WHEREAS
, The Council of the City of Philadelphia is pleased and proud to honor Mr. Burt Siegel for his several years of civic and community service to the citizens and institutions of the City of Philadelphia through his outstanding career in the field of community and human relations; and
WHEREAS
, Burt Siegel was born in Bayonne, NJ in 1943 and attended Rutgers University where he majored in History and received a Masters Degree in Sociology and Education and he came to Philadelphia in 1970 to work for the Southeast Regional office of the American Jewish Committee and since 1973, Mr. Siegel has been working for the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS
, In his career with the Jewish Community Relations Council, Mr. Siegel has served as its first Director of Urban Affairs, then Associate Executive Director, and for the past 13 years, Executive Director, and in this capacity, he has been one of the region’s most recognized and honored advocate for the promotion of better relations between various religious communities; and
WHEREAS
, Mr. Siegel was appointed by three Mayors to serve on the City’s Commission on Human Relations and has served with distinction on this body for sixteen years, of which the last eight, he has served as Vice Chairman and he has served on numerous committees, advisory boards, and taskforces of the City of Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia dealing with issues ranging from the quality of public education, curricula development, school safety, and intergroup tension; and
WHEREAS
, Mr. Siegel has taught at both the college and secondary school levels and just completed ten years of teaching at a congregational Hebrew high school. He has also been an instructor at the Philadelphia Police Academy and has been a guest lecturer and scholar in residence in the United States, Canada, Israel and Germany on a wide-range of issues including Christian-Jewish relations, Black-Jewish relations, race relations, the American Jewish political agenda , Anti-Semitism, Israel in the Mind of America, Jews in film, and Jews in Baseball; and
WHEREAS
, Mr. Siegel has been published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, the Catholic Standard and Times, the Philadelphia Tribune, the Reconstructionist Magazine, the Jewish Exponent, and Sing Out Magazine. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programs in Philadelphia, New York, and Israel and has been on the BBC several times to discuss the concerns of American Jews; and
WHEREAS
, Bert Siegel has also served on various policy and community boards, councils, coalitions, committees and commissions including the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention, Fellowship Farm, Darfur Alert Coalition, CeaseFire PA, Jewish Council on Public Affairs, Jewish Social Action Policy Network, and the Administrative Committee of the Religious Leaders Council; and
WHEREAS
, Mr. Siegel is a founding member and the second President of Reconstructionist Congregation Or Hadash in Fort Washington, PA and has received several awards and accommodations from numerous agencies and organizations including but not limited to the Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter of the NAACP, the B’nai B’rith Educators, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, the Japanese American Citizens League, the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, the Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, and Shomrim, the Jewish law enforcement professionals’ association; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
, That we hereby recognize and congratulate
Mr. Burt Siegel for his several years of civic and community service to the citizens and institutions of the City of Philadelphia through his outstanding career in the field of community and human relations.
FURTHER RESOLVED
, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Burt Siegel, as evidence of the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
End