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Power Of The Pledge
December 2024
JLife Magazine, Article by Chip Colandreo
In the spring of 2024, a hot tip hit the news desk at CNN...
It was a season of intense discontent on college campuses across America reflecting an alarming rise in antisemitism after the horrific Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s
response in Gaza. Anti-Israeli protests were fomenting on one campus after another, and rumor had it a big protest was planned in conjunction with spring graduation at the University of Central Florida, home to the nation’s third largest Jewish student body according to Hillel International. CNN wasted no time dispatching a news crew, ready to showcase the latest flare
up in a quickly spreading fire. But when the crew arrived on the UCF campus, they were surprised to see no protest, no angry demonstration fueled by anger and hate. The scene was
remarkably peaceful. Baffled, the crew asked around as to why the rumored protest never materialized, and they kept hearing the same answer. Students said they signed a Pledge not to do it, so they didn’t. That’s the power of the Central Florida Pledge. The Central Florida Pledge isn’t the brand name of a new big-budget nonprofit organization, nor is it a ceremonial document quickly signed and forgotten by those seeking publicity. It is a network of individuals and organizations in Central Florida who watched with horror as the latest explosion of hate consumed the Middle East and who have made this simple, powerful promise to keep that hate from metastasizing in our community.
A Peace Builder
The Central Florida Pledge is the brainchild of Alan Ginsburg who, via the Ginsburg Family Foundation, is one of Central Florida’s most dedicated philanthropists. “After October 7, I saw the immediate hatred in our community, which really surprised me,” says Alan, now 85 years old with more than 60 years of business- and community-building experience in America and Israel. “Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it did. I saw what was happening on campuses. Both Jewish
and Muslim students were afraid. It shouldn’t be like this in our community, so I wanted to do something.” Alan’s philanthropy has given him two special superpowers in the Central Florida community – when he calls, people answer, and when he invites them to Winter Park’s Alfond Inn to decide how our community will unite in the wake of October 7, people show up. One of Alan’s first calls was to his longtime friend, Pastor Joel Hunter.
“He called me because I’m another old guy who’s good at building relationships around town,” laughs Dr. Hunter, 76, the former longtime pastor at Northland Church in Longwood, the spiritual advisor to Barack Obama for eight years during his presidency, and the current Pastor of Community Benefit at Action Church and Chairman of the Central Florida Pledge. Dr. Hunter’s joke both reveals and belies the charming friendship he and Alan have shared for decades despite their very different backgrounds. Alan first met Pastor Joel after hearing about the massive crowds of worshippers he was gathering at Northland. Alan’s curiosity outweighed any self-consciousness he, as a prominent member of the Jewish community, might feel about walking into a megachurch, so he dropped by one Sunday to see the phenomenon in person. The two met afterwards and have been fast friends ever since – embodying the very spirit of the Pledge. “Joel is a remarkable leader who brings people together,” says Alan. “He and I invited about 50 local leaders to the first meeting at the Alfond Inn to see if a community network like this was a good idea. The second meeting had about 100 people – from the Jewish community, the Muslim community, and everywhere – and we gave them each a blank sheet of paper and asked them to craft a statement of unity.” The Central Florida Pledge is the mosaic of their answers.
There’s an App for That
The Central Florida Pledge is both a statement of purpose and a call to action. Signatories include everyone from religious leaders of all faiths and elected officials from both parties to
students and everyday residents representing Jewish and Muslim communities. Not only do they promise to treat others with respect, they pledge to alert all other signatories if embers of hate begin to glow in our community.
Through the 800 number (which you may recognize as Crimeline, 800-423-TIPS), CentralFloridaPledge.com, or the Pledge Central app available on both Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store, participants can instantly alert other signatories if a person or group is targeted in an act of hate. “The goal is not to retaliate or counter-protest,” says Dr. Hunter.
“Instead, we gather around whoever is being attacked to show support and solidarity.”
It’s amazing, Dr. Hunter says, how often that simple act of unity is enough to stamp out the weeds of hate before they can take root – which is just what happened on the UCF campus.
A Brighter Tomorrow
Where does the Central Florida Pledge go from here? Both Alan and Joel hope and expect it will continue to strengthen the Central Florida community, and they hope it can become a national model of unity (several other cities have taken note and reached out). But if the Pledge never grows beyond its hometown, that’s OK, too. It has served its purpose. “We can’t fix what’s happening in the Middle East, and we can’t solve all the world’s problems,” says Joel, “but we can decide what kind of community we want Central Florida to be.” “And we want it to be the safest, most welcoming community in America,” says Alan. “That’s why we’re doing this.”
How It Started
Planting Seeds
Alan Ginsburg has been in the peace-building business for more than 30 years. In 1993, he co-founded the Seeds of Peace leadership-development program with legendary journalist
John Wallach. The annual initiative brings Israeli and Palestinian students to a lakeside retreat in Maine for a powerful session of conflict resolution training and relationship building. Seeds of Peace Board members have included everyone from Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat to Hussein bin Talal, the longtime King of Jordan, and Janet Wallach, John’s widow.
“These kids would come to camp afraid of each other and leave as lifelong friends,” says Alan. “They became seeds of peace in the Middle East.” The program boasts more than 8,000 alumni whose roles as peace-builders are more important now than ever before. The correlations to the Central Florida Pledge are obvious and intentional.
How It’s Going
To Be a Fly on the Wall...
Perhaps the most charming – and potentially most significant –extracurricular activity that has emerged from the Central Florida Pledge is something the general public will likely never see.
It’s a quarterly breakfast hosted by Dr. Joel Hunter that brings together dozens of local religious leaders for a casual discussion about how those in attendance were handling election season within their congregations. The real value in the meetings, though, is the camaraderie. “The Pledge calls on us to come to the aid of those being targeted, and that’s easy to do when the
ones being attacked are your friends,” says Pastor Joel. “The relationships we’re building are invaluable. I really love it.”
In the end, the Central Florida Pledge is all about relationships. Friends stick up session of catching up and talking shop. “After we first gathered at the Alfond Inn, we wanted to keep it going,” says Pastor Joel. “So we kept getting together just to get to know each other better and talk about how we’re each handling different things in our own congregations.” The group includes pastors, priests, rabbis, imams, and many more – even non-believers are welcome.
Sessions tend to focus on the inside-baseball of running religious organizations. October’s meeting, for example, featured a roundtable discussion about how those in attendance were handling election season within their congregations. The real value in the meetings, though, is the camaraderie.
“The Pledge calls on us to come to the aid of those being targeted, and that’s easy to do when the ones being attacked are your friends,” says Pastor Joel. “The relationships we’re building are invaluable. I really love it.” In the end, the Central Florida Pledge is all about relationships. Friends stick up for each other. They don’t denigrate one another. And when a friend needs help, their support network gathers without hesitation. The Pledge takes those principles and puts them in action across every corner of our community.
