Discussion, memorial, meal will mark 9/11 anniversary

This should be a time to focus on building a better world, says Fr. Walter Cuenin

The Brandeis community will mark the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with a memorial, a community gathering, a vigil and a discussion of what those events and the ensuing years have meant to us as individuals, and as a community.

All members of the community are invited to reflect on this defining moment in American and world history and its ongoing impact at “9/11: How It Has Changed Our Thinking,” on Wednesday, Sept. 7, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Shapiro Campus Center Art Gallery.

The event, sponsored by the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, will feature a panel comprised of Kanan Makiya, an award-winning author and influential commentator on the Arab world; Daniel Kryder, associate professor of politics and a Fulbright Scholar; Isabella Jean, MA ’06, an international peacebuilding and development consultant; and Michael Perloff '12, an Eli J. Segal Citizen Leadership Fellow.

Daniel Terris, director of the Ethics Center and Brandeis’ vice president for global affairs, will moderate the discussion.

“The saddest, and in a sense most ominous, thing about 9/11 is that it has made us all, Americans and Arabs, more anxious and frightened people, unable to look at the world with the same openness and sense of wonder that we formerly had,” says Makiya, who is the Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and author of “Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World” and “The Rock: A Seventh-Century Tale of Jerusalem.” “The fact that there is no objective justification for this greater sense of unease is beside the point.”

The Ethics Center coordinated the 5^th anniversary Brandeis observance of 9/11. Read reflections by participants in that series of events.

On Friday, Sept. 9, from noon to 12:20 p.m. at the Peace Circle near Usdan Student Center, the weekly Peace Vigil sponsored by the Brandeis Interfaith Chaplaincy will focus its reflections on this anniversary. More info is on the Facebook page of the vigil.

The series of events on campus will culminate on the actual anniversary, Sunday, September 11.

Father Walter Cuenin, Catholic chaplain at Brandeis and coordinator of the University’s Interfaith Chaplaincy, and Student Union President Herbie Rosen ’12 are coordinating a memorial from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. around Chapels Pond. (Levin Ballroom if it rains.) Brandeis President Fred Lawrence and Rosen will speak, and the chaplains will offer prayers and reflections.

Immediately following the memorial, there will be a community gathering and meal on the Great Lawn.

“We want to make this a moment not only a time to reflect back to the tragic events of that day but also to use this as a opportunity to recommit ourselves and our university to the work of interfaith dialogue and of making peace by learning to respect the differences in the world community,” said Father Cuenin.

“As chaplains, we wanted to make sure this anniversary was kept in a positive tone and with a focus on the hope of building a better world,” Cuenin said. “The gathering that follows the memorial will be an expression of our solidarity as a community with all of our differences.”