Spotlight on CLAL

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Remembering and Rebuilding: CLAL to Join a Neighborhood Conversation on Healing 

By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs 

Marking the six month anniversary of September 11, the Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold a forum for healing on February 28 at 7:00 p.m.  Guest speakers will include Dr. Shari Cohen, CLAL’s Director of the Jewish Public Forum; Dr. Elizabeth Wilen-Berg, psychotherapist and executive coach; and Samuel Heilman, Professor of Jewish Studies and Sociology at the City University of New York.   The program will look at the psychological, religious and communal aspects of mourning and healing, as well as at what the Jewish tradition teaches us about the grieving process. 

The event, which is free and open to the public, will bring together members of the downtown community – the neighborhood hardest hit by the attacks – for an evening of discussion, connection, and revitalization.   In addition to the presentations, the audience will be encouraged to join in the panelists’ exploration of the healing process.  A candle-lighting ceremony will begin the evening. 

“How do we build upon the rubble of a national crisis?” asks Dr. Cohen, who is also the author of Politics without a Past: The Absence of History in Postcommunist Nationalism, a book that deals with memory and denial in post-communist countries.  “Since 9/11, we have seen a great outpouring of caring, volunteerism and communal growth.  But as the trauma subsides, will our sense of openness and compassion dwindle also?  Can we build on the positive outcomes of the tragedy to create a more humane future, or will the benefits be merely temporal?” 

In November, through the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL, Dr. Cohen led a seminar – called “What Is Religion For?” -- with a multi-faith group of a dozen leading thinkers and religious leaders.  Seminar participants explored the role of religion in a time of crisis.  They focused on how the religions and spiritual traditions could make a contribution to the moral and ethical issues raised by 9/11.  

“The experience of this contemporary encounter with a terrible, destructive impulse has probably made people better able to understand the horror of the Holocaust,” said Dr. Cohen.  “For many younger people, 9/11 was their first real experience with such devastation.  It could be that the nightmare has enabled Jews concerned with teaching about the Holocaust to the next generation to do so more effectively.  And for younger people, it has opened up a level of empathy for the past generation, as well as for others in the contemporary world who are experiencing major societal traumas.” 

The February 28 program is part of a series of events sponsored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, whose mission is to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the 20th century Jewish experience before, during, and after the Holocaust. 

 

    



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