The Climate of the Community is the Responsibility of the Citizens of the Community
UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENT
The Concord Interfaith Coalition will hold a gathering on
January 11th from 4-5pm at Holy Family Parish at
St. Bernard Church in Concord Center in the hopes of addressing
growing divisiveness, bigotry and religious intolerance.
The theme is "Loving Our Neighbor, Welcoming the Stranger".
There will be music and refreshments.
2026 MLK, Jr. Day of Service
To honor Dr. King's legacy of service to community, the CCHRC is sponsoring a food drive at Crosby’s Market on Monday, January 19th from 12-4pm.
All donations of non-perishable food will be donated
to the Open Table food pantry which offers fresh
market groceries and prepared meals at their
main facility in Maynard.
Please stop by to make a donation to help combat food insecurity in Massachusetts.
Human Rights Tea and Climate For Freedom Award
On November 23rd, the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council hosted our annual Human Rights Tea in the Goodwin Forum in the Main Library.
This year we presented the 2025 Climate For Freedom Award
to Second Chance Cars, a Concord based nonprofit that provides affordable used cars to working people in need.
Second Chance Cars works closely with some of the best social
services agencies that select “car-ready” candidates, and partners
with vocational schools that refurbish donated cars professionally and affordably. Vehicles are carefully matched to suit the needs of each vetted applicant, ensuring they have a safe, reliable, and
economical means of transportation.
As everyone enjoyed tea and scones, Dan Holin, the founder of Second Chance Cars, gave an inspiring presentation about the nonprofit and shared stories about how it has helped so many people.
This event was free and open to the public.
The Goodwin Forum CCHRC Co-Chair Court Booth, SCC founder, Dan Holin and CCHRC Co-Chair Rich Yamartino
CCHRC Co-Chair Letter to the Editors of
The Concord Bridge and The Carlisle Mosquito
October 2025
Dear Editor,
In 1978 there was a racially-motivated fight at Concord-Carlisle High School. Feeling unsafe, 36 Black students then withdrew from CCHS. In a community-wide response, a powerful question was posed by Concord resident Dr. Charles Willie: if the town could form a committee to safely fire a cannon on Patriots Day, could it also form one to ensure the safety of students of different races attending school together? This pivotal moment led to the creation of the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council (CCHRC).
Today, we face a similar challenge. Recent, serious claims of antisemitism in our schools sadly highlight that some members of our community, particularly our Jewish friends and neighbors, do not always feel safe and welcome. A truly welcoming community must be a safe community, and these most recent charges demand our immediate attention and a collective response. We commend our Select Board for their prompt actions to date, which have given hope and a voice to those who have experienced pain.
The CCHRC was formed precisely to address such moments of hate and harm and to ensure they do not happen in the future. Sadly, we believe that we must again acknowledge conditions that require our commitment and action. We must transform our small groups of concerned citizens into a large chorus, acting together to overcome bias and injustice. We call upon our elected leaders, social justice organizations, faith groups, and all citizens of good will to join in a collective effort to create a truly welcoming and safe community for all. Anti-bias work is everyone’s work. Please watch for upcoming opportunities to contribute.
Court Booth & Rich Yamartino
Co-Chairs, Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council
Active Bystander Training
The Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council received a grant from
the Bud Ackerman Fund to provide Active Bystander training
for the community. The timing was quite fortunate and necessary.
Four sessions were held over the summer and early fall of 2025.
We change our community one day at a time, doing the right thing at the
right time to overcome hate and to promote human rights. Anti-Semitism, racism and many other forms of bias require each of us to take a stand.
We hope that these training sessions have helped to make a difference.
Sponsord by the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council
Funded by the Bud Ackerman Fund
Conducted by Quabbin Mediation
Race Amity Day 2025
August 24th at The Robbins House
A celebration of cross-racial friendship, collaboration, and understanding.
This day highlights the importance of recognizing the fundamental oneness of humanity beyond superficial differences, reinforcing genuine connection to
foster unity and a more inclusive community.
Celebrating Concord 250
A beautiful day of unity and action as the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council and community partners marched for a welcoming community in the 250th anniversary Patriots Day Parade. The banner and marching team were organized by the Human Rights Council and sponsored by the Concord DEI Commission
Holocaust Remembrance 2025
The Town of Concord’s Annual Holocaust Remembrance, co-sponsored by the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council, was held Sunday, May 4 at 7:00 PM at the Concord Town House. The event was also recorded by Minuteman Media Network. To view the recording, use the link below to go to Minuteman Media Network's YouTube channel.
A beautiful day of unity and action as the Concord Carlisle Human Rights Council and community partners marched for a welcoming community in the 250th anniversary Patriots Day Parade.The banner and marching team were sponsored by the Concord DEI Commission.
Concord Holocaust Memorial Remembrance - May 4, 2025
We were honored to have Janet Singer Applefield as our speaker this year. Her new memoir,
Becoming Janet: Finding Myself in the Holocaust, is an account of her survival of the Nazi occupation
as a 4-year old, separated from her parents. Over the past 40 years, she has presented her story at hundreds of venues including the Massachusetts State House, Harvard University,
Westminster Synagogue in London, and countless schools
through her work with Facing History and Ourselves.
MLK, Jr. Day of Service, 2025
To honor Dr. King's legacy of service to community, the CCHRC sponsored our annual food drive at Crosby’s Market on Monday, January 20th to benefit The Open Table food pantry.
All donations asked for were from Open Table’s “most wanted list” of non-perishable food and personal care and household cleaning items. Open Table food pantry offers groceries and prepared meals at their main facility in Maynard.
People were so generous when asked to contribute with many donating both food, supplies and money to the Open Table.
We collected and donated over 700 pounds!
The CCHRC would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped with the drive.
And a special thanks to Crosby’s Market for their continued support of the Open Table.
Human Rights Tea
On Sunday, November 24th we held our annual Human Rights Tea in The Goodwin Forum of the Concord Main Library.
Concord public historian Richard Smith told the story of Thoreau's civil disobedience and the Reform movements of the 19th Century that made Concord a hotbed for human rights activism.
Thank you to Richard and everyone who was able to come.
We had a great turnout and a great discussion...
and delicious tea and scones!
Click on the button below to see Minuteman Media Network's recording of the tea.
Photos: Concord Historian, Richard Smith and CCHRC Co-Chair, Rich Yamartino
RECENT EVENTS AND NEWS:
Race Amity Day
On Saturday, June 8th, the CCHRC was a co-sponsor of Race Amity Day celebrations - held this year at the Alcott School.
Race Amity, the friendships and collaboration between people of different races and cultures, has been observed annually in Concord since 2016 when Governor Baker proclaimed the second Sunday in June as “Race Amity Day” and “urged all citizens and towns of the commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance.”
The Concord Select Board has also supported the event each year by reading their own proclamation for Race Amity.
Photos: The Concord Bookshop window and the Alcott School celebrations.
Holocaust Remembrance 2024
Our Annual Holocaust Remembrance, co-sponsored by the
Town of Concord, was held on Sunday, May 5th at 7:00 PM at the Concord Town House.
This year we were honored to welcome Werner Salinger as our speaker. Born in Berlin, Salinger and his family witnessed “Kristallnacht,” and survived the Holocaust after they fled Germany in 1939. His family eventually settled in Princeton, New Jersey. Salinger has had a long and varied career, working as an Intelligence Officer in the United States Air Force during the Cold War from 1951-1960 interrogating returning German POWs, and later as the Executive Director of the Concord-based Greeley Foundation for Peace and Justice. He has lectured around the world on topics as varied as globalization and deep sea sailing.
Kerem Shalom Cantor Rosalie Gerut, a child of Holocaust survivors, ended the evening of remembrance speaking about her work with “One by One” an organization dedicated to transforming the legacies of conflict, war and genocide through dialogue. Rosalie shared a song inspired by this work.
The Remembrance was livestreamed to the Minuteman Media Network YouTube Channel and TV Channel 8, which is Concord's
public programming channel. To access a tape of the livestream you can use the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/live/2-Ix8cQjI4A?si=1MwfMzf4J5IejtXa
MLK, Jr. Celebration and
Day of Service
We held our annual MLK, Jr. Day of Service to collect food and personal care items for Open Table at Crosby's Marketplace in Concord.
As always, Crosby's customers were very generous with their donations and we ended up collecting 650 pounds of food and personal care items for Open Table.
Thank You To:
~Everyone who donated at Crosby’s Marketplace.
~Open Table for all the work they do to end hunger in our community.
~Crosby’s Marketplace for their continuing support of community organizations.
Liz Morrison, Rob Morrison and Ronni Olitsky of the CCHRC.
Human Rights Tea and
Climate For Freedom Award
UNITED NATIONS
HUMAN RIGHTS
Dignity in Asylum receives Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council's Climate For Freedom Award
The Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council held our annual Human Rights Tea on Sunday, December 10th in the Goodwin Forum of the main library to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We also presented our Climate for Freedom Award to Dignity in Asylum (DIAS) for their work helping people seeking asylum. Apart from a room for each supported asylum seeker, DIAS also provides daily meals, transportation to lawyers’ and doctors’ appointments, language classes and overall direct, caring and comforting support.
We can all make an impact in the greater world by focusing our efforts on what we can do in our communities and the CCHRC is privileged to present DIAS with this award, and to highlight the vitally important work that they do every day.
Shari Barzun of the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council, Andrea Woehler of Dignity in Asylum and Richard Yamartino of the Concord-Carlisle Human Rights Council.
Emergency Shelter for Families Experiencing Homelessness
Families have arrived for medium and long-term stays at the Emergency Shelter at the former Best Western on Elm Street in Concord. If you are looking for ways to help, please click on the button below to go to The Concord-Carlisle Community Chest website where there is updated information on how you can help.
Who Are We?
We are an organization of volunteers working together to foster respect, understanding, good will, and conciliation among individuals and groups in the community. It is dedicated to the belief that all people are entitled to dignity and respect.
Get Involved
Attend our events, volunteer to help out, sign up for our newsletter and donate to our efforts!
