Cutler Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center (122 E Culver St) Presenters will provide a quick overview of the state of labor in Arizona, and will connect the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious texts to workplace justice issues and our moral obligations toward workers. This event is hosted in conjunction with the Arizona Interfaith Movement, and is FREE and OPEN to the public.Event Speakers include:
Cristina Sanidad
Cristina,
a California native, currently serves as the
Director of Operations for the Worker
Rights Center,
where she began working as a Jesuit Volunteer in 2008. She received her bachelor
degrees in Sociology and Comparative Ethnic Studies from Santa Clara University,
and a Masters in Social Justice and Human Rights from ASU. Her thesis work documented
the socio-legal climate over the last decade in Maricopa
County and its effects on
the state of labor for immigrant workers, as well as the effects of wage theft
on workers and their communities.
Jose:
Jose is an
immigrant from Honduras and
has lived in the United
States since 1993. He came to the United States
both to escape the violence of the civil war and to seek employment. He has
been a member at the worker rights center since September of this year. He is
estimated to be owed $162,000 in wages over the last two years alone.
Rev. Trina Zelle
Ordained in 1980 by the
Presbyterian Church (USA), Rev. Trina Zelle has served congregations in Connecticut, Minnesota, Hawaii, Texas and Arizona. She also worked
for ten years as a community organizer in partnership with immigrant women
living along the Texas/New Mexico/Mexico border. Together they
established a day care business, a community center, and Cristo Rey Outreach, a
nonprofit organization that continues to provide technical assistance to
grassroots groups along the border. Rev. Trina Zelle founded the Arizona
Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice, and served as its Executive Director
from 2006 through May 2011. She
currently serves the community as a National Organizer for the Presbyterian
Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA), a ministry of Compassion,
Peace, and Justice Ministry, General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC),
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She lives with her clergy spouse (Rev. Philip
Reller, UCC) in Tempe.
They have four grown children.
Rabbi John
Linder
Rabbi
Linder is entering his fourth year
as Senior Rabbi of Temple Solel in Paradise
Valley, Arizona.
Rabbi Linder comes to the Valley from Congregation B'nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim
(BJBE) in Glenview, Illinois.
Through his work, BJBE was honored by the Union for
Reform Judaism with the prestigious Irwin J. Fain Award for excellence in
social justice. Rabbi Linder earned his Master's of Hebrew Letters and was
ordained at the Hebrew Union College -
Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in
2003. A 1980 graduate of Amherst College, Rabbi
Linder became a rabbi at age 46 after earlier careers as labor organizer with
the Hospital and Health Care Workers Union, 1199/AFL-CIO and, later working in
his family's scrap-metal recycling business in Buffalo, New York. Rabbi
Linder and members of Temple Solel have
created a partnership with the First Community Haitian Ministry Church in Mesa, as
well as engaged with the Valley Interfaith Project around the issues of immigration,
workforce training, home foreclosures, education and healthcare. John and
his wife Nancy have a son David who is a sophomore at
ASU’s Barrett Honors College.
Imam Anas
Hlayhel
Imam Hlayhel was born and raised in Lebanon. He came to US after
High School and graduated from the University
of Houston as an
Electrical Engineer. Since then, he has worked in the high-tech industry
such as AMD and Intel. Anas has a great affection for the Islamic
sciences and has had the opportunity to study under a number of Muslim
scholars. Anas has an Ijazah in Hadith (certification to narrate and
teach the tradition of Prophet Muhammad
AS). Anas has been teaching
Islam and delivering Friday sermons for the last 15 years. Anas moved to Phoenix, AZ 7 years ago where, along his full time job as a computer engineer, he serves as
a part-time Imam at the Islamic Center of North East Valley and as the local chapter president of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). He is
married and has 4 children.