Spotlight on CLAL
Welcome to Spotlight on CLAL. Here you will find stories about what is happening at CLAL and about the work that CLAL is doing across North America. Sometimes we will focus on a program, or a special event, or upon a CLAL faculty member's work and interests. Bookmark this page if you want to get to know us better.
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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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