The news from Israel is bleak but then, it has been for a long time, 75 years to be exact. Since the country of Israel was established, the Israeli government has unjustly treated their Palestinian heritage citizens. Learn what PC(USA) has been doing for over 20 years to lift up the voices of our unheard brothers and sisters.
PRESENTERS
Elder Mindy Shaffer. Moderator-Elect
Mindy has been part of the Presbytery of Genesee Valley as a member of Penfield Presbyterian Church (PPC) since 1997. She has served as Ruling Elder and Elder Commissioner to Stated Presbytery meetings. She was nominated by PPC to go to South Africa in 2004 and on the PC(USA) Mosaic of Peace in 2018 both of which were life changing experiences for her. She accepted the nomination for Moderator-elect in 2023 and will be going to GA this year in Salt Lake City.
Gloria Farwagi Webster; Rochester Witness for Palestine.
Gloria is a Palestinian. She has never lived in Palestine. Her family fled to Jordan during the Nakba or catastrophe, in 1948 at the founding of Israel). At that time the newly formed government destroyed 531 villages, displaced 700,000 and killed 1000’s of indigenous Palestinians. Her trilingual father took a job in Damascus where he and his newly-wed wife lived for 16 years. It is also where Gloria was born. Most refugees of the Nakba are not allowed back in Israel so in 1966 the family emigrated to the United States. Gloria’s husband, Rev Gordon Webster was called to the Ogden Presbyterian Church in 1993 and they have lived in the area ever since.
