It has been a pleasure serving as your Treasurer this year.  I accepted this position with great sadness upon the tragic and unexpected death of my predecessor, Stuart Kensinger in May 2019.

Financial statements translate the story of an organization into numbers, and as such, fail to capture the emotion, purpose, and spirit of peacebuilding.  I hope, as you read my report, you will remember the faces and sounds of the children and adults living amidst the conflict of war.  I hope you will visualize each teacher, each youth, each brother and sister working for peace, because we share with them the great calling for service.  JPB is financially healthy and well positioned for 2020.

Balance Sheet:

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Respectfully submitted,

 

Bruce A. Barrett

Treasurer, Jerusalem Peacebuilders

At Jerusalem Peacebuilders, we remain sickened by the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, just as we remain sickened by the equally senseless killing of Iyad Halak by border police in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem Peacebuilders believes in the sanctity of human life.  We believe that Black lives matter, and we stand with protests against the lack of police accountability, the use of homicidal force against people of color in police custody, and the indifference of too many of this nation's district attorneys towards violence affecting Black Americans.

 

Race and race relations have long been a stumbling block for these United States.  We cannot deny that system-wide racism exists in our communities or that bias does not exist within ourselves.  It is not enough to claim that all this does not involve us personally.  Because it does.  Americans cannot claim that systemic racism is an evil that does not involve us because we inherited that system; it is ours now.  Nor can Americans dismiss the need for systemic change with the notion that "a few isolated bad apples" are at fault.  There can be no bad apples among those who hold the power of life and death over others.

 

Jerusalem Peacebuilders is dedicated to advancing the sanctity of human life.  We believe this sanctity is best honored when the same rights, freedoms and privileges are steadfastly guaranteed for all - black or white, male or female, Protestant or Catholic, Arab or Jew.

Bruce A. Barrett, JPB Treasurer

Bruce A. Barrett has long been an active interfaith peacemaker. Born in Connecticut, he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in Applied History and Industrial Management. Soon after, Bruce joined his family bill-board business, Barrett Outdoor Communications Inc.  In 2009, Bruce directed, edited, and produced the film, "The Billboard from Bethlehem," chronicling the peace work of Combatants For Peace.  Filmed on location in Israel and Palestine, the piece won the Mondavi Award for Peace and Cultural Understanding at the Sonoma International Film Festival.  

 

In 2010 Bruce created the IWagePeace Walk, in which members of area mosques, synagogues, and churches walk and support one another as peacemakers under the banner "We do not need to agree on everything to work together for Justice and Peace." In 2011, he sponsored a "Painting for Peace" project for JPB's debut program in Vermont, and thus began his connection to JPB.  A person of many talents, he is also the musical director of his local Congregational Church and co-owner of the largest brewpub in Connecticut, The Brewport Brewing Company.  Bruce is the JPB Treasurer and leads ongoing initiatives to enmesh JPB's Service-Learning Institute in New Haven (CT) with the local interfaith community.

 

Danna Kurtin, JPB Board Member at Large

Danna Kurtin is the Associate Vice President of Faculty Academic Affairs at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas .  With a PhD in Management and Policy from the University of Texas School of Public Health,  Dr. Kurtin has had over 35 years of healthcare experience in various capacities, including information systems management, data management, legal research, and outcomes research.  In her current role, she is responsible for overseeing all academic appointments at MD Anderson and for fostering relationships with executive leadership units across the institution to ensure efficient and effective system-wide processes.  

A native of Texas, Danna is an active member of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas.  Her introduction to JPB came through participation on a pilgrimage in 2016.  Currently, she is the Staff Mentor and Volunteer Coordinator for JPB's Houston programs and the Executive Committee Chair of a project bringing cancer care to the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.