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Participants heard presentations and had extensive conversation on reparations.
One presentation focused on Action Reconciliation–Service for Peace, which provides opportunities for post-high school German students to build on their country’s efforts to bring healing to the world through service projects in various countries, including the US. The discussion revolved around the intersection of guilt and responsibility when it comes to accounting for the past, in this case the Holocaust, and making the world a better place.
Other presentations and discussions focused on historical negotiations that led to the individual and structural reparations that resulted after the Holocaust, and that continue even to this day. The group also discussed current political realities in Israel and Palestine.
The group then met at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum for a private tour of the memorial plaza, where they learned about how the memorial serves as a place of remembrance for victims’ families, the New York community, the nation, and the world. The group moved to the St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine, which was built adjacent to, and now overlooks, the Memorial Plaza. The church not only replaces the only house of worship destroyed in the 9/11 attack and continues to serve a worshipping community; it was also built to serve as a place of national healing for all who would come to remember, and to pray.
In addition, the group met at Trinity Church Wall Street, the Episcopal church that had a significant pastoral role in the days following the 9/11 attack.
