June 21, 2002
It's been a long time. Why add new journal entries now?
I guess it's because so much has been happening. What a year it has been! You know, of course, that teachers and educators look at a year differently than managers, newscasters and accountants. A teacher's year is generally from September to June or August to May. This type of structure to the academic year has been changing, but it's still part of my psyche.
The year began with my trip with Estelle to my cousin's 50th wedding anniversary celebration Labor Day Weekend 2001 in Washington, DC. We boarded a plane to fly back to Tulsa just one week before the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
Our next trip was in December to Boston, Massachusetts, for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) Convention. My daughter attended too, as an aspiring Cantorial student. As you might guess, quite a bit of my attention is focused on the Israeli-Arab situation.
New Year 2002 was, perhaps, even more poignant than New Year 2001 had been. It was now exactly 2 years since Estelle, Deborah and I had stood in the plaza of the Kotel (Western Wall) in the Old City of Jerusalem. It had seemed so peaceful then, although we had been warned of possible trouble. We watched Chassidim dance to welcome Shabbat and fireworks explode over the Dome of the Rock--ordinary, uneventful and calm.
September 11th broke the calm.
In March 2002, we (Estelle and I) visited New York. I was happy to visit relatives in Manhattan and Brooklyn. I also visited as a pilgrim, making the trek from our hotel near Central Park to the World Trade Center disaster site. As I sat in Battery Park, all was as calm as that evening in Jerusalem had been over a year before.
It was in April, just before Passover, that we learned that our daughter had been accepted to Cantorial school at Hebrew Union College (HUC) School of Sacred Music in New York. We were also aware that the first year of the 5-year program would take place at their campus in Jerusalem. HUC campus in Jerusalem overlooks the Jaffa Gate of the Old City.
In May I traveled to Dallas to attend the American Association of Museums Convention billed as the largest cultural meeting in the world. Talk naturally revolved on how to portray 9/11 events for the museum going public.
Later in May I flew into Birmingham, England, for a 10 day stay at Wroxton Abbey in the Cotswold region just outside of Banbury, Oxon. Wroxton was the hereditary home of the Pope/North family. Unsupportable and becoming derelict in 1963, it was purchased by Fairleigh Dickenson University (FDU). FDU restored the property and designated the Abbey and Stable range "Wroxton College." It is used as a European campus for students and professors.
The University of Tulsa (TU) has a special arrangement with FDU. Every other year TU sends a group of faculty members there for a mini sabbatical and summer colloquium. Estelle took advantage of this opportunity this year--I tagged along.
Life at Wroxton enables one to experience some sense of a world that no longer exists. The house has 40 or more bedrooms, and a large number of public rooms: Great Hall, Chapel, Library, Parlors, Regency Room, etc. The grounds cover 57 acres. There are ponds, falls, rose gardens, formal gardens, specimen trees, wooded area with trails, immense terraced lawns, a dovecote, a Doric temple, ruins, and an obelisk. There are no servants, but the meal schedule was: 8:00 breakfast, 10:00 morning tea, 1:00 lunch, 4:00 afternoon tea, and 7:00 dinner. It was an unforgettable 10 days for me, and I will include more about this in a future journal entry.
I find it very disturbing that so many people have no concept of just what is going on in Israel at the present time. So many people seem to view the current events as if this conflict only began a year or two ago. It is shocking to me how members of the news media have twisted and sensationalized events in the Near East. During the last several months I have received E-mails with commentary in support of the State of Israel and opinions on the state of the world vis a vis the Jewish people. I want to share these communications.
In August, my daughter will begin her year of study in Jerusalem. Considering the type of world we live in, Jerusalem is probably as safe as any other place.
I think it is important for me to do what I can to promote an understanding of Israel and its position regarding its Muslim neighbors. So with this I inaugurate, "Dialog 2002."
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