At PLENARY SESSION X - EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE, Sol Gordon of Israel discussed "What's missing in today's Education". Paul Kurtz introduced him as one of the most distinguished sex educators in the world and the most in the USA. He has lived in Israel for 10 years.

Sol Gordon began by describing Israel as a predominantly secularist humanist country with some problems that we hope to understand. We are still socialists, he said, but we are rich now. Discussing therapy and depression he said "I don?t encourage people to take psychotherapy, just do mitzvah therapy. Do a good deed for someone else. You don?t need to take guilt trips".

When I encounter somebody who claims to have been alive at the time of Joan of Ark I say to them: "If you were alive at the time of Joan of Ark, how come you can?t speak French now?" If you have been visited by god (or an angel) I ask, "how has this experience made you a better person? If it hasn?t then it wasn?t a good experience." You may believe in the afterlife but there is only one preparation in any religion, do good deeds now. Be kind, be kind ? We can?t respond to all the bad things, international Humanism needs to decide what the priorities shall be.

Love is the most benign subject in the history of mankind. People marry for love but most marriages are usually unsuccessful in the West. Marriages fail because we choose our own partners. We can only blame ourselves. There are two most important kinds of love - mature and immature. It is easy to love god, but to love a single person is the most difficult thing to do. We have to translate into everyday life what it means to be humanist.

Concluding he said his definition of love was to honour the other person. He noted that every time a leader has been assassinated the situation has deteriorated - Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rabin. The majority of Israelis are committed to peace, whatever you might hear.

The CONGRESS RESOLUTIONS were the subject for PLENARY SESSION XI. The congress debated ten resolutions. Six were supported, two rejected, and one (on Iraq), that caused some debate and disagreement, was passed to the General Assembly of the IHEU for amendment.

The Congress concluded with the PLENARY SESSION XII - VALEDICTORY. This session included the valedictory address, and thankyou speeches.