Spotlight on CLAL

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CLAL Helps To Create New Vision For Downtown New York

By Judy Epstein, Director of Public Affairs

In response to the September 11th tragedy, CLAL has joined with more than 50 business, cultural, religious and community organizations in metropolitan New York to help create a vision for the re-development of lower Manhattan.  The project, entitled IMAGINE NY and conceived by the Municipal Arts Society (MAS), grew out of the belief that any decisions about the remembrance and renewal of the World Trade Center site and the future of the area must include the needs and voices of all who have been affected by the disaster. 

To reach this goal, MAS has arranged for a series of workshops to take place throughout the region from early to mid-April.  Facilitated by trained volunteer instructors, the program will ask participants to share their thoughts and visions for rebuilding New York.  Hundreds of workshops, scheduled to be held throughout the city, will address questions such as how people were affected by 9/11, what has been lost and what has changed, how the tragedy should be memorialized and what next steps should be taken. 

“Out of the nightmare, we have the opportunity to imagine the city differently and see the human side,” said Dr. Shari Cohen, Director of CLAL’s Jewish Public Forum and a facilitator for IMAGINE NY. “Our connections to our neighborhoods and communities have intensified, enabling new kinds of civic conversations to emerge.” 

She continued, “IMAGINE NY is an example of just the kind of future oriented conversation, among people with multiple perspectives and types of expertise, that CLAL has, in a smaller way, been trying to foster.  Over the last two years, CLAL has convened a series of interdisciplinary conversations about the American Jewish future, looking at the impact of technology, new ties to community, and the role of religion and spirituality.  These conversations have begun to create new paradigms.”   

Upon completion of the workshops, the staff of the MAS will collect and categorize the ideas and present a summary report to decision makers, the media and the general public.  Representatives from the various workshops will be invited back to a major “town hall” meeting in late spring for further discussion on the ideas generated at each workshop. 

“After 9/11, it was hard for me to find a way to contribute,” said Dr. Cohen.  “I was neither a medical doctor nor a clergy member.  But being involved in this project, I finally can participate in a meaningful way.  Ironically, it also happens to parallel my work at CLAL.”     

For more information on IMAGINE NY, or to register for a workshop, phone 212-750-3972, or check their Web site at www.imaginenewyork.org. The workshops are free and open to the public. 

 

    



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