Israeli, Palestinian & 'Katrina' Heroes To Receive “Prize for Humanity”
February 2nd, 2006 by sfuqua
The Interfaith Encounter Association, a thriving dialogue group bringing together members of Israel and Palestine’s religious groups in cities across the region, will this weekend be a co-recipient of the Immortal Chaplains Foundation’s Prize for Humanity.
(Immortal Chaplains
Foundation) Long Beach, CA — The Immortal Chaplains Foundation
announced it will present its 7 th Prize for Humanity on Sunday February 5th
2006 from 2-4pm aboard The Queen Mary, an historic ocean liner that also
served as a WWII troopship. The four Chaplains - Jewish, Catholic and
Protestant - gave up their life jackets to soldiers on the torpedoed
troopship Dorchester, and went down together, arm-in-arm in common prayer on
February 3, 1943. Their self-sacrifice and compassion for others, regardless
of faith or race, was memorialized on a 1948 U.S. postage stamp entitled
"These Immortal Chaplains - Interfaith in Action". Their legacy is
the basis for The Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity, given to "those
who risked all to protect others of a different faith or ethnic origin."
Honorees for 2006 are:
Dr. Yehuda Stolov &
Interfaith Encounter
Association in Israel & Palestine;
Dr. Stolov, an Orthodox Jewish-Israeli, organized colleagues from Muslim,
Christian, Jewish and Druze faiths in 2001 to counter the escalating violence
between Israelis and Palestinians. Risking their lives, they held public
seminars to break down hostility and mistrust and have now created a
sustainable model of Interfaith understanding and hope. Representing the
organization's colleagues for the Prize will be Ms. Najeeba Sirhan,
Palestinian School Principal in Majd el-Krum.
Petty Officer 2nd Class, Jonathan M. Rice & U.S. Coast Guard
Rescue Teams;
During the devastating 2005 'Hurricane
Katrina' in New Orleans, Coast Guard Petty Officer Rice and his crew of
rescue helicopter CG6522, were the first to appear to those abandoned to the
storm. As Rescue Swimmer, Rice risked all to affect the hoisting rescue of
223 persons – most of different ethnicity than himself. Meeting with
extreme physical hazards, Rice portrayed a positive attitude of hope
continuously for 5 days and nights.
Past Honorees include (2000) Paul Rusesabagina, subject of the recent
film, Hotel Rwanda; (1999) Amy Biehl, an American Fulbright scholar who died
in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa; and (2000) Chiune
Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who signed over 5000 visas for Jews escaping
the Nazis in WWII. For a complete list see: www.ImmortalChaplains.org . The
Foundation recently move its headquarters from Minneapolis, MN to Long Beach,
CA aboard The Queen Mary. An Interfaith Memorial Sanctuary at the new
location will include a diorama depicting the final moments of the four
Immortal Chaplains and the 670 men who died with them.
