AVENTURA, FL, November 13, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- John Madison Stembridge has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
During his lifetime, Mr. Stembridge has been a civic, business, political and humanitarian leader whose influence has impacted the world for the benefit of hurting people. He served as Mayor of North Miami, Fl. which was the film and recording capital of the southeastern United States. He worked tirelessly with then Mayor, Dr. Elton Gissandanner and the City of North Miami to save the defaulted Interama Tract of 2000 pristine acres on beautiful Biscayne Bay for PUBLIC USE. On that tract today is Florida International University with nearly 10,000 students from here and nations around the world receiving quality higher educations. Danny Dannon, Israel's recent Ambassador to the United Nations is one of its prestigious graduates. Also, on that tract today is the Oleta State Park which is Florida's second most visited park in the state.
While Mayor he served as the Vice Chairman of the United States Conference of Mayors Bi-Centennial Committee and was a keynote speaker for Charlestown, South Carolina's 300th Anniversary Celebration. As Mayor he developed the city's largest tract of land. Claude Pepper Park, and at the same time redeveloped every other major and minor park including every tot lot. Each with major capital improvements for the health, benefit, and enjoyment of all its families. He served on the Board of the Florida Furniture Dealers Association. His business Stembridge Furniture was awarded the Business of the Year Award by the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce in 2003. He was elected Governor of Civitan International's Florida Tropical District whose worldwide mission is to build good citizenship and to help people with developmental challenges. Civitan gave the initial one million dollars that started the Special Olympics for the developmentally challenged. Mr. Stembridge was awarded Civitan's Shropeshire Foundation Award, its highest honor.
In 1963, he made his first visit to Israel, the Soviet Union, plus eleven other European and Middle Eastern Countries. While in Russia, he saw firsthand that it was an atheistic military dictatorship and not the communist nation it tried to masquerade itself to the world. Synagogues and churches were turned into museums for atheism. Jews were put into prison simply for teaching Hebrew or faith in God to their children. Christians and other religions were treated the same. In 1985, Mr. Stembridge spent 10 days and nights lobbying Pope John Paul II, Cardinals Oddi and Bonicelli, the Pope's Secretary plus many others. But Mr. Stembridge with his left arm around the Pope's waist and speaking into his right ear with deep passion urged Pope John Paul II to use his influence with world leaders and the Kremlin to help free the three million Refuseniks so that they could be free to immigrate to the Promised Land as prophesied in the Scriptures. He was the perfect leader to do this since he was from Poland and had been arrested under that evil system and he was the head of a billion people. He did exactly as Mr. Stembridge urged him. Afterwards he became the first Pope to speak in a Jewish Synagogue in Rome where he called our Jewish people our elder brothers and sisters. Two years later in 1987 he came to Miami, Mr. Stembridge's home, where he met with the leaders of all the Jewish organizations in the United States. Four years later in 1989 the Kremlin fell. Its fall freed one million Refuseniks to emigrate to Israel.
Stembridge also lobbied President Ronald Reagan the same year through his White House advisor on Jewish matters. He urged President Reagan to join with the Pope so that together they could wield their combined influence to lobby world leaders and the Kremlin to free the three million Refuseniks to immigrate to Israel. He also did so.
John's longtime friends Congressman Claude Pepper, Chairman of the House Rules Committee and Congressman Dante Fascell, Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee personally got involved helping Mr. Stembridge make the arrangements for his "Miracle Mission of Mercy to Moscow for the Liberation of the 3 Million Refuseniks in the Soviet Union." This mission took place in December of 1985 when he put together a team of 26 to go into the Soviet Union to meet personally with Refuseniks to encourage them and to lobby their atheistic government for their freedom to immigrate to Israel.
Time Magazine featured Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan on its cover entitled "The Holy Conspiracy." How they conspired with Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement of Poland that brought down the atheistic dictatorship of the Soviet Union. Its fall permitted one million of the Refuseniks to make Aliyah to Israel. Russia's brain drain was Israel's brain gain. This was one of the biggest miracles in history, and it was accomplished without plagues, holocaust or nuclear war.
In 1993 Mr. Stembridge traveled to the Phanar in Istanbul, Turkey where he spent an hour with Patriarch Bartholomew head of the nearly 400 million Russian, Greek, Eastern Orthodox Church. The time was spent lobbying Patriarch Bartholomew to urge his people to do more to aid and assist all of our Jewish people desiring to make Aliyah to the Promised Land to do so in fulfillment of God's promise to gather His people from all the nations. Also, asking him to encourage his people and their nations to do more trade with Israel to help it build its infrastructure that it desperately needs to provide for all making Aliyah.
Stembridge, after visiting Yad Vashem the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem in 1963, bonded with Holocaust Survivors. He has taken Max Wein and Ann Rosenheck, two incredibly special and prominent survivors around the country telling their miraculous stories of survival to thousands. He was a member of the David Ben Gurion and Habonim Survivor organizations and supported their causes. He served several years on the Board of the Holocaust Memorial of Miami Beach. He has been a supporter of the Florida Friends of the Israel Defense Forces for nearly 40 years Co-founded by his friend Miriam Jacobi and Americans for a Safe Israel founded by his late dear friend Shmuel Katz.
Stembridge has traveled, sometimes leading groups, to more than 100 nations and islands and spoken to thousands on five continents. From Moscow, London, Paris, Oslo, Berlin, Rome, Beirut, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bang Kok, Singapore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Montevideo, Rio, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Anchorage, Toronto, Washington D. C. plus many others.
When riots hit Miami in 1980, he brought blacks, Hispanic, and white religious leaders and citizens together at a county wide prayer breakfast to pray for the healing of a hurting city. It included Rabbi Loren Frank representing the Jewish community, Monsignor Walsh of the Catholic Diocese, Rev Winston Rudolph the black community, Rev. Hernando Cruz representing the Hispanic plus many from other racial and religious communities. The love and peace manifested was carried on the national news networks. Former Metropolitan Opera star Ronnie Avalon saw it and called to congratulate Mr. Stembridge for putting this event together. He said the nation could see the love and unity of your group that was in direct contrast to the anger and destruction going on outside. That event helped to heal a hurting city.
Later in 1980 he led a major relief effort that raised enough funds to buy tons of beans and rice, plus collected tons of clothing, shoes, crutches, wheelchairs, etc. for the victims of Hurricane David that devastated the back side of Haiti. Michele, Prime Minister Baby Doc's wife, allowed Air Haiti to fly these down and allowed Stembridge's group to take them out of customs on trucks the next day and distribute everything immediately to those in desperate need instead of being held up sometimes for weeks or longer in customs.
In 1981 Mr. Stembridge spent 10 days in South Africa speaking to business, civic, and religious organizations from Durban, to Johannesburg to Cape Town challenging them to open their doors to its black citizens in order to bring an end to Apartheid and thereby begin to give everyone an equal opportunity to a quality educational and economic opportunity. One of the groups was one of the first to do so. This was done while Nelson Mandela was still in prison. In 1983. Mr. Stembridge received the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brotherhood Award.
In 1983 he was brought to an Indian mountain community in Guatemala where guerrillas had slaughtered many, destroyed most of their homes, their Church, leaving 80 widows plus many more orphans. Mr. Stembridge was so moved by the raw hurt these were suffering that he spent the next year traveling and speaking around the country to raise the money to have a new concrete church built for them with a generator for their evening services.
In 1989 when his friend Congressman Claude Pepper died Mr. Stembridge ran for his seat. That seat had turned Hispanic and it was won by Cuban American, Iliana Ros Lehtenen. However, Mr. Stembridge spoke often throughout the election espousing his position that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel and that he would always fight for Israel's right to defend itself and to dwell within safe and secure borders. When his friend esteemed Rabbi Irving Lehrman read his position papers he said "I could not have written them better if I had written them myself." To Ms Lehtenen's credit she became one of Israel's strongest advocates in the House of Representatives and even chaired the Foreign Relations Committee.
In 1993, Mr. Stembridge wrote a Global Bill of Rights with the primary aim of bringing the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam together as one people and one family. All three claim descendance from Abraham. If that is so, and all are from the same father why should they be trying to kill or destroy one another? In 1996 his Global Bill of Rights allowed him to dialog in Jakarta, Indonesia with Gus Dur {Wahid Abdurrahman} head of the NU 40 million member largest Muslim organization in the world. Stembridge spoke to him about having a trilogy dialog between the three faiths. He liked the idea and wanted to host the first one in Jakarta with Stembridge bringing the Jewish and Christian delegates and he would bring the Muslim. However, he said that then Prime Minister Suharto would not allow him to do so. Suharto was put out of office shortly afterwards. Then Gus Dur became the Prime Minister. Once becoming Prime Minister his daughters would tell Mr. Stembridge that he was busy putting his government together. Communication was cut off. Some advised Mr. Stembridge that the hardliners had gotten to him.
In 2000, Mr. Stembridge dialoged with two of the top Ayatollahs of Iran. in July with Ayatollah Tashkiri head of the Iranian Cultural, Educational, and Religious Commission along with five others from the Iranian Embassy in attendance with him. The meeting was in the Alfred dining Room of the Laurent Hotel in Ottawa Canada. After a three hour lunch and dialog going over all the points of the Global Bill of Rights Mr. Tashkiri said to Mr. Stembridge that "God should open the door to all the leaders of the world to you." The next month, Mr. Stembridge had an invitation to attend the United Nations Millennium Summit of World Leaders for its Dialog Among Civilizations where the leaders of 170 nations attended.
That evening another meeting was arranged for Mr. Stembridge to dialog with Ayatollah Javadi Amoli held in the Iranian Ambassador's residence on Fifth Ave. facing Central Park. This dialog between Ayatollah Amoli and Mr. Stembridge took place in the presence of the Iranian Ambassador to the UN, the leaders of the Iranian Interest Section in Washington D. C. and several other special guests invited by the Ambassador. The dialog lasted a couple hours with Mr. Stembridge always urgently presenting the need for these three groups to come together as one people and as one family to avoid a nuclear, chemical, or biological holocaust. These two dialogs in Ottowa and New York City took place one year before 9/11 when 16 of the terrorists from Saudi Arabia destroyed the world trade center. Although these dialogs were to help lead to Mr. Stembridge obtaining a Visa to come to Tehran to arrange these trilogies amongst the three religions. Sadly, although promised, the visa was never issued.
In 2002 with the aid of the State Department Mr. Stembridge traveled to the Pacific Rim nations of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore to lobby their governments and industries to buy and trade more with Israel or possibly open branches of their factories in Israel to help it provide the jobs and infrastructure needed to assimilate the one million from the former Soviet Union plus the millions more yet predicted to come. After formal introductions from representatives from our embassies, Mr. Stembridge led off with: "If it had not been for our Air Force, Navy, and Military that kept the Gulf open to your oil tankers during the Gulf War to bring the oil to your factories your factories would have been closed, your people unemployed, your stock markets collapsed. The day is over now that you can sit here in the Pacific Rim and let the over burdened overtaxed American tax payers pay for your economic wellbeing. Now that our world's Jewish people are coming home from the nations of their dispersion no nation will have peace or economic stability until Israel has peace and economic stability. And that can never happen until Israel's neighbors can welcome them home with open arms as brothers and not as enemies whose blood they want to spill or to drive them into the sea."
At thar time South Korea did not have diplomatic relations with Israel. Shortly after Mr. Stembridge's lobbying their Middle Eastern diplomats, South Korea established diplomatic relations with Israel. Prime Minister Rabin came to Seoul to inaugurate the opening of its new embassy. Stembridge's friends Dr. Billy Kim and Dr. Yongi Paul Cho, both of which Mr. Stembridge lobbied concerning Israel's regathering to the land, were invited to the State dinner with PM Rabin by the President of South Korea. Dr. Kim is head of the Far East Broadcasting Network and former President of the Baptist World Alliance. Dr. Cho is the Pastor of the world's largest congregation of well over one million members. Several years after the Embassy's opening Dr. Kim and Dr. Cho brought 5000 from South Korea to tour Israel. The largest delegation ever.
At the end of Mr. Stembridge's lobbying the Middle Eastern diplomats of Japan, Japan's leader thanked him and said; "We realize today our policies in the Middle East have not been balanced. From today forward we have to deal more fairly with Israel." Today when you visit Tel Aviv you will see that one of its tallest office buildings has the words Toyoto blazing from its top. You can also see that South Korea's Samsung makes its presence equally known throughout the nation as well.
June 23, 2004 Mr. Stembridge chose to become a Jew by completing the three steps of Brit Milah, [circumcision]; the Bet Din, [three judge panel] and the Mikvah, [baptism] led by Rabbi Barry Konovitch, Rabbi Simchah Friedman, and Cantor Isaac Gamliel . For his Mikvah Rabbi Konovitch and Cantor Gamliel took Mr. Stembridge to beautiful Biscayne Bay in Oleta State Park, located in the 2000 pristine acres that he helped save for public use many years previously. He served on the board of the Jewish National Fund several years with Gideon Shavit whose wife previously was secretary to Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In 2005 Mr. Stembridge received the Jewish National Fund Leadership Award. He did the Parshah Toldot for his Bar Mitzvah before 1000 at the Aventura/Turnberry Jewish Center.
Mr. Stembridge is a 1960 graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Bob Jones University where he graduated President of the Senior Class and was a listee in Who's Who Among Graduates of American Universities and Colleges. As a senior at Miami Edison Sr. High School, his senior class of over 600 voted him "Friendliest." He was elected Mayor and then Senator at Florida's Boys State. He won a Superior rating in a state voice competition in Tampa and was offered full scholarships to Stetson and Baylor Universities. He was a recipient of the University of Miami Sigma Alpha Epsilon True Gentleman Award. His university studies in addition to the arts, theology, philosophy, geography, Botany, Zoology, etc. concentrated on speech, drama, and voice. He was in several University Shakespearean plays and Italian operas. He sang the lead role in a musical with the University Orchestra and Chorus at graduation. While Mayor he played the lead role of Atticus in Florida's First Lady of Theater Ruth Forman's production of To Kill a Mockingbird. She invited the Mayors and city leaders of the more than three dozen municipalities as guests along with the media opening night. He also sang in several of her city sponsored musicals. He has hosted the John Stembridge and the World's Oneness Radio Programs and the Inspirational Hour Television Show. He has interviewed top national and international leaders including Senators, Congressmen, Governors, Mayors, Miss Universe Sylvia Hitchcock, Artists, Civic and Religious Leaders.
John Stembridge
http://www.JohnStembridge.com
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 305.343.9790
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