“A Community’s Response to Hate” presentation by Pastor Rommereim and Rabbi Allen Secher of Whitefish

Former Pastor David Rommereim will introduce Rabbi Allen Secher for a rescheduled presentation at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Sunday, May 19 at 10:15. The topic is “A Community’s Response to Hate” and was originally scheduled in March but had to be cancelled due to extreme weather conditions. We hope that members of the community will join us and open a dialogue for countering hate in our community. Good Shepherd Church is located at 409 4th Ave. E. in Polson.
Below is a biography for Rabbi Secher:
In response to activities of a Montana neo-Nazi group, Rabbi Allen Secher and his wife, Ina Albert, were instrumental in the founding of a Human Rights organization, “Love Lives Here” in 2008. Recently, in Whitefish Montana, as a result of vitriolic anti -Semitism expressed through the efforts of Richard Spencer and The Daily Stormer, Ina and Allen have been the targets of world wide hate expressions. The cyber attack on the Whitefish Jewish community was the first of its kind on Jews in the United States. Allen Secher is a rabbi whose dossier includes portfolios as a radio and television producer, a professional actor, an author, an administrator with experience developing and managing television stations, an executive producer of seven Emmy-awarding winning programs, an on-air radio and television talent, a lecturer on American films, and a Freedom rider— his career covers a broad spectrum of life experiences. Rabbi Secher was the first rabbi installed in Flathead County, Montana to serve Bet Harim Jewish Congregation of the Flathead Valley Montana in August, 2008. Secher served pulpits in Chicago, Los Angeles Mexico City, New York and Bozeman, MT
In January 2005, Rabbi Secher was appointed Commissioner on the Montana State Human Rights Commission by Governor Brian Schweitzer. He served on the Ethics Committee of North Valley Hospital in Whitefish, MT., and was a director on the board of The Whitefish Theatre Company.
During his Chicago years, he was also active in the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Because of his broad involvement in interfaith issues, Newsweek Magazine included him in an article about prominent nationwide interfaith leaders.
Civil Rights Freedom Rider Rabbi Secher’s activism in social justice began with the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s he was one of the early Freedom Riders and was subsequently jailed in Albany,GA and St. Augustine,FL. His social justice activity continues still as he was one of the founders of Love Lives Here, an active human rights organization in the Flathead