The Lee Institute will present “From Klinghoffer to Ferguson and Beyond – A Community Conversation” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20 at Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church, 9450 Clayton Road. Journalist and Campaign Director of St. Louis Public Radio Robert Duffy will moderate the panel discussion featuring Batya Abramson-Goldstein, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC); Reverend Traci D. Blackmon, Pastor at Christ the King U.C.C. in Florissant; Rev. Dr. David Greenhaw, President of Eden Theological Seminary; Dr. Ghazala Hayat, Past President of the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis and Professor and Director of Neurophysiology and Neuromuscular Services at St. Louis University School of Medicine; and Timothy O’Leary, General Director of Opera Theatre of St. Louis. 

The 45-minute presentation will be followed by a question and answer discussion and a reception.

John Adams’ opera “The Death of Klinghoffer” is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers’ murder of wheelchair-bound Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. Before the 2011 St. Louis performances, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the JCRC’s Michael and Barbara Newmark Institute for Human Relations and others developed programs to engage the community in respectful dialogue centered on the controversial opera. 

The partnership led to the creation of the Sept. 11 Interfaith Commemoration in Music and the development of Arts & Faith St. Louis, which sponsors the annual concert and its Community Programming Initiative, which develops programming throughout the year.

“The City of Ferguson and the community of St. Louis search for peace from the brokenness and violence instigated by the shooting death of Michael Brown in August of 2014,” notes a news release from event organizers. “Now the hard work of creating systematic change begins.”

For more information on the event, call 314-993-4771 ext. 3111 or visit leeinstitute.net.