Press release from Congregation B’nai Israel

On Tuesday, March 10, Congregation B’nai Israel (CBI) in Rumson will welcome guest speaker Carole Basri for a special event. A lawyer, filmmaker and expert on international relations, with a particular interest in Iraqi history, Basri will speak about the ethnic cleansing policies of the Middle East, beginning with the Jews and including the recent ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) persecution of Christians, Kurds, Yazedis and Shiite minorities. She will also show clips from her documentary films.

The 7 pm program is open to the public and refreshments will be served. Admission is free for members of CBI, Red Bank Hadassah and chhange. The non-member fee is $5. Advance registration for the program is requested by March 5 at cbirumson.org.

Basri, an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University School of Law and visiting Professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law, has been a commentator on the Iraqi elections and constitution for MSNBC, CNN, FOX and Al Iraquiya TV. Her films, which have screened at various film festivals and on PBS, provide a historical and personal view of the persecution, torture, escape and flight of over 160,000 Jews from Iraq between 1940 and 2003.

During the last 15 years, Basri, who is of Iraqi Jewish descent, has been an active voice in the political and legal issues affecting Iraq. She was a member of the U.S. Department of State’s “Future of Iraq” Project and served on the Iraqi Reconstruction Development Council for Ambassador Paul Bremer in Baghdad. She worked with various Iraqi Ministries on health and legal issues and in 2004 represented Iraq at the behest of then Prime Minister Jaafari, providing documentation for the Oil for Food program. In 2006, she worked with the Global Justice Center to provide training to Judges and Proscecutors of the Iraq High Tribunal to address issues of gender and regime crimes.

The  March 10 program is being hosted by the Adult Education Committee at CBI, and is co-sponsored by Red Bank Hadassah and chhange (Center for Holocaust, Human Righst and Genocide Education) at Brookdale Community College.

For further information about the synagogue or this program, please contact CBI Director, Emilie Kovit-Meyer at Emilie.kovit-meyer@cbirumson.org or (732)842-1800 x 203.