Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University and Brandeis University Press welcome
Jehuda Reinharz, PhD, upon the publication of his latest book, Chaim Weizmann: A Biography, in conversation with Alexander Kaye, PhD.

In Chaim Weizmann: A Biography, Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani show how Weizmann, a leader of the World Zionist Organization who became the first president of Israel, advocated for a Jewish state by gaining the support of influential politicians and statesmen as well as Jews around the world. Beginning with his childhood and concluding with his tenure as president, Reinharz and Golani describe how a Russian Jew, who immigrated to the United Kingdom in the early twentieth century, was able to advance the goals of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist Organization. Weizmann is also shown as a man of human foibles – his infatuations, political machinations and elitism – as well as a man of admirable qualities – intelligence, wit, charisma, and dedication.

Alexander Kaye, PhD, is the Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair of Israel Studies and associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. His recent book is The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel.

Jehuda Reinharz is the Richard Koret Professor of Modern Jewish History at Brandeis University, where he served as President for seventeen years. He is the author and co-author of more than thirty books in Jewish studies.

Go behind the scenes of a three-year project linking computer scientists and religion scholars as they harness the power of computer simulation and modeling to explore solutions for global conflicts rooted in religious violence.

Dr. Robert Waldinger reveals the answers to the question: What makes for a happy and fulfilling life? His TED Talk about the Harvard Study, “What Makes a Good Life,” has been viewed more than 47 million times and is one of the ten most-watched TED talks ever. Join JCC Greater Boston as Dr. Waldinger shares important lessons on how to build a fulfilling, long life.

Susan E. Eaton, in conversation about her book, The Other Boston Busing Story: What’s Won and Lost Across the Boundary Line.

METCO, America’s longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, buses children of color from Boston’s city neighborhoods to predominantly white suburban schools. In contrast to the infamous violence and rage that greeted forced school busing within the city in the 1970s, the work of METCO has quietly and calmly promoted school integration. But how has this program affected the lives of its graduates? Would they choose to participate if they had it to do over again? Would they place their own children on the bus to suburbia? In The Other Boston Busing Story, sixty-five METCO graduates who are now adults answer those questions and more, vividly recalling their own stories and assessing the benefits and hardships of crossing racial and class lines on their way to school.

Susan Eaton will be in conversation with Stephanie Leydon, executive producer of digital video at GBH News.

The book talk will be preceded by the screening of the GBH News documentary Never Cried: Boston's Busing Legacy and a talkback with the filmmaker Emily Judem.

More about the film here.

Susan E. Eaton is the Professor of the Practice and Director of the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She is the author, most recently, of Integration Nation: Immigrants, Refugees, and America at Its Best (The New Press) and The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial. Her previous titles include The Other Boston Busing Story: What’s Won and Lost Across the Boundary.

On this 50th anniversary of busing, how do we take stock of this legacy and what needs to be done now with the Boston Public Schools?

The movement began in the 1960's to improve education for Black students in Boston, but the Boston School Committee refused to make changes and denied Black students were being short changed. The federal court in 1974 found Boston's schools were illegally segregated and then ordered desegregation with busing. There then followed deep racial divisions, turmoil, and white flight from the schools and from the city of Boston.

We hear also about what ways desegregation expanded opportunities for students, teachers, and administrators and the many court orders on hiring of diverse staff, establishing parent councils, bilingual education, university and business partnerships. But the big question is, were the aspirations for high quality education met?

The make-up of Boston schools in 1974 was 60% White, 30% Black, 10% other. The Boston Indicators Project says it is now 45% Latino, 29% Black, 8% Asian, 14% White. So it went from majority white to predominantly students of color school system. The Boston Public Schools were last year not rated well on a whole battery of educational benchmarks by the state's education department. BPS has many challenges to meet now with a more diverse student body, with significant numbers of students who are homeless, those with learning disabilities, and large numbers of recent immigrants whose first language is not English. We will begin to talk about further reforms needed now.

This forum is a collaboration between the BPL and the Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative

These amongst the most important in Boston’s history forever impacted Boston’s reputation to its residents and to the whole country. It was a cauldron of divisions by race and class and this obscured steps forward that were taken...

Boston’s Black community with leaders like Ruth Batson, Ellen Jackson, and Tom Atkins did a 10-year campaign starting in 1963 to try to address severe educational inequities. The Boston School Committee headed by Louise Day Hicks disputed, delayed, denigrated, and rejected all these proposals.

Finally in 1972, the NAACP filed a case in federal court on behalf of 14 parents and 43 children that became the Tallullah Morgan vs. James Hennigan case. Judge Garrity ruled on June 21,1974 that the Boston School Committee had segregated the schools and ordered them desegregated.

Busing began on September 12,1974. It was met with fierce resistance from white anti-busing organizations for the next 4 years. This included demonstrations, motorcades, rallies, and electing more anti-busing politicians to office.

Black students integrating white high schools in South Boston, Hyde Park, Charlestown, and Roslindale faced racial epithets, rocks thrown at school buses, and fights started in the schools. This spilled over into the neighborhoods with a number of violent attacks and some retaliations.

Most of the schools did open and remain peaceful. Judge Garrity also ordered many notable education reforms.

Some change started to come when 3 anti-busing politicians lost their elections and the first Black person was elected to the Boston School Committee in 1977.

This is part of a program hosted by the Boston Public Library and the Boston Busing & Desegregation Initiative commemorating the 50th anniversary of Boston desegregation and busing.

How do Americans navigate an election with so much at stake including the very future of democracy? Half the country will view the outcome as an existential threat to their identities, values, and concept of what it is to be an American. How do we stay true to our values while keeping our country together no matter the outcome? How do we build and maintain relationships of respect and dignity anchored in democratic values and norms?

Join Monica McWilliams, founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and key negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace process and Donna Hicks, of the Weatherhead Center at Harvard University and the author of the acclaimed book, Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People as they discuss the state of our country on the eve of the November election. The moderator is Tim Phillips, founder and CEO of Beyond Conflict, who has worked globally to promote peace and reconciliation through the model of Shared Human Experience.