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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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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