Heschel Vision Award: Jews United for Justice, October 25, 2015

On October 25, 2015, I was honored by Jews United for Justice with a Heschel Vision Award.  Below is what JUFJ wrote about me, and here is the link to the video of my son Mike's presentation to me, and my remarks.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZeDsxNTxDc

And a picture of Mike and me:

MEET THE HONOREES

David Fishback, Advocacy Chair of the Metro DC Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), is a long-time activist who draws from his Jewish roots in advocating for social justice.

For more than a dozen years, David has been a major force in Montgomery County on LGBT issues. In 2002, a few years after their sons came out as gay, David and his wife, Bobbi, established the Temple Emanuel Kulanu Committee for LGBT outreach and inclusion. That same year, the Montgomery County Board of Education appointed David to its Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Development. After being elected chair of that Committee, he led the effort to revise the MCPS health education curriculum to include accurate information on LGBT matters. Over vociferous opposition by right-wing groups, that campaign achieved full victory in 2014.

David has also been a champion for LGBT rights in the state of Maryland, helping create the JUFJ Dream for Equality Coalition to secure victory in the 2012 state referenda on the Dream Act and Civil Marriage Equality, and serving on the Advisory Board of Gender Rights Maryland. David is now active with PFLAG on a national level, presenting workshops at PFLAG’s national conventions and assisting chapters across the country regarding health education curriculum matters. His Curriculum Victory in Montgomery County, Maryland: A Case Study and Handbook for Action was web-published by PFLAG last month.

The product of a Workmen’s Circle family, steeped in principles of social justice in the Jewish tradition, David began organizing social justice programs as an undergraduate at The George Washington University and served as a VISTA Volunteer in Memphis, TN, in 1969-70. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1973 and working on Democratic Party reform issues in 1971 and 1972, he began a 40 year career in federal service, retiring in 2013 from the Department of Justice, where, among other things, he successfully defended the United States against attempts by manufacturers of asbestos products and Agent Orange to shift billions of dollars of their tort liability onto the federal taxpayers.

David has also been a local education advocate since serving as co-president of the Rosemary Hills Primary School PTA from 1984-86, where he led the successful effort to renovate and expand that magnet integration school to keep it viable. In the late 1990s, David organized the successful campaign to save from devastating budget cuts the MCPS magnet and signature programs at Richard Montgomery and Montgomery Blair High Schools and Takoma Park and Eastern Middle Schools.

http://www.jufj.org/heschel2015/meet-honorees

Here I am with my fellow honorees, Nikki Lewis, Barbara Kraft, and Roberta Ritvo: