Young Montclair Upstanders To Be Celebrated At Library Holiday Event

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of a Patch Montclair community member. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

The Montclair Public Library will honor student upstanders at The Courage to Care on Sunday, Dec. 21 at 3 p.m. The program, inspired by Janice Cohn’s book The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate, celebrates the themes of courage, community, and the importance of being an Upstander citizen.

Register online here.

Upstanders take a stand in the face of injustices large and small. Teachers and administrators of the local schools and representatives from local houses of worship were invited to share the stories of the Upstander students who are being recognized today for their inspiring actions.

Additional resources designed for parents and teachers can be found on the book’s website: https://www.thechristmasmenorahs.com/

Upstanders include children and adolescents who have stood up to bullying or hate, offered a helping hand, or spread kindness and compassion in their interactions with others. Being an Upstander comes in many shapes and forms, and we’re excited to see the different ways that the actions of those being recognized today can ripple through the Montclair community. The event will include a reading from the picture book, The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate by Montclair resident Dr. Janice Cohn. It tells the true story of the 1993 holiday season in Billings, Montana when the town courageously came together to take a stand against hate and bigotry, displaying the true meaning of the holidays: loving our neighbors as ourselves.

An excerpt from Not In Our Town, the award-winning documentary about the 1993 events in Billings, Montana, will be screened, introduced virtually by Patrice O'Neill, the well-known filmmaker who went on to film a series of documentaries about communities coming together to grapple with acts of hate and bigotry.

Certificates honoring the student Upstanders will be presented by longtime and now retired Montclair public school teacher Daniel Gill, whose moving children’s book about allyship, No More Chairs, was published this past September.

We look forward to seeing you at the event!

About Janice Cohn

Dr. Janice Cohn is a psychotherapist who specializes in helping adults and children cope with grief, loss, and life transitions. Her noted book, Raising Compassionate, Courageous Children In A Violent World (Longstreet Press) and her former newspaper column for The Washington Times, Instilling Compassion, focused on the importance of raising compassionate and morally courageous children. Janice Cohn’s most recent children’s book, published this year, is Freedom Pancakes For Ukraine.

About the Montclair Public Library

Founded in 1893, the Montclair Public Library serves the residents of Montclair, New Jersey. It has two facilities: the Main Library at 50 S. Fullerton Avenue and the Bellevue Avenue Branch at 185 Bellevue Avenue. The Library has been changing lives every day for over 130 years through words, ideas, and community building by providing unlimited opportunities for lifelong learning, discovery, and community engagement. Visit montclairlibrary.org for more information.

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