Message From The Executive Director
Dear Friends, 

On behalf of all of us at the Ikeda Center, I want to express our sincere appreciation for your support in this unprecedented year of 2020. What a year it has been! I hope that despite the many challenges we faced this year, you are able to enjoy this holiday season in good health and high spirits. 

Our thoughts are with all those whose lives have been or continue to be affected by COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, we too were forced to pause all in-person activities at the Center. At the same time, we recognized that now more than ever people are yearning for spaces to stay connected, to reflect, and to create hope amidst the most difficult circumstances. For these reasons, we quickly shifted gears and moved our programs online. Throughout the year, we hosted four virtual events and also held our first-ever Ikeda Forum webinar. It was such a joy to see many familiar and new faces at these virtual gatherings, and from all around the world! In addition, we welcomed three new fellows to our Education Fellows Program. We are truly grateful for your support and participation in our programs during this time. 

In this holiday newsletter, you will find highlights from the year including write-ups on our virtual events and our forthcoming book, an update on our Education Fellows program, interviews with scholar friends of the Center, a special holiday video from our staff members, and more. 

As we look ahead to 2021, encouraged by our founder Daisaku Ikeda’s conviction that “hope is a decision,” we are determined to continue creating cultures of peace together with you, our treasured friends, one dialogue at a time, one heart-to-heart bond after another.  

My warmest regards,
Ginny Benson 

Event Updates: Ikeda Forum,
Dialogue Nights, and Virtual Dialogues
Our First Ikeda Forum Webinar
On Thursday, December 10th, we held our 16th Annual Ikeda Forum, "Value Creation: Our Unlimited Power To Face Overwhelming Challenges," via webinar! A total of 318 participants joined from 27 countries! The event featured an icebreaker, an activity to create our own value creation statements, and a powerful intergenerational discussion with five amazing panelists: Dr. Anita Patterson of Boston University, Dr. Jason Goulah of DePaul University, Anna Lane, William Moody, and Vivian Suhanosky. 

Please stay tuned for an in-depth article on the event. In the meantime, enjoy some photos on our Facebook page!
Dialogue Nights
In January, we kicked off the year with our Dialogue Nights series! Titled, "We Can Do It! Challenging Fear With Courage," more than forty-five Boston-area students and young professionals gathered to discuss the topic. A quote from Mr. Ikeda that inspired the event reads, “the future of humankind depends on young people who have the courage to confront reality, never submitting before adversity.”

Click here to read more about the event.
Virtual Dialogues
With the cancellation of all in-person events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ikeda Center hosted 4 virtual dialogues this year. The virtual platform has allowed us to connect with participants from all over the world and to continue engaging in heart-to-heart dialogues during this challenging and uncertain time. Full recaps of each event are available here on our website.
Website: Browse Our Resources
Interview with Bernice Lerner

To celebrate the publication of her new book, All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020), author and friend of the Ikeda Center Bernice Lerner joined our publications associate, Mitch Bogen, for an in-depth interview. Check out the full interview on our website!

Dialogue and True Words of the Heart

In a new essay, Mitch Bogen dives into Center Founder Daisaku Ikeda's ideas on the purposes of dialogue, with a special focus on its ability to engage the heart. Drawing largely upon our Dialogue Path Press titles, the essay offers inspiring insights on how we can engage with one another more truthfully, more compassionately, and more deeply. Click here to enjoy the article!

Education Fellows Program: New Fellows
Established in 2007, the Education Fellows Program aims to advance research and scholarship on the internationally growing field of Ikeda/Soka studies in education. Each two year cycle, the program supports doctoral dissertations in the field of Ikeda/Soka studies in education, including its relation to the philosophy and practice of education more generally. This year, our 2018-2020 fellows completed their time in the program and we welcomed 3 new fellows! To learn more about the program, please visit our website.

Hope & Joy in Education!
We are thrilled to announce that our newest book, called Hope and Joy in Education: Engaging Daisaku Ikeda across Context and Curriculum, will be be published this spring by Teachers College Press! Edited by Isabel Nuñez and Jason Goulah, this volume features nearly twenty scholars placing their own educational philosophy and practice into dialogue with Ikeda's conception of value-creating, human education. In advance praise for the book, Ming Fang He of Georgia Southern University calls Hope and Joy an "exhilarating volume" that will help to "heal the soul of humanity." Denise Taliaferro Baszile of Miami University says it is "just what we need in these times of turbulent transitions and great uncertainty."

Holiday Video
Please stay healthy and safe this holiday season!
Click the ▶️ play button above for a special message from the Center!
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