Happy New Year 2014 !!

It’s Holiday Season, and I am joyful for the incredible circle of friends I have made throughout the years, and the fortunate life I have led.

I look at my City, and the World around me, and as NYC Mayor-Elect Bill DeBlasio so notably terms it, “a Tale of Two Cities,” I see that the rich have prospered even far beyond most people’s imagination, in years of extraordinary despair for others who no longer can afford the basic promises and dreams of America.

Fifty years ago in May, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson, in his Great Society speech delivered at the University of Michigan, said, in his words, “A great people flowers not from wealth and power, but from a society which spurs it to the fullness of its genius.  That alone is a Great Society.”

I know we can do better, and as I set my New Year’s resolutions, I rejoice with all the people I meet who are making enormous contributions to creating this better world, and who respect the twin ideals of giving and service.  I look to 2014 and beyond with extraordinary optimism and renewed purpose, to create a New Great Society, as new days are arriving when the true possibilities of a vibrant America for all can be fulfilled.

And again in the words of President Johnson, “To spread the light, to enlarge man’s inner and outer liberty, to promote the peace of our people and all people…They are the purpose, I believe, of this America.”

I wish you the Happiest and Most Amazing New Year 2014!

– Howard

 

Hi Howard, I wish you and all your dear ones a serene and healthy holiday season. Be well, stay well and stay in touch.  Ciao, Mico (Licastro)

 

Dear Howard,  Your words and thoughts resonate deeply within me.  Thank you for articulating them.  Your vision is clear and I join you.  I am proud to be a new member of the NJ All Stars Board.  I hope our paths cross soon.  Wishing you a joyous holiday season and a New Year filled with a world closer to what we work for.  All my best, (Carolyn Dorfman)

 

Wonderful thoughts. Inequality of opportunity must end. Happy Holidays, Steve (Ludsin)

 

Jeffrey to Howard:  Dear Howard,  Thanks for your inspiring words from an often times, unfairly, maligned source: LBJ.  My New Year’s resolution is to Co-Create a New World Community of love and Peace.  Possibly you would like to actively join the effort  – see our website: www.NewWorldCommunity.com.  Let me know what you think.  Merry Christmas friend – Jeffrey (B. Peters, Catherine Chase “Cici” Peters)

 

Howard.  So wonderful to hear from you and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you, with health, happiness, wealth, love, and great adventures…From my command  and control center, my laptop on my dining table.

All the best, Leslie (Mandel)

 

Hi Howard:  This is a very interesting wish for the future…if you haven’t already seen it, watch “Broken City”
on HBO.  When are you coming to S. Florida? I’m looking forward to seeing you again one of these days.
Lots of Love and Healthy Wishes for the New Year.  Phyllis (Gross)

 

Best to you and yours, Howard. Hope all is well.   Ross M. Wallenstein

 

Truly wonderful thoughts, Howard.

Larry and I wish you a Happy, Healthy and Joyous New Year. (Larry and Shelly Strickler)

 

Lovely..I read it twice… Loved the Johnson quotes.  Rhonda (Barad)

 

Howard!  All the best in this new year.  Fred Cerullo

 

Howard- Very Nice – Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy and Healthy New Year.  Michael New

 

Right on the money–or lack of it, Howard. This is an inspiring note. Happy holiday season to all, except for anti-Semites and racists. Abee  gezundt! Joe Dorinson

 

Thank you Howard. My best wishes for the coming year.  Edward D. Pollack

 

Hello Howard!  Thank you for your thoughtful holiday greetings.  I always appreciate optimism, especially the kind that comes from doing good work.  I hope you have a wonderful 2014 and look forward to the next time our paths cross.  Please do let me know if ever you are in Montreal. Very Best Wishes,  Skawennati

 

Happy Holidays to you from New Orleans!!  Abrasos!!  Sharon (Frazier)

 

dear howard…what lovely and meaningful  thoughts…i haven’t made any resolutions yet, but yours have given me the impetus..happy new year to you from sarah and victor (kovner)

 

Hi Howard,  Thanks for your email. My best wishes to you for a very good 2014 year.

Cantor Joseph Malovany.

 

Howard,  A very happy new year to you too!  Ron Troy

 

Blessings To you Howard. & A Terrific 2014 & always!  JULIE & JOHN (Julie Budd)

 

How beautiful Howard! Thank you for including me in in the circle of friends to whom you sent this wonderful message! Happy New Year!! I look forward to catching up with you early in 2014.  Rella (Fogliano)

 

Merry Christmas, Howard!  Please stay healthy and happy in 2014.  MY RESOLUTION:  To make meaningful progress toward the completion of my book, “B________O: (secret title): A Blue-Eyed Brother’s Journey Through History’s Greatest Sounds.”  Best, James Taibleson

 

May 2014 bring us only happiness.  Francine Raubvogel

 

Hi Howard,  You are an amazing human being and I am proud to know you and be able to call you a friend. Watching and listening to you is an inspiration…Thank you for your help. I know we can make this world a better place for all who believe it can be. I believe as a small part of the greater good we can help those who want and thrive on our help to better themselves and the others they touch. Hope is very powerful!  I look forward to seeing you sooner than later. 🙂  Happy Holidays and a Healthy, Blessed  New Year!

Sincerely your SoupMan, Sebby (Seb Rametta)

 

How lovely  to receive your  holiday wishes and insights. We are all well and looking forward to 2014. Glad to know you are well and constant in  pursuing a good life.  Best, Marcy (Syms)

 

Happy Holidays, Howard!  All Best,  Christine DeLisle

 

Such a wonderful note, Howard.  Continued blessings to you, as well.  Have a merry, magnificent, successful and healthy New Year!  Michael (Miller)

 

Dear Howard . What a beautiful message. I wish you all the best as well may the 2014 fulfill all your wishes . We can talk may be next week if you are AROWND. All the best loula

 

Howard –  Enjoyed your inspiring holiday note… thanks for sending… and hope to see you soon… You know my devotion to biking as the healthiest, often fastest, and most fun and eco-friendly means to get around New York City… After spending nearly a week with 50 members of the East Coast Greenway Alliance (ECGA) biking along its trails from Hartford through NYC and on to Philadelphia, I am committed to the growing movement to make it far easier for bikers, joggers (and every other self-powered person) to travel safely and conveniently between communities up and down the Atlantic Coast.  I encourage you to join this movement, too.  Best holiday wishes,  Buzz (Boaz Shattan, Jr.)

 

Hi Howard, His words echo true through you to me.  We are very lucky living in a great city and in a great society filled with opportunity.  It;s so lovely to stay in touch with you after all these years!  Wishing you a happy holiday and may 2014 be the best year ever.  Warm regards, Lisa (Lisa Ronis)

 

Dear Howard, Thank you very much for your wishes. I am honored to be part of the circle of your friends,

I consider you a very special person. I wish you a great and meaningful 2014, all your thoughts may be reality and all your deeds bring light to the world. Happy happy new year, Rita (Benjehuda)

 

Dear Howard,  How prosaic and philosophical as I read your email Christmas afternoon between gift giving with my family and sharing the meaning of the Advent Season,  hope, peace, joy and love for all humankind. Our faiths are fundamental to reigniting the spirit of America and its glory days of serving and giving towards the rebirth of the Great Society.  Your warm words are inspirational as we embrace 2014 blessed to be contributors to help humanity become a more peaceful, prosperous and positive global society.

Happy New Year fulfilled with the wonderful of life, As always, Your Linda (Linda Stillman)

 

So beautiful..Love you, my friend.   Happy Everything. Neshama (Carlebach)

 

and to you my friend  (Gary Erbaum)

 

This is absolutely beautiful.  Wishing you and yours much health and happiness in 2014.

Best, Eileen (Flannelly)

 

You are the best, Howard. Sending you all the best wishes for a happy, prosperous, and healthy 2014.

Lynne (Winters)

 

Hey Howard – Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year as well (from halfway around the globe – in Chiangmai, Thailand).  Howie (Katz)

 

Hi Howard Teich,       So glad to hear from you.  I also value you and our friendship and all that you’ve done to support all kinds of folks to be able to hear me and FN.  Boy do I miss him.!!  I am fine and doing all kinds of things. I also wanted to let you know that Commissioner Bratton will be bringing greetings at the Operation Conversation Cops and Kids event that I am doing in Bklyn on January 3rd  to train the entire NYPD graduating class of 1100 cops and about 500 people from the community.  Its at the Christian Cultural Center.  Any chance???? Anyway,  my resolution is to continue to put poverty on the front lines of what it is that we have to over throw  in this country and in the world.  Love u dearly, my brother.  See u soon!

Lenora (Fulani)

 

Howard, Best wishes for year of peace and possibility.  I look forward to creating this new world with you.  I don’t usually make specific resolutions.  In general, it is to keep giving and building pbu that’s more like breathing, something I need to do to live.  Jeff (Arons)

 

Hello Howard, very up lifting and well written!  Thank you for you undying interest in what is going on around and inside of us!  I also think that we have a great year ahead of us.  My resolutions are humble and personal: 1.To be a better person towards my loved ones and to the entire the world.2.Spend more time on myself – health wise  3.Create the best art possible and promote likeminded artists.I wish you all the best in the up coming 2014 ! Love, luck, health, wealth and joy, lots of it:)  Artem Mirolevich

 

Howard, thank you for your thoughtful and inspired good wishes. I wish you and our nation as well as the world a happier, healthier, more prosperous and peaceful year ahead. Best, Ethan Eldon

 

Happy New Year Howard!  Ray (Raymond J. Dowd)

 

Dear Howard,  Warmest best  wishes for the new year. With Bill de Blasio at the helm, it promises to be an exciting and productive year. Bill (William J. vanden Heuvel)

 

..Beauty..Freshness..Dreams..Truth..Imagination..Feeling..Faith..Trust!  This is the beginning of a new year.

Happy New Year, Dear Friend.  Manal Faisal Alsharief

 

Howard – All the best to you in the New year.  I am pleased to see another fan of Lyndon Johnson, whom I admire immensely, warts and all.  Sam (Samuel F. Abernethy)

 

Howard:  Happy New Year and may 2014 be a prosperous year for you. Ronald Law

 

Howard.  What wonderful thoughts for 2014!  I am in total agreement about the “Tale of Two Cities.”  Let’s hope with Mayor Bill DeBlasio, it will change.  Thank you for sharing.  Best wishes to you for a wonderful and healthy 2014.  Linda (Gras)

 

Happy new year, Howard!  (Mama Doni)

 

Nice to be included in your expression of Joy.   My reaction is: Why Johnson? He lied about the Vietnam war.  .Consider Thurgood Marshall: A society can not have both greed and democratic values and flourish.

 

I have not quoted him correctly but you get the drift. Giving and service is commendable.The piece that irks me is that relative to their incomes, the people who can least afford to give, give a greater percent of their income. They understand the struggle because they live it.

 

Have you heard about the book, The New Jim Crow? I listened to it on my way to and from work. It is well researched and a startling picture of the state of inequality of the US.

 

We both wish the same for our country. I worry as I live in a working class neighbor hood. My neighbor drove a bread truck all his adult life.He had health insurance and was looking forward to being able to stop working, a the repetitive movements of his job left him with aches. BUT his company sold out to a larger concern. To keep his job the company forced him to be an independent driver. He now runs his own business, has to pay an accountant to handle the details. He drives the same route. He rises at 3am each day. He makes less money now than before.

 

Thank goodness for Obama Care. It gives him some reassurance. His son-in-law lost his job in upstate NY. They moved in to live with my neighbor. 4 adults and 3 children under the age of 5 in a 900 square house. The only silver lining is after 2 years,  the young family has been able to qualify for a bank loan and are looking for a house.

 

My sister-in-law isn’t good with money, her first husband lived a few years after a massive stroke playing squash. She remarried but over the years has not been able to have success with her art degree. She now stocks the shelves in a large grocery store working the night shift. She’s been there about 8 years. This past year after her husband had 1 lung removed due to cancer, he doesn’t make as much, plus he’s 70 and she’s 59. She has had to rely on the food bank.

 

I believe in our country, and thank Diane Sawyer for her Made in America campaign. Until those without understand that they are being sold a life style they can’t afford via commercials they won’t understand that politicians favor themselves. I’d like to have a senator’s health insurance plan.

 

I don’t understand the need to pay hundreds of dollars for shoes, etc. Why do bankers make millions after ruining the lives of so many of the employed people at the bank? Why is a corporation considered a person so that big business can buy their way to what they want?  Blah, Blah, Blah.

 

OK I’ll get off my own soap box. I agree whole heartedly that we can not provide for our society until those with the power recognize that craving more wealth and power undermines the middle class. Without people to buy goods the companies can’t grow. My understanding of the Golden Rule is two-fold. The original message and: Those with the gold rule.

 

Thanks for being a sounding board. I appreciated your New Year’s Wishes. I wish you the same.

People have been a source of change and we will continue to do this work for the betterment of all.

 

I believe one’s thoughts do become a reality.

My wishes are simple. For Linda to find the reason her back continues to “go out” so often. To find the reason for her condition and her pain.

 

For mom and dad to continue to be healthy.

 

To continue to find the joy in teaching and know I make a difference in the lives of the children I touch.

 

To have seen the worst in 2013 of catastrophic weather related destruction to the earth and people’s lives.

For 2014 to be a calm year in the world for weather and war related deaths.

 

For those with internal wars in their own countries to find peace through reconciliation, following the example set by Mandela.

 

Thanks for relatives and friends who are in my life.

 

Jane (Weinstein)

 

Additional Comments on Jane’s response

 

Howard to Jane:  What an astounding response, and one I do want to put on my website as a comment, with resolution, to my 2014 New Years note, when we put them on there.  It is so impactful, and so real.  That’s precisely where we can, and must do better.

 

By the way, on Johnson, there are really two parts to what he did.  One was Vietnam, and we all opposed that, and had a difficult time with him because of that.  The other part was his domestic policy, and his Great Society concept, and the domestic legislation he enacted during his administration that has had lasting impact, and I think is particularly significant today, and to such an extent, that we should take a relook at it.

 

Always wonderful to hear from you, and I do hope, Jane , that you have the best year in 2014!

 

– Howard

 

Jane to Howard:  Thanks for your kind words. You’re welcome to put it on your site. I perhaps would like to revise the Johnson comment to  acknowledge his vision re:  domestic policy and the Great Society, especially the war on poverty.

This is a bit of a catch-up. The past year (I still think in terms of School Year, since last September) has been monumental for me, as I have accomplished what I set out to achieve (with lots of time invested and lots of work). For that, I am delighted, actually quite thrilled. I could not have made any of it happen without teams of leaders who joined together with me, out of a common commitment in each case.

September 11 was significant to me, as many of you know, as I spent the first days in the staging areas of Ground Zero, and as a result, years with fragile health. I am so thankful every day, now that I am back to 100%. So, putting together a 9-11 Sunrise Ceremony on the 10th Anniversary in The Batteryt was not only a completion for me, it was a recognition of so many incredible people who gave of their lives to help us all recover from the devastation of 9-11. And NYC has made it back. And what a team it was from Downtown who made this Sunrise Ceremony a most memorable event. You can see the tape under Videos on this website.

Last September I also took on the Chairmanship of the Arts Horizons’ Leroy Neiman Center in Harlem, an organization that uplifts children’s life experience through the visual arts. We created a great Council of Advisors, and together with a most extraordinary person who is the Executive Director of the Center, we built the effort towards bringing LNAC into being of service to the Mainstream of the Greater Harlem community, and we succeeded. Take a look on the LNAC Art Splash website, www.neimancenterevents.com, or click on LNAC on my Organization page, and you will learn more about the Center, and get a view of our terrific Art Splash event in June. We are now starting the preparation for Art Splash 2 in September, 2012.

Last Summer my NDD co-chair and friend, Tom Acosta and I put great effort into revitalizing the Board of New Democratic Dimensions, a civic/ political organization I founded thrity years ago. Well, we succeeded, and the line of programming including our Ambassador Club meetings with International diplomats, and our Mayoral Series, have been exceptional, and most promising for the future of the organization during its next thirty years.

My commitment to the human rights of all people was directed to the treatment of Christians in Iraq, as a dialogue group of Evangelic Christians and the New York Board of Rabbis, of which I am on its Advisory Board, met on several occasions with the Iraq UN Ambassador to express our concern, and look for greater understanding of the issue, and to explore the possibility of making a difference for the Iraqi Christian community. Clearly this is a very difficult, and expanding issue, in the Islamic countries of the Middle East.

An interesting outgrowth of the Evangelic Dialogue was my meeting Paul deVries, director of the NY Divinity School. I wrote a published article commenting on the book, Kosher Jesus, by Shmuley Boteach with my thoughts on Jesus, and then Paul wrote an article commenting on the book and my article, and we then had two dueling articles on Jesus published in a Christian media outlet. You can read the articles in the Writing section in my Website.

And after several delays, the 3I Council on Human Rights which I co-chair with Brian O’Dwyer and Randy Mastro, had a wonderfuil event in March at the Irish-American Historical Society three NY media legends, Juliet Papa of WINS, Gabe Pressman of WNBC, and Mary Murphy of WPIX, representing the Italian, Jewish and Irish communities.

For the first time, I performed in a play, actually a reading of an extraordinary play by Fred Newman, co-Founder of the All Stars Project with Lenora Fulani. I had the good fortune to meet and speak with Fred on several occasions, and wanted to participate in this 24-hour marathon tribute to him after his death this past year. NHot only did I learn to “see” through someone else’s eyes as I prepared for my charcter, I learned to be someone I am not, with passion for the part, for that was my role, and I was told I was pretty amazing in the role. A break-out for me, and I really enjoyed it.

I am ever-conscious of legacy and filling vacuums, and when I chaired JHNY I realized that the Jewish community of New York, with all its institutions, had not effectively recorded its history in NYC, one of the greatest civilizations in the entire history of our Jewish people. So, after seeing Queens and Staten Island start-up while I was chairing JHNY, once leaving the position, I was still determined to get this project done. So, several years ago I set out to establish a Brooklyn Jewish Historical society, and we created BKHI. The “we” is the most extraordinary team, from Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz, who I first reached out to, to Councilman Michael Nelson, who gave us the necessary seed funding, to Deborah Schwartz, director of the Brooklyn Historical Society, who co-chairs the Initiative with me, and the amazing people who have been at every meeting and so committed to making it happen. We launched a first-ever website in June, and with great thanks to Paco Levine, a terrific web-designer who has done my website as well. You must go to www.brooklynjewish.org, or go to my Organization page and check on the Logo. Manhattan is next, and I have spoken to Manhattan BP Scott Stringer, and the first meeting is tentatively set for the end of July.

Yes, in between I did have time for my professional career, and to make a living, and that’s a different blog for a different time. As is my participation on the Board of the National Museum of the American Indian, on the Advisory Board of the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Board of Ecominga, and my involvement with the All Stars Project, among other things.

Now, I am back to running and exercise, feeling great, and even expecting to take some time off. To me, it is Summer vacation (truly, I have never outgrown this system). And I also expect to make a lot of time to spend with people, one-on-one, and not just in planning for events and in groups. So, if you are reading this, and we haven’t gotten together for a while, now’s the time.

And you might want to stay tuned to my Blog, as I will be putting up pieces I wrote about my experience of these events, and I will be writing now on a continual basis about my points of view, that I want to write to create discussion. And take a look at my Events Page during the Summer, as I plan to have a major schedule of activities this Fall, 2012, and do hope you will be at some of them.