9/11 at 10: Creating the World We Want to Leave for Our Children

The morning of 9/11 was quiet in my Brooklyn home when my husband telephoned. He was speaking very fast, “Quick, turn on the television. A plane crashed into the Twin Towers.” I ran to turn on the television as we kept talking, and then the second plane hit.

It took me a few minutes to understand. It was an attack.

In the days that followed, I forced myself to take the time to decide what I thought about Osama bin Laden. What he did was pure evil. But he was an individual. And it would be wrong to cast blame on all people who share his religion or nation of origin.

That is what I thought then and what I think now. In the 10 years since, I’ve pursued work to recognize the humanity within each person. I do this at Tanenbaum, where we combat religious prejudice by providing practical trainings and educational resources to build bridges in schools, workplaces, health care settings, and by working with religiously driven peace-builders.

As parents and teachers, we can make sure our children learn to understand and respect religious and cultural differences and become successful global citizens. On the community level, we can talk with our neighbors to learn what unites us and what divides us. That’s the work of Prepare New York, a unique coalition of interfaith organizations in New York City, of which Tanenbaum is a proud founding member. We believe that such conversations are a critical part of the healing that is still needed in the wake of 9/11.

To get our city and nation ready for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Prepare NY has developed a multilayered plan. Tanenbaum’s contributions include a set of education materials that are being used to inform what Prepare NY calls CoffeeHour Conversations that are taking place in all sorts of settings, from schools to workplaces to houses of worship to community centers.

Our materials are based on a system of principles and techniques teachers can use in any subject or grade level. The pedagogy imbeds critical thinking skills on addressing differences (including religious differences), teaches students how to act respectfully when they disagree, and teaches them to debunk stereotypes that breed prejudice. Our behavioral outcomes include recognizing religious diversity, internalizing that differences are normal and interesting, learning how to ask about what you don’t understand, and engaging peers with respectful curiosity.

The response to the materials has been gratifying. One Muslim professional who is working in the Middle East sent an email of high praise, and many have expressed thanks for our clear, easy-to-read, and factually based materials. One woman even wrote that she learned something new about her own religion!

We expected that the CoffeeHour Conversations about 9/11 would be powerful bridge builders, and they have been. In one held at a church, an Imam spoke movingly of how he drew on Islam after his daughter was shot and killed.  His heartfelt narrative touched listeners from diverse faiths and backgrounds – including several formerly incarcerated individuals. One participant moved to make a personal commitment to being more tolerant of people who are different. Many others were surprised to learn that Islam shares stories with Judeo-Christian traditions.

Another CoffeeHour Conversation involved a sensitive exchange between American Muslims and family members of 9/11 victims. Our challenge was on full display: could we overcome bias and build understanding during a time of continued grief?  What we found was that people with very different experiences of 9/11 could share and listen, an important step to healing.  Later, a family member asked Prepare NY to help find a Muslim speaker who could address anti-Muslim sentiment. And we did just that!

Another Prepare New York initiative, the Ribbons of Hope project, is collecting the thoughts, prayers and reflections of people in New York City and beyond and placing them on ribbons that will be included in a public art display to memorialize how Americans of all faiths and backgrounds are standing together. During the weekend of 9/11, dozens of volunteers, including some from Tanenbaum, will be at Battery Park in lower Manhattan to collect ribbons. After 9/11, the ribbons will be woven into a tapestry and displayed publicly around New York City.

9/11 left us forever changed. But we must not let it define us. We have a choice: We can choose to remember while refusing to be consumed by fear or hate. Each of us has this choice, and a responsibility in shaping the world we wish to see.