing. They're doing really well. They're happy. They're grateful.
Latifa: We met them last year in Switzerland. So it was so neat to see them. And now we're following the refugees from Europe if you will, into the country of Afghanistan and helping them in, let's say the villages outside of Kandahar. We snuck in through the back door, through the alleyways of Kandahar.
And we've been able to create three schools. And we are now working cooperatively, if you will, with the administration in Kandahar. And of course we have to be careful, we have to not break too many laws.
But we see what's going on and we are reaffirmed that, once again, we can make it difference a positive difference in the lives of...
Latifa: One positive thing we have is I come from a long line of religious leaders in Kandahar and we are the Akhunzada, so that works very well. As you can see, if you are culturally, you know, Megan, and if they hear, oh, it's the Akhunzada daughter who is, you know, promoting education for girls and boys, then that's okay, you know, that works everywhere.
Megan: Yes, you have to use all your influences to...
Latifa: Yes, exactly all your connection
Megan: I think we can sit here all day and listen to your stories.
I want to mention two things is that - the important importance of sharing your stories and it is because of the Sharps story and Artemis's, you know, book and documentary that you got inspired, and I know as Unitarians, we are always waiting for something to... for the call to action.
So we always look for something. So we need people to inspire us and put us in the right path, and I think Artemis's story and his grandparents inspired you.
And I'm hoping that today you inspire others to take action. And so you already answered... I was going to move to our question segment, but you already answered my first question, which is about altruism.
The three of you did a great job explaining what altruism is, why it is important that we care about what happens to other people, and you also mentioned the Unitarian call to action.
I know that our 6th principal is, "Be covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace. Liberty, and justice for all." And I believe Artemis already mentioned that as well at the beginning.
So I'm gonna move on to the next question, which is, I'm gonna address it to Artemis first.
In your opinion, why is it that the media doesn't talk about everyone who lost their lives in the Holocaust, the broader communities - LGBTQ, Gypsies, Disability community, Germans and others.
Artemis: Well, I mean, I think as a disabled person, as a person who has limitations physically, to learn that the Nazis, you know, targeted people with disabilities was among the most eye opening experiences for me.
My name is Artemis Joukowsky. Artemi. I'm named after a saint in the Roman period. A man that risked his life to save disabled children from being killed by the Romans.
I think we have a history of persecuting people with disabilities, viewing them as unuseful or a burden, using them to raise money. And so I think, for me, when I think about all the horrors of the Holocaust, the fact that people with disabilities were used as the... kind of the guinea pigs of that process, of how to kill people en masse, it's particularly horrifying.
The same issues for people who are... of different sexual orientation, different identities.
Of course the gypsies. We don't talk enough about gypsies. I don't think we know enough, really, about what happened to the gypsies during this period.
We know that many were killed. Some say as many as 6 million gypsies were killed but the effort to document that was not something that has occurred since the the war. I think the most amazing part of why we celebrate Holocaust Remembrance is that the Jewish people have insisted on telling the story and using this is an example of how extreme we can get if we don't learn to be human together.
And so, you see, this kind of behavior of anti-semitism all over the world. You see the rise of homophobia. You see the rise of prejudice against people with disabilities. All these issues are connected and they're connected because somehow, people are afraid of their own humanity, they're afraid of their own
sense of justice.
And those stories of women's liberation. You know, those stories of the freedom of people of different sexual orientation to express themselves in open society, is something that we don't quite understand how privileged we are in this country, and it doesn't take a long survey course to understand that prejudice has occurred from millennium and that really our job today, knowing what we know is to fight for freedom, fight for liberation of all kinds.
And so I think that is one of the lessons of the Holocaust - is how bad things can get when you start to institutionalize hatred and prejudice.
Megan: Thank you Artemis. Latifa and Colin, please talk about the challenges you face to communicate the plight and magnitude of the refugees suffering to others in U.S.
Latifa: Go ahead.
Megan: I'm personally thinking about myself and the pain I feel with the situation in Iran. And how we don't talk about it enough here, and I find it difficult to get the attention. So what were your challenges? Thank you.
Colin: Yeah, it's a really difficult time now. And from my perspective, the refugee crisis has grown and grown. It's now it's called, you know, a migrant crisis. But I think that kind of avoids the desperation that so many people have, and that frankly, they can't go home.
And so they have no choice but to knock on our doors, and if they are not going to be opened up they are going to be broken down.
Latifa: We saw that in Macedonia
Colin: Well, when the Greeks stopped... Well, it started with Austria. Austria stopped migration and then it went all the way back, all that stopping, went back through the Balkans and Greece stopped, put up a fence, and then virtually in 2 days there were 18,000 people crushing against that fence to get into Europe and it never got any better to some degree. Now people are stuck all along the way.
But, so the problem, all I can say to people is just open up your heart. You know, when I was asked, why did I do this, I said, if I see somebody fall on the sidewalk in front of me, my first response is to pick them up. That's just a human response.
And then, I mean, in a different sense, if somebody falls two blocks away from me, maybe I make a decision to go to that person or not, but I hope that others will pick that person up.
You just have to get a sense of the commonness of our human experience together and that we are all in it together and we all love our children and we all love our family, and, you know, we all want the best and we all want education.
So all I can do is, and Latifah also, is just bring those issues up to people and say they are not different than us.
Latifa: I think we shouldn't be bystanders. I think, just like what Artemis did with his film, and also, you know, all of us, you know, with our work, I am constantly talking to friends, to neighbors, to the congregations, because we cannot sit still and watch as this atrocity goes on.
The unfortunate thing again is, in the United States of America, because I am involved at the UN level and all of those... There is a lot of talk but the action is not there, to be honest with you, and we must ask for the action. We must come out to the streets, the way I see it, and say, "Wait a minute. This is humanity. These are people. These are women of Iran. These are women of Afghanistan."
I write these posts on my Facebook even, and I say, world, what are we going to do, you know, if the woman of Afghanistan cannot walk without the Mahram, and cannot come... they are imprisoned for a lifetime - why? What have they done wrong?
With the 20 years of the United States, you know, they came out, they were at the parliament level they were involved as ministers, and all that.
My own relatives, you know, she was the first women of the parliament. Her story is very tragic, almost died, but fortunately with Colin and mine, a lot of other efforts in the British Government, she's now in in London.
A lot of the people who are now there behind, that's why I am part of many boards and committees, and they want to help them come out.
But what about the people? The elite can come out. But what about those women or those children that cannot come out? They don't have the means and all that.
So Colin and I made it our mission with my children together to help them there to create those schools, to create the woman's vocational center, to provide them with fresh water. We have drilled about 6 wells so far for the people who are thirsty, to deliver food, distribute food for 2,000 family for a month or 2 months.
This is the kind of help right now in Afghanistan is needed because, right now, we just did a distribution of warm jackets and warm boots, because the winter is unusually severe and children are dying of cold weather, and they are not ready for all of that and there's no support and help.
Okay, the Taliban are bad, whatever you know, the governmental or political thing is but the United Nations, the world, America should pay attention. There's other humanity that they are starving. They don't have any jobs. They don't have any means.
And there are the women's issues, the women cannot come out. It's a very, very big problem, but we must not sit still. We must create more movies, Artemis. Okay, you'll promise me. We must carry the voices of all humanity to the ears of all of us that we can do something about it.
If I can do with my limited budget, and thanks again to Artemis for his Sharp's Award support, that we created 3 schools, that we dug six wells, anybody else could do it.
You know, we went to Greece 9 times for months to help the refugees, to give them food, to give them money, to get them to Europe.
We can all do it, you know. We can do it. We don't have to drink a big cup of coffee for $5. That $5 makes one month of food for that family of two or three people.
Megan: Yes, I like what you said and what I want to say, that I hear every Sunday is that we can't do everything - we can do something. That is how it can make a difference, and as... I forgot the name now. As we say, there's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. So with those small actions, you make a big difference.
So my next question is to Artemis. We know that Hitler used various tactics, language, symbols, vilification to manipulate people. How do you believe the same strategy is being used in modern day?
Artemis: Well, I think the closest parallel to Hitler is Vladimir Putin, who is, like Hitler, killing his own people killing his neighbors for the sake of power.
And the fact that with all our efforts to create a United Nations with all our efforts to create a unified Europe, that this is happening in Europe today, is really unimaginable in my lifetime that I would see that. I am of Russian descent, and have tremendous pride in the spirit of the Russian people.
But I'm horrified by this particular person, and what he has done not just in Ukraine, but also in Syria. Much of the refugee crisis in Syria came because of his militarization and disruption of Syria for the sake of Russian power.
I think that language and polarization, and my friend Terry Mollner mentioned this on the chat - to talk about polarization between people. I versus them has been a tactic of power hungry fascists, like thinking from the beginning of time. And really the great leaps of humanity that have changed our world for the better, in my view, have occurred when we start to see all human beings as the same creatures.
You know, I'm always thinking about the racism in America, and how we still have this ignorance as humanity, this immaturity of humanity, this desire to make ourselves better than others, not just in our human day to day sense, but institutionally, and yet you know the prejudice of others, the degradation of someone's rights is something that we have to work toward in every facet of our lives to make sure that we learned as well that there are human prejudices that we all share and we have to overcome them through love, through dignity and by treating others the way we would want to be treated.
And all of us, all of us, every American is a family of immigrants. We all share the same genetic history of coming from humanity of different places.
But we all are human, and when we remember that, we do great things.
Megan: Thank you. Colin, I wanna ask you my last question. In your opinion, how does the role of silence and indifference to the suffering of others perpetuate hate and intolerance?
Colin: You know, you can't be silent - that's all I can say. It takes a lot of effort to be silent, maybe more than it takes to speak out. And my expectation is that there's goodness in every one of us, and that if given a chance, and given an opportunity, the best will come forward. And you know, I saw it in the camps, so did Latifah, and you know that's all I could say.
We can be better, but we do need to make people feel. I remember giving a presentation to a small group of people - there were students from different countries, and I said, You wanna know what it feels like - suppose somebody comes in that door and says, "You can't go home. You can't go home. You can't go to the bank. You can't go home." What are you gonna do and how do you feel about that?
So I guess we have to make each other feel. We have to build, go into the web, if you will, or the well of empathy, and find something that will resonate with somebody's emotion. You're not gonna be 100% successful, but maybe we can get more than half caring, whatever the cause may be, caring for other people giving back the advantages that we have, recognizing that these people deserve equal or more than what we've got, and that's all I could say.
Megan: Thank you very much. I know that we are getting close to 1:00, but I would like to say that, we have questions from the attendees, and you're gonna stay here to answer those questions.
Before we get to that, in case people leave, because I know some of us have meetings at 1:00, I wanted to thank you for sharing your stories and I'm sure that you have inspired many people today, even if that means they are gonna take small actions.
I also wanted to thank the event committee - Kristina England, Marius Farcas, Meeta Gill, as well as Jonathan Crowley, from UMass Amherst. Last but not least our technical support - John Dawson, Julie Kenny, for their assistance, and thank you to everyone in attendance today.
We hope to have you join us for future DEIA events at the President's office. If you'd like to share today's event with family or friends the recording will be available in early February.
I'm now gonna turn it over to Julie Kenny, my colleague, to go over the Q&A from the attendees.
Latifa: And thank you so much, Megan, for organizing this. You did a superb job, and, thanks to all your colleagues, and thanks to our dear friend, Artemis Joukowsky.
Megan: Thank you. Anytime. Please come back again
Julie: We'll start with a quick one from Denise Lindberg. Where can we watch Artemis's movie?
Artemis: Where you can watch it is on Amazon in the PBS collection.
So Amazon Prime and if you go in to the PBS collection, it will be in that collection.
Julie: Great, thank you for that. Then we have a question from Débora Ferreira. Hitler's regime also targeted, persecuted, and killed those who identified as black, during that time, although I don't know the exact numbers.
But my question is for those who want to help - what can you do, or who do you contact?
Artemis: I would contact the U.S. Holocaust Museum. They have the most comprehensive collection of what happened during the Holocaust, and I think that's a very good question. I have never seen the issue of African-Americans and how they were treated by the Nazis to ever be portrayed. I know that many African Americans fought to end Hitler so I think we should acknowledge that sacrifice and I think it's a great question. I think the U.S. Holocaust Museum would be the place to research.
Julie: Okay, now, we have a question from Jonathan Skolnik. Thank you so much for this discussion and film. His question is, "The work of the Sharps entailed risks and rescue, but also overcoming prejudice against refugees in America. Anti-semitism, anti-communism, etc. What are your thoughts about altruism and fighting anti-semitism and racism in America today?"
Artemis: Well, I mean, most importantly, altruism feels good, altruism is good, altruism is about love, and I think it builds our community. I think it also acknowledges that we are all refugees from the beginning of time so that, you know, to make it about closing the door today because we don't have enough room or there's not enough money, or there's not enough resources, it's just simply false.
Julie: Okay, we have a question from Jonathan Crowley. "Artemis, Latifah, and Colin. Are you familiar with and can you speak to the new U.S. Welcome Core Program which will allow private sponsors to identify refugees in need of protection whom they wish to sponsor and refer refugee applicants for consideration to the U.S. R.A.P. (Refugee Administration Program)?"
Latifa: That's very interesting, I am not familiar but I would love to know more about it because I have so many people that I could bring and they want to come. So I'm not from familiar.
Colin: I know a little bit about it. I think the resources are not enough. I think folks have to come up with like $2,500 and it has to be a group of four or five people. It just seems like it's one more pushing a program that we should take national responsibility for rather than ask people to make charitable donations. It should be a policy.
I like the idea, I mean, we had assistance that came from religious institutions in Lancaster, Ohio, to help 14 or 15 members of a very different group of people and that was, that was great but it wasn't enough. The integration. I don't know that it ever really happened.
Some of the members of Latifa's family integrated into American society, some did not. They maintain their own cultural identity, and cultural... I wouldn't... maybe not ghettos but cultural neighborhoods.
Latifa: Well, the older ones, it's very hard for them to... like my grandmother and my mother. They still miss their country, and they want to be there. Their language ability, and also culturally, their food, whatever. It's different. It's not that easy, but we try very hard to make it possible for them.
Why do you think that the Core...
Colin: No, I think it is a great idea because it does say if you can get enough sponsors to care enough, you can bring in a family, and that's better than nothing without a doubt.
Artemis: Yup!
Megan: I remember one of our colleagues who watched the movie, Artemis, said that when we see refugees today, we tend to see them as a group, not as individuals, and your film portrays an individual with a unique life.
And it's important to always remember that I think, Colin, you refer to that as well when you see that you know, little girl, her face against the fence.
It's all individual. We have to remember we all want the same thing, as you said. We want for our family,
for ourselves, and for others.
Artemis: Right.
Julie: And I know, Artemis, you touched on this a little bit. But there was a question from Terry Mollner. "Immature people think only in terms of polarization - blacks against whites, women against women, etc. What is happening now is a polarization of the people who felt left behind, that Trump backed into turning into political forces. What do you fear can happen with this in the USA?
Artemis: I think that any prejudice is purely a reflection of ignorance. The only hope we have is creating education like UMass does, to break down those barriers to see that each human being has the same aspirations and desires for a better life, for an opportunity to be successful and to have their unique gifts appreciated by their families and their community.
And we all have that desire. Every human being has that desire. And so how do we create a world, how do we create learning environments where we start to see each other not as competitive to our success, but as complimentary.
And I think the most successful people in the world at some level understand collaboration. They understand how one plus one can equal three. And I think overcoming prejudice is a human need at every core of our bodies, every core of ourselves.
I know for myself, as someone who is challenged physically, asking for help is something that allows me to survive, to live, and that means that everyone that I can ask for help is also someone I want to offer help to.
And so that's how the world really works in the end.
And so ending that immaturity, as Terry said, is something that benefits us to live a better life.
Megan: You know, as a higher education organization, I feel like this is why volunteers want to do the DEIA events - to educate, to share stories, because that's how we keep things alive.
Because, unfortunately, people forget; our memories are not very good. We forget things, like we said. History doesn't repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. And do it definitely does rhyme, unfortunately, it keeps happening, and we need to share stories at all levels.
I think even our elementary school. I don't think our children are learning about the facts at an early age and I think it starts then and then, of course, as a higher education. And the more of these events we have, the more people's lives we touch.
Latifa: I totally agree with you, Megan, because we are in Florida now, and boy have I experienced prejudice and the governor here is not allowing the students to learn about CRT, which is critical race theory. It's just so there's... you know... you talk about education. I mean to me these people have been to college. They've traveled. They're worldly people in some sense, but they are so prejudiced. Because if somebody is black or if somebody is from Afghanistan or if somebody is... it's just, very, very sad.
But my thing is... which Artemis earlier mentioned, by love and by communication, by bringing it to the table, by talking about it, I don't shy away from them, I don't get hurt. I talk to them. I explain to them, when on the other hand, my dear husband walks away. "Oh I have a phone call from my son," because he wants not to get involved with a heated conversation, but I think we...it's our responsibility to bring the change, to come to the table, you know, and say, hey, what is going on in your mind or why is it that you don't like me? Why, tell me about it.
Also provide a lot of attention in caring for that person, because I sometimes feel sorry for them, because they really are at a left, whatever, atmosphere. And you know I have changed, I hope, this one guy in my community. We swim together in the thing. I mean he was calling me the Taliban. I have not heard that, but Colin did, and you know, was horrible. But now he's my best friend. He offered me a beer the other night at a party. Oh, I appreciate your hard work, you're the best board member. I think you know there's hope,
and we could come together.
Megan: Yes, we need to have dialogues and share stories.
Colin: And maybe a beer too with that.
Megan: Well, thank you so much.
I don't know, Julie, are there more questions?
Julie: No, just a final comment from Shelley Moskowitz. Not really question. "It's so nice to see all of you. You are our inspirational human rights defenders and humanitarian leaders. Thank you for taking effective and creative action."
Latifa: We love you, Shelley Moskowitz.
Artemis: We love you, Shelley. Shelley played a very important in the marketing of the film and in the support of the Unitarian community. And I do want to do a shout out to you, Megan, and to the women of Iran and what is happening right now in Iran. And to give strength to those courageous women who are taking their lives at risk to support basic human rights
Megan: The movement started with women, but it has spread to everybody. Unfortunately many young children have been killed and as you said, Latifa, we go every Saturday or Sunday, we go out, we are in Copley square and the protest continues, and hopefully, there's gonna be...
Latifa: Great. I want to join you when I'm there. It's wonderful. We have to continue in every state, every province, everywhere we are, because we gotta get the word out. People have to know.
In the United States, you know the media. There's like all kinds of things going on. But I think it's getting better. I watch this show "The View," with Whoopie Goldberg, and today they had a wonderful program on the Remembrance of the Holocaust, so there's Rachel Maddow, there's people, hopefully, we can get the word out.
But the women of Iran are really suffering, and the world has to pay attention to it collectively.
Megan: Thank you, with that...Yes, go ahead, Artemis.
Artemis: Thank you, Megan, and thank you for your whole team for what you've done today and the way you've invited us to share our stories and I want to acknowledge your president, Marty Meehan, acknowledge your Office of the President and all each of you have done in your own lives to make this story relevant to this day, but of all the work you do at UMass. I think UMass is really a light at the top of the hill, showing what's possible, so thank you.
Megan: Thank you very much. Thank you again for the book and DVD, signed book, for President Meehan, as well as for my DEIA team. That was very much appreciated.
We are going to end the webinar part of this. Artemis and Laifa, you can stay on. I'd like to thank everybody again for joining us today. Hope to see you soon for future events.
Colin: Thank you very much.
Latifa: Great, thank you, Megan. You are the best. Thank you so much.
Megan: Alright. Thank you.
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