He was president of the Interfaith Agency for Social Justice in 1967 and 1968. Toward God, and Loving What Is Close , Rabbi Baumgard in 1984 was presented with the Leonard Abess Human Relations Award by the Anti-Defamation League. In 1996, he was one of three recipients of the Unity Award from the Theodore Gibson Fund. Rabbi Baumgard is the second speaker in the Howard Thurman Lecture Series for the university's fall term. The veteran civil rights leader and controversial mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry Jr., launched the series Oct. 14.
All lectures are free and the public is invited.
The program is designed to unite scholars and community leaders in hopes of finding solutions to social, religious and ethnic problems. Through the program, Stetson is committed to extending the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, a Daytona Beach native who led the leaders of the American civil rights movement. The third speaker in the series will be Derrick Bell, a nationally-recognized voice on issues of race and class in American society who has spent 40 years as an attorney, activist, educator and author. He will talk on Afrolantica Legacies, the title of his latest book, at 7 p.m. Nov. 5 in the Stetson Room of the Carlton Union Building.