A Special JBC Author Talk Honoring Mother's Day - with Former Member of Congress and Journalist Marjorie Margolies Discussing Her Memoir "And How Are the Children?"
Tuesday, May 9 at 3pm on Zoom and FCTV (broadcast on Public Channel 13 or streamed on fctv.org)
Free and Open to the Public
On Zoom or Live Broadcast on FCTV Public Channel 13 or streamed on the FCTV website
Register to participate on Zoom (and in the Q & A):
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtfu6tqDwrE9Hf1_DDAqfeFx8A4SvdOTqT
Marjorie Margolies’s Jewish father always said that you should aspire to change another’s life. That concept of tikkun olam, was instilled in her from an early age and she was determined to apply the concept to her own family. Marjorie’s family grew exponentially. She adopted two girls from Vietnam and Korea, married a Jewish Congressman with four daughters, and sponsored a Catholic refugee family from Vietnam bringing the number of kids under her roof to eleven. Marjorie had a Jewish home, but one of her priorities was to instill in her kids’ respect for all faiths. They celebrated Hannukah and Christmas. Sunday mornings meant Sunday school – both Catholic and Jewish. They did Seders and Catholic Masses. They said Jewish and Catholic prayers. Her children married in Jewish or ecumenical ceremonies. It was an organic way to make everyone feel included yet tolerant of other belief systems. Marjorie’s book is the story of this journey.
Marjorie Margolies is a former member of Congress from Pennsylvania, a journalist, a women’s rights advocate, and a serendipitous mother many times over. She is perhaps best remembered for being the first unmarried American to adopt a foreign child and for casting the deciding vote in favor of President Clinton’s 1993 budget, the Omnibus Reconciliation Act. She worked as a journalist with NBC and its owned and operated stations for 25 years, winning five Emmy Awards. Running as a Democrat, she was elected to represent the traditionally Republican 13th District of Pennsylvania in Congress. She was also the deputy chair of the United States delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing in 1995. As a result of that experience, she founded Women’s Campaign International (WCI), an organization that provides empowerment training for women around the world. She is currently a faculty member at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and at last count, her family consisted of 11 children and 21 grandchildren.