Interfaith Understand Conference

I am completely blown away by how well the conference went. Not only was the turn out fantastic, but the speakers were incredible. Coming from a political science major background, I was particularly interested in workshops and such that had a political slant to them. Therefore both the Neve Shalom Wahat al-Salam presentation and Rabbi Herschfield's speech particularly appealed to me. I had seen two presentations given by a member of the community at Neve Shalom Waha al-Salam and each time I am still encouraged by what they have created. I think about all the children who are going to grow up in an environment in which people are respected and celebrated for their differences. I think about all the people who are able to see others as simply human beings. It gives me hope that a message of peace can be accepted and embraced among all the hostility. Something else that gives me hope is that people can really change. What Rabbi Herschfield said about running from any message of absolutism and non-questioning really stuck with me. I think a lot of times people think that just because nobody is getting killed everything is ok. However if people continue to live in a society in which they are not allowed to voice their opinion, then something needs to change. Everyone has the right to speak out for what they think is wrong and to question authority. I think that if someone like Rabbi Herschfield can change he message from one of hate to one of understanding and cooperation, then most people can change. Therefore I was distressed to hear Eboo Patel say that religious fanatics should simply be destroyed. That ideology seems to simply breed more hate. If all religious extremists were killed, then Rabbi Herschfield would not have become the interfaith leader he is today. I agree with the Rabbi when he said that we need to talk to other people and see what they have to say. He said that although nobody is always right, nobody is always wrong either. Therefore I think that we need to really get to understand those who don't agree with us and see where they are coming from. It is only from there that we can move forward and really work together.

Teaching Children the Truth?

Teaching young children is something I am very passionate about. This is mainly because I have the ability to shape the way a child conceptualizes truth and meaning. Over the course of this class I have thought a lot about how I will use my understanding of genocide and justice to teach children. I think it is very important that they understand that they can change the world simply by understanding what is going on around them or what has gone on in history so that it does not happen again. However the education system has been doing future generations a huge disservice by not teaching the history of the United States in a true manner. There are many ways to teach children at a developmentally appropriate level without lying to them. Clearly when things, whether it be the Armenian genocide or the Native American genocide, are simply not taught, there is a problem and an intentional coverup. History is made and created by the winners, however when there is evidence that something happened in a different manner, we as a society, have an obligation to teach our children the truth no matter how "messy" it is.

I think that many children are able to handle a lot more than we give them credit for. The idea that children are resilient is so true. Many children are or have actually experienced these events, which is far more terrible than simply hearing about them. Also I think children are more receptive to certain new ideas because they do not already have a perception of the "way things are" in their heads like many adults do. From my experiences working with children and adults, I find I am much more likely to hear a child say "that isn't fair!" while an adult will be more likely to say "well that is just the way it is." Perhaps if our children were running the world, we would get more done and get along better without our preconceived notions and one-sided thinking.

Music as a Form of Healing

The power of music never ceases to amaze me. I think whether you are a certified music therapist or simply use lyrics and chords to express your emotions, everyone can use music as a way of working through deep feelings that talking cannot explain. Not only was Bonnie's story amazing, but her lyrics really spoke to me personally. My mother's side of the family is Jewish and I know that there were many members of the family that did not survive the Holocaust that I will never know. Additionally there are members of my family that survived the Holocaust but died before I was born so I will never be able to understand what they endured. I think her whole message that her parents never hid anything from her is particularly poignant. I can understand how something could be so painful that you simply cannot share it with your children, however at the same time it seems like you own it to the future generations so they can understand their history. It is an interesting dilemma I can imagine for survivors of any sort of trauma. Personally I think Bonnie's children did the right thing in telling her about their experiences. It is a part of her family and her immediate history and if they did not tell her, there would be gaps of time and people that would be unaccounted for. Eventually all children pick up on things and ask questions. The more dissatisfied they are with the answer, the more inquisitive they become. Therefore I think that by being up front and age appropriate with their responses, Bonnie's parents made the right decision in telling her. However I can sympathize with families who see it differently.

Roles During the Holocaust

I think it is easy to say that the victims of the Holocaust are the groups that were sent to the concentration camps or forced into hiding to prevent such things from happening. While these groups are the obvious victims of the Holocaust, I wonder if it is possible to look at the preceived persecutors, the Nazi soldiers, as victims as well. Although I feel like it is never a simple excuse to say that you are just following orders, I can imagine that there was a large sense that the Nazi soldiers had no other choice than to do what they did to Jews or face severe consequences and some did take that chance. Additionally, I cannot imagine what kind of a double life you would have to play. Killer by day, family man by night. Additionally after the war was over the soldiers were deemed the persecutors and therefore some were punished for their actions and, I would assume, some were unable to fully function in society again. Therefore their lives were forever changed. Also I can't comprehend what kind of mental trauma you would suffer from the knowledge of the harm you created for so long. While I am in no way defending what happened in the Holocaust, I think it is interesting to look at the human condition of what happens when someone has so much power that they are able to have so many people carrying out their evil deeds. Therefore is it correct to say that an everyday soldier, whose hands are tied and has little control over the situation, is also a victim to the atrocities of war and genocide? It is interesting to think about.

Those Who Save

Whenever I think about what I would do if a genocide was happening around me, I always think of those who saved Jews and other victims of the Holocaust. Immediately my thoughts turn to Miep Gies. Why is this? Certainly she did great things in defending the Frank family for as long as possible. However didn't other people do the same thing she did for other families? Why do we not know the name of those people? Although I'm sure most, if not all, did not do it for recognition, I believe that they should get just as much recognition and credit as Ms. Gies does. I tend to think her name is well-known because Anne Frank is the most common name associated with the Holocaust. However I think that we need to honor and recognize all those of defended victims and potential victims of the Holocaust. I think many times history discounts how much people put on the line to stand up for what they thought was right. There should be many more household names when we think of Holocaust survivors and rescuers.

Armenian Genocide Response

I consider myself to be pretty competant when it comes to history. I also have a lot of interest in human rights. Therefore one would think I would have more knowledge about the Armenian genocide. However prior to this class I had only read one book on the topic. I wonder why this is not talked about in schools like the Holocaust is. One reason that I can see that it is not talked about in the United States is the lack on our country's involvement. We like to talk about how we helped to end World War Two and the Holocaust. However we did not do anything about the Armenian genocide. Therefore it seems like our government would not want to teach it in school because our lack of involvement would have to come up. In this way the genocide reminds me of Rwanda, however in an earlier time period. I wonder if we would know more about what happened in Armenia if it had happened during a time in which media was more widespread. However there is not as much knowledge about what is going on in Darfur as I would have thought. In fact the other day right here at Nazareth I told someone about what was going on in Darfur, because she had never heard about it at all. I found this quite shocking, however I think it speaks to what we teach in schools. As someone who is going into teaching, I find it important to inform students about the world around them. I do not want to scare them, however I think it is very important to give at least some information. Even young children should understand how people live around them and the situations around the world that are not as good as what the child experiences.

Why don't we learn from the past?

As I looked at the map of major conflicts and genocides from the last hundred years or so, I was struck by the large number of conflicts mentioned around the world. As I looked at the list I was also consciously aware of the fact that the list was in no way exhaustive. What does not seem to make any sense to me is how we as an international society fail to stop these situations from occuring and why we do not seem to learn our lesson. I get quite upset when I think about Rwanda for example and see how much of a failure international, including the United States, aid was. Then I think about the lack of international involvement in Darfur and I can not seem to understand why, after our lack of response and the large number of lives lost in Rwanda, we would not get more involved.

I think one of the major issues, from a political science perspective, is that governments do not want to get involved in situations in which they do not benefit. I do not understand why everything has to be so self-centered. We live in a very nationalist society. If there was more compassion, and less emphasis on economic gain, perhaps we would be more compassionate towards people outside of our own countries. The world would be a better place, in my opinion, if we did not have the policy of love thy neighbor so long as he or she lives in on your side of your border. This is my hope for the world.