About ICfC:

The International Center for Conciliation stops and prevents ethnic and religiously incited violence by helping people strengthen their own sense of identity and dignity and that which they accord to others. Through school curricula, community meetings, dialogues, workshops, trainings, advocacy, and public policy with governments and international agencies, the ICFC has set a new agenda in combating this violence that, at a more optimistic moment, many of us thought that memories of the Holocaust would deter. Fellows, trainers, and the growing number of trainees of the ICfC help people in situations of conflict better understand their painful memories and free them of the hatred that often derives from limited visions of their history.

Symposium will include:

Michael Arad, the Israeli-American architect who won the international competition for the Ground Zero Memorial with a widely acclaimed proposal and who continues to work with the different representatives of our country's great tragedy to ensure that the memorial expresses the thoughts and feelings of the broadest consensus,

Nir Eisikovits, an Israeli Government attorney and expert on the South African Truth and Reconciliation process that saved that country from great violence and similar processes in regions torn and war scarred by protracted ethnic and religious violence. Dr. Eisikovits is a Senior Fellow of the ICfC and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Suffolk University.

Dagmar Kusa, a Slovak historian and human rights activist, ICfC Senior Fellow and Program Coordinator. Dasha is the first fellow to have joined the ICfC will be joining us directly from our most current "field" endeavor - the "Imagine 2008" Retreat and Dialogue for Armenian and Azerbaijani students and young professionals funded by the US State Department.

The evening will be moderated by Caren Yanis, the Executive Director of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.