This month, we're turning the NIOT Group spotlight on Not In Our Town Princeton, an interfaith, inter-racial coalition that has been tackling racism since its founding in Princeton, NJ more than a decade ago.
Read the full Group Spotlight to find out how NIOT Princeton is taking their campaigns for unity and social justice to local merchants, area schools, and their public libraries.
NIOT Groups
Here’s the latest installment of “Where in the World is NIOT Now?” featuring notable news from Not In Our Town groups, and updates about “Not In Our Town” film screenings across the country.
Fort Collins, Colorado: Reflecting on the rise of hate speech in public discourse, Not In Our Town Alliance member Charlotte Miller wrote a letter to the editor of The Coloradoan, urging residents to stand up and speak out against intolerance:
“We must speak out against hateful speech and propaganda filled with untruths about people who are different in racial, ethnic, religious identity, as well as language use and political beliefs. If you hear someone saying discriminatory or derogatory things about those who differ from them, please speak up and let them know you disagree with them, and discrimination is not OK.”
Medford, Oregon: In response to recent neo-Nazi activity and last year’s burning of “KKK” on a biracial couple’s lawn, community groups from across Medford and Ashland, Oregon held a tolerance forum and “Not In Our Town” orientation.
Troubled by rising conflict and xenophobia, a network of Jewish women from Ukraine is saying “Not In Our Town” to intolerance.
Community activists from Project Kesher, a Jewish women’s organization, gathered in Kiev last month to share stories and talk about the impact of an ongoing Not In Our Town initiative in their communities and in the region.
Project Kesher’s year-old Not In Our Town program includes leadership training, workshops, exhibitions, posters, educational programs and special creative events to educate the younger generations about tolerance.
The program began in May of 2007 at a summit attended by Project Kesher community leaders from the United States and throughout the former Soviet Union. A film crew from The Working Group was in attendance to document the kickoff of Not In Our Town Ukraine.
Elena Kalnitzkaya, the Project Kesher director in Ukraine, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that so far the group has worked with the All-Ukrainian Interethnic Women’s Confederation, which includes women of varying ethnic and religious groups, on a project to unite the activities of nongovernmental organizations and state bodies to counteract xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Nazism and hate violence with women of different ethnic groups and faiths.