9-11

(Picture right: Missing the Towers, taken in SOHO)

This morning I attended a program sponsored by SIPA (Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs) titled "From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: Creative Responses to Conflict." It began with a few speeches by the people who put the program together, and then we broke into small workshops. Each was headed by one of 25 international guests who spoke about their own experiences with terrorism or conflict and their response to promote peace. Israel and Palestine were represented by two women from the Family Forum and the film Encounter Point. It was a film I saw in Jerusalem a few months ago with Kareem and Yohoshua, and really enjoyed. It is a documentary following the Israelis and Palestinians you don't often see on the news; those who have suffered from the conflict and chose to work actively towards peace. Seeds of Peace was featured in the film via my (Emily's really) boss Sami, who as a teenager was put in an Israeli jail and came out with a deep respect for Ghandi and Mandela and created the SOP Center in Jerusalem where he could teach kids to get along while serving chilled red wine. The Family Forum is another such project in which families, Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs as well as Palestinians, who've lost loved ones due to the Middle East violence get together to dialogue with each other. Since I had already seen their presentation I sat in on a discussion lead by Jesus Abril and his daughter Beatriz, who lost Oscar, their son and brother to the March 11th bombings in Spain. Along with them was Juan Gutierrez, another Spaniard, who studies victims of terror ranging from Dresden to Guernica and also serves as a human database through which people affected by terrorism are able to meet. It was a very interesting, and surprisingly low-intensity, discussion that mostly focused on not turning to hate after losing a loved one and separating the victims from politicians who would use their deaths to promote their own agendas. One thing I found interesting was Juan's description of the two types of Reconciliation: hands joining together in work (ethnic groups coming together to rebuild a community) and joining hands in dialogue (like the Family Forum) and his opinion that one shouldn't focus on reaching out to the actual perpetrators of the crimes, but embracing the more general public.

With all that on my mind I joined Brittany and Melissa (also Peace Ed) for lunch at Amir's Lebanese Cafe and then headed off to TC where I printed papers I need to read. The amount can only be described as monumental. HUGE. GINORMOUS. I just don't think I'm starting off this grad school thing on the right foot.

I then got together with Anna for a short dinner at AROMA. Anna is a great friend from this past year in Israel. She's a Hungarian and Israeli citizen who now is enjoying her visa in America to work in a Kosher butchers in Brooklyn and date a goy in Ohio. She's also a Kommunist, so we forgive

her all faults. It is really

wonderful to have her nearby and hopefully she'll be staying with me for the weekend and we can explore NY together!