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August 6: Community Paddles Blazing with Love

 Events
Jul 092022
 
Graphic art of ping pong paddle and flames (blazing paddle)

You’re invited to Plymouth Congregational Church’s Community Ping Pong Festival Benefit for Afghan Refugee Families and Children of Helena.

  • When: Saturday, August 6th any time between 9am and 1pm
  • Where: Downstairs Fellowship Hall at Plymouth Congregational Church, corner of Winne and Oakes in Helena.

Come and bring your friends and family to this fun event, a project of Plymouth’s Outreach and Social Justice Committee in collaboration with co-sponsor Hands On Global’s Afghan Refugee Resettlement Team (HARRT) and many other community partners.

Ping pong players of all ages and playing levels will come together for free fun playing or watching ping pong,the second most popular sport in the world, next to soccer, while giving the Helena community a chance to have fun together and also donate funds to help meet pressing needs of Afghan refugee families and children in the Helena area.

This Festival is an opportunity to:

  • Meet and warmly welcome Afghan refugee families and their children
  • Share snacks/meals prepared and sold by local Afghan refugee families
  • Contribute funds to help our new Afghan refugee friends meet their needs and get adjusted
  • Watch, cheer on and play ping pong for free with some local “celebrity ping pong all-stars” playing for fun with all of us, (and stick around after 1pm if you’d like to watch or play in the Helena Table Tennis Club’s 11th Annual Forrest Gump Table Tennis Tournament)
  • Enjoy music from local musicians playing, singing, and leading some fun and uplifting sing-alongs
  • Try our hand at playing some creative, tricky ping pong gimmick games dreamt up by local ping pong players.

Already confirmed co-sponsors besides Plymouth Congregational Church and Hands on Global’s Helena Afghan Refugee Resettlement Team are:

  • Good Samaritan Ministries
  • The Helena Table Tennis Club (lending us three excellent ping pong tables and inviting table tennis players from all across Montana)
  • Montana Book Company
  • The Shop University (which is doing ESL language lessons for refugees)
  • Buzz Boutique
  • GoodFood World
  • Helena Progressive Action Network
  • Helena DSA and its Helena Solidarity Network
  • Helena Service for Peace and Justice

Several other very likely sponsors are pending, and we are now inviting more Helena groups — churches, clubs, businesses and other groups and organizations.

June 16 Alison Weir: What is the Israel lobby, and how is it damaging Americans?

 Events
Jun 102022
 
Alison Weir

Join us on June 16, 6:00 pm MDT, with Alison Weir, Executive Director of If Americans Knew, as she speaks on “What is the Israel lobby, and how is it damaging Americans?”

This live event will be held in Helena, Montana at the Lewis & Clark Library, 120 S Last Chance Gulch.

Journalist and Historian Alison Weir is Executive Director of If Americans Knew (https://www.ifamericaknew.org/) and President of the Council for the National Interest (https://www.councilforthenationalinterest.org/), both of which are co-sponsors of this June 16th Zoom event along with Helena SERPAJ. Weir also edits the Israel-Palestine News: https://israelpalestinenews.org/

Alison Weir’s book Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel (https://againstourbetterjudgment.com/) documents the history of the Israel Lobby in the US and discusses the root of the current violence in Israel–Palestine, the distorted media coverage of the region, and why US taxpayers continue to send Israel $10.5 million in military aid every day (https://ifamericansknew.org/stat/usaid.html#pal)

More about Alison Weir and If American Knew (IAK) at:

Links for Mazin Qumsiyeh Presentation: “A Palestinian Reflection on the State of Our Planet”

 Events, News
May 282022
 
Mazin Qumsiyeh

On Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 8pm Montana time, Peacemaker Mazin Qumsiyeh of Occupied Bethlehem in Palestine, a Palestinian peace and justice and nonviolent liberation leader and courageous advocate of human rights for all, presented a talk entitled “A Palestinian Reflection on the State of Our Planet” — sponsored by the Helena Service for Peace and Justice. Recordings of the presentation are available at the links below.

Mazin Qumsiyeh Presentation

 Events
May 182022
 
Mazin Qumsiyeh being held by Israeli soldiers

On Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 8pm Montana time Peacemaker Mazin Qumsiyeh of Occupied Bethlehem in Palestine, a Palestinian peace and justice and nonviolent liberation leader and courageous advocate of human rights for all, will present a talk entitled “A Palestinian reflection on the state of our planet.”

Mazin Qumsiyeh’s presentation is part of the “War and Peace” series organized by the Helena Service for Peace and Justice (SERPAJ). In 2013 Mazin Qumsiyeh, Palestinian peace and justice and nonviolent liberation leader, courageous advocate of human rights for all, was named recipient of the 2013 Montana Peace Seekers Network’s Peace Seeker of the Year Award (PDF file).

  • Time: 8:00 pm (Montana Time)
  • Place: Plymouth Congregational Church, corner of Oakes and Winne, Helena MT
  • Zoom Access: (meeting ID—813; passcode—449494

Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D. was born to a Palestinian Christian family in the Shepherds’ Field (near Bethlehem). He formerly split his time between the USA and Palestine and is a U.S. citizen as well as a Palestinian. He now he lives and teaches in Palestine, and is active in the daily nonviolent liberation struggles and campaigns of the Palestinian people against the illegal and brutal Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land.

Qumsiyeh has served on the faculty of both Duke and Yale Universities, researching and teaching Genetics. He now teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He has served as chair of the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and as coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour.

He is author of several books, including Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle (2004) and Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment (2011).

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