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MAMARONECK, N.Y. - The Larchmont-Mamaroneck Committee on Human Rights and Local Summit's Jan. 11 Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration will feature three honorees, whose contributions to the community have furthered the ideals of equal opportunity, said Harold Wolfson, of the Local Summit in a press release.
John Gitlitz will receive the annual Martin Luther King Jr. award for his work with local immigrants rights.
"The social services of his agency and its community education program, which he oversaw, have been widely credited with leading to local acceptance of new immigrants and their right to seek work," said Wolfson, who added that he led HRC during a pivotal period for local immigrant rights.
The event, titled "Looking Back, Moving Forward," is hosted by the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Committee on Human Rights, with the help of the Local Summit, a citizen's action group that takes on projects to benefit the community.
The Mamaroneck resident teaches Latin American Studies, Immigration, and Human Rights courses as an associate professor at Purchase College, and served as co-president, and then president, of the Hispanic Resource Center (HRC) until this past autumn.
As a freshman at Oberlin College, Gitlitz met Dr. King and shook his hand. "He had come to deliver an auditorium speech and the students were crazy about him," Gitlitz said.
He recently completed a book entitled "Informal Intercultural Justice." He recently delivered a paper on this subject in Peru attended by members of the Peruvian Supreme Court.
The co-founders and staff of the Larchmont Gazette, which was suspended in Sept. 2010, will receive a special tribute for their contributions to communication. Paula Eisenberg and Dr. Judy Silberstein co-founded the Larchmont Gazette, the community's first online news sites.
"The Human Rights Committee was impressed by the journalism vigor of the Gazette and believed it helped raise the bar for other area publications and encouraged the founding of other local digital newspapers," Wolfson said.
Will you attend the 25th Martin Luther King Jr. Ceremony Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hommocks Middle School Auditorium?
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