Category: Speaker

Haya R. Rubin and Anna Halberstam Rubin

June 17, 2018

Haya R. Rubin will open the talk with some words on “The Legacy of the Holocaust”.

Anna Halberstam Rubin will then follow with a discussion of her book, “Just A Little Girl: Despair and Deliverance”, which is a fascinating coming-of-age memoir of the years 1942-1946, by the sole surviving descendant of a prominent European dynasty of Chassidic rabbis which describes her miraculous survival as a teenager wandering through the Holocaust.

After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

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Professor Martin Carcieri

June 10, 2018

On January 7, 2018, Prof. Martin Carcieri spoke and answered questions at a Forum entitled “Trump and the Constitution”. (See http://www.humanists.org/blog/2018-01-07/)

In this new talk, Prof. Carcieri will continue his discussion of constitutional issues the Trump presidency has raised, this time focusing on 2018 events.

Martin D. Carcieri is Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University, specializing in Public Law and Political Theory. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Cal State Los Angeles, a J.D. from UC Hastings, and a Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara.

Dr. Carcieri teaches undergraduate courses in Judicial Process, American Political Thought, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, and Jurisprudence, as well as graduate seminars on the First Amendment, Separation of Powers, Judicial Process, the U.S. Drug War, and John Rawls. He has won four teaching awards, and his work has been cited in amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in five landmark cases. His second book, “Applying Rawls in the 21st Century: Race, Gender, the Drug War, and the Right to Die,” was published in 2015 by Palgrave MacMillan.

Trump and the Constitution, Year Two – Professor Martin Carcieri from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Prof. Elizabeth Drescher

June 3, 2018

The portion of the American population who report that they are not identified or affiliated with an institutional religion continues to grow. Among all adults, more than a quarter identify as Nones; among adults under age 30, some 40 percent are unaffiliated. This is a dramatic sea change for American religion, as Nones rewire American religious practice and reshape the religious landscape.

Santa Clara University professor Elizabeth Drescher, author of Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones (Oxford 2016), will discuss patterns of religious and nonreligious practice that Nones are bringing to contemporary American culture.

After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

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Leland Chan

May 20, 2018

Religious believers are becoming more convinced that their constitutional rights are being violated – from the barring of public prayers and religious monuments, “gagging” political speech in churches, to “coerced” acceptance of gay marriage. What do the US Constitution and the Supreme Court say about free exercise of religion? Join in this discussion which will focus on the case in which the Court will decide whether a Colorado baker violated the state’s anti-discrimination law when he refused to bake a cake to celebrate a gay couple’s union. Perhaps even more significant than the free exercise issue, the case introduces another argument that splits First Amendment advocates: whether enforcement of the law violates the baker’s free speech rights.

Leland Chan is a lawyer who follows religious free exercise and establishment clause issues.

Religious Free Exercise In A Secular Society – Leland Chan from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Dr. Michael Edelstein

May 6, 2018

Dr. Michael Edelstein is a clinical psychologist, and the author of 4 books, including Three Minute Therapy, a self-help book for overcoming common emotional and behavioral problems. His podcast channel is “The REBT [Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy] Advocates.” He has an in-person practice, as well as remote on Skype and telephone therapy. (See ThreeMinuteTherapy.com)

Relationship between Addiction and Self-esteem – It’s Not What You Think – Dr. Michael Edelstein from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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