OSIA & B’nai B’rith “A Celebration of Solidarity”

Prof. Anthony J. Tamburri along with Dr. Marcia Weiss Posner were both awarded the Lehman-La Guardia Award for Civic Achievement on Sunday, June 10^th at Verdi’s in Westbury, New York by the Commission for Social Justice, Order Sons of Italy in America, New York State Grand Lodge, and the MetroNorth Region of B’nai B’rith International.

Although the two groups share different roots, both have encountered the damaging effects of ethnic stereotyping. It is perhaps for this reason that the Jewish and Italian American communities continue to join together to demonstrate unity and to pledge mutual support in fighting ethnic bias and bigotry.

Prof. Tamburri was very gracious in thanking his valued Calandra staff as well as colleagues for their continued support, including Prof. Fred Gardaphe’ and Prof. Paul Giordano. He then went on to praise the truly inter-cultural nature of the event, explaining that the two organizations over the years have created a team effort  - an inter-cultural premise promoted by ILICA.

Dr. Posner ended her acceptance speech by saying that “Jews and Italians are like bagel and lox”, and that their shared sense of empathy, optimism and motivation is unshakeable.

i-Italy link