On March 21, 2013, the Straus Institute hosted "A Conversation about Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Healing: Lessons from South Africa." An audience of three hundred experienced an in-depth discussion about the struggle against apartheid and the subsequent efforts to promote healing and reconciliation in South Africa and elsewhere. Participants in the conversation, which was moderated by Professor Tom Stipanowich, included Father Michael Lapsley, SMM, Founder of the Institute for Healing of Memories; Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, South African Ambassador to the U.S.; John Allen, Desmond Tutu biographer and former Press Officer for the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission; Karen Hayes, an LA-based filmmaker who is producing a documentary entitled The Foolishness of God: My Forgiveness Journey with Desmond Tutu; Michael Henry Wilson and Carole Wilson, documentary filmmakers who produced the award-winning Reconciliation: Mandela's Miracle. Screenings of portions of these films and Professor Stipanowich's taped interviews with Archbishop Tutu and John Allen in Cape Town highlighted the opportunities and challenges for those seeking to promote forgiveness and reconciliation for individuals and communities.

The March 21 event celebrated granting of the Straus Institute's inaugural Peacemaker Award to Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu. A special evening event was the setting for the presentation of the Institute's first Filmmaker Illumination Awards to Michael Henry and Carole Wilson and to Karen Hayes.

The following day, Father Lapsley conducted a one-day facilitated Introductory Workshop for counselors, mediators and others seeking to learn approaches that enable individuals to confront sources of personal alienation, misunderstanding and suffering. Such workshops, conducted in locations around the world, enable people from different ethnic groups, races and religions to reach a better understanding of themselves and each other.

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