| SVU |
CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES |
The Czechoslovak Society of
Arts and Sciences (SVU)
announces the establishment of an annual
ANDREW ELIAS SVU HUMAN TOLERANCE AWARD
Beginning with the year of 2001, the first year of the third millennium, the Society will bestow the annual Andrew Elias SVU Human Tolerance Award on an individual whose life and work symbolize the living value of human tolerance. The Award shall be accompanied by a prize of $ 1,000.
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The 2002 SVU Elias Human Tolerance Award Goes to Prof. Tomas Halik
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In its
Resolution adopted at the occasion of the historic 20th World Congress held in Washington
in 2000, the Society reaffirmed its resolve to work "toward enhancing the values of
human tolerance and of freedom of spirit and thought."
With a sensitivity so uncommon in these times, and expressing his deep and long-held
convictions, Dr. Andrew Elias has decided to sponsor , through the Society, an
annual Human Tolerance Award.
In an age marked by animosities and strife among human beings around the globe, the
quest for human tolerance is the fundamental imperative of this day. Without human
tolerance, democracy itself decays, culture is warped, civil society becomes uncivilized.
Human tolerance cannot be decreed. It has no institutions and no structures. It either
lives in men and women as their innermost value guiding their feelings and thoughts and
deeds, or it does not live.
Therein lies the meaning of the Andrew Elias SVU Human Tolerance Award: to keep on
reminding us that human tolerance begins in human beings, and to do so by recognizing and
honoring those whose life and work have been guided by tolerance and compassion.
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Every year,
one Award shall be bestowed.
In keeping with the spirit of the Andrew Elias SVU Human Tolerance Award, no criteria,
such as nationality or SVU membership, shall limit the eligibility of proposed recipients.
Any woman or man whose life and work reflect the ideals of human tolerance and compassion,
may be proposed by any SVU member or a group of members, such as SVU Local Chapters or ad
hoc groups.
The names of the proposed candidates for the Award, accompanied by adequate data and other
relevant information on the life and work of the proposed candidate, should be submitted
to the SVU Secretary-General no later than April 15 of the year for which the Award is to
be given.
All proposals shall be forwarded to the SVU Award Nominations Committee now being formed.
The Committee will evaluate the proposals and nominate one or more candidates. The
Committee's recommendation(s) shall be submitted to the SVU President for the final
decision by the Executive Board. The Committee may nominate two or maximum three
candidates of comparable merit.
For reasons of propriety and decency too obvious to enlarge upon further, the proposals of
candidates must be submitted on a confidential basis. A premature publicity of the name of
the person being proposed for the Award may result in non-acceptance of the proposal.
The Award will be formally presented during the next SVU World Congress or, in the year
between Congresses, at another appropriate occasion. The Award recipient shall be invited
to deliver a lecture following the Award ceremony.
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The 2002 SVU
Elias Human Tolerance Award
Goes to Prof. Tomas Halik
At the
recommendation of the Ad Hoc Nomination Committee, consisting of Dr. Slavomil Hubalek
(Charles Univ.), Dr. Jiri Pehe (New York Univ. in Prague), Dr. Jirina Siklova (Charles
Univ.), and Prof. Zdenek Slouka (Lehigh University), SVU Executive Board named Professor
Tomas Halik as the winner of the 2002 SVU Andrew Elias Human Tolerance Award.
The Committee has been fully acquainted with the life and work of Dr. Tomas Halik, the
candidate proposed from within SVU ranks for the Award. The materials before the Committee
have reinforced their personal knowledge (some of it reaching back over thirty years) of
the candidate as a man of exceptional qualities of humaneness, compassion and tolerance.
Tomas Halik has amply demonstrated these qualities at many levels of endeavor.
In his functions, all of them voluntary, as the President of the Czech Christian Academy,
as a member of the Ecumenical Council established by John Paul II, and a member of the
program committee arranging the international meetings of Forum 2000, convoked by
President Havel and bringing together personalities of many lands, religions and cultures,
Tomas Halik has been consistently one of the strongest voices for tolerance across all
human boundaries. In 1998, Halik spent several weeks with monks in a Buddhist monastery in
Kyoto, Japan, seeking bases for mutual understanding. As a human being, Tomas Halik has
devoted many years to intensive work in anti-alcoholic institutions and with drug addicts
and psychopaths, bringing them relief from their misery.
The award which includes a check for $1,000 was presented to Prof. Halik at the Plenary
session of the SVU World Congress in Plzen, June 20, 2002.
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