Back from travels, east and west.

Incredible experiences around the country –
     Sharing stories of people not here to tell their own stories.
     Hearing new stories, of lives known and unknown.
Exhibitions, speeches, seminars, film screenings – these last few months have been filled all this and more, but the most significant part of these experiences has been the people I’ve met, and the impact we have had on each other.

I’ll share just a few highpoints, of the many amazing experiences from recent travels:

Hawaii (February 2007)
In Honolulu, I gave speeches at public and private schools, University of Hawaii Film Festival and a host of secular and religious settings.

Among them, these standouts:

At Windward Community College, a student who attended speech and film screening on Wednesday evening, when I was inscribing books, expressed this incredible line to me:
“You have changed the way I think!” – Kelly

At a Kalaheo High School, a public high school in Hawaii, students filled a crowded cafeteria to capacity to hear the stories, and see the photos. Although there were problems – the sound system failed; it was hard to see; bench seating uncomfortable, nevertheless it was one of the most unforgettable experiences I have ever had, thanks to the initiative of two enterprising teachers, a flexible assistant principal, and an incredible bunch of kids. The students rushed the stage after my presentation, expressing personal thoughts and feelings. Many lingered to talk further – even sharing hopes and dreams for their future, and ideas for what they could do to make the future better. [Hawaii has been experiencing serious racial problems, recently featured on front page of USA Today so speaking at a school with racial tensions felt particularly important to me].

One student from Kalaheo, Raffi, was also going to attend my last talk in Hawaii, which was going to take place later that evening. Here’s what happened on the last night:

People were trying to decide who would introduce me – there were several people who felt they should – and then someone suggested Raffi. “Who’s Raffi?,” I asked. “He was at your high school speech today,” came the answer. Having parented two teenagers, I know well that it’s not so often that 15-year olds even wants to talk to an adult – let alone agree to introduce one. But when Raffi was approached, he immediately affirmed that he wanted to introduce me.

His introduction was stunning! Here’s what he said: “I heard Ann Weiss speak at my school today. I was sitting in the last row. The kids sitting around me never shut up, but when Ann Weiss was talking to us, nobody said a word. Today, we heard the best speech we ever heard!”

Imagine that I had to get up and give a speech after that! No pressure!

The experiences wherever I speak and however I speak are always moving and very personal to me, and to be sure, I’m grateful for all of them. However the special “Aloha” spirit in Hawaii made these experiences particularly moving. For organizing, sponsoring and making possible the many incredible Hawaiian experiences, I thank poet Jody Helfand, English professor (whose wedding I was privileged to attend) and Seymour and Sue Kazimirski.

Cleveland/Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches (March 2007)

Together with high level presentations by leading scholars in the world, and some deeply affecting personal conversations with Israel Charney, Richard Rubenstein, Franklin Littel, Zev Garber, Paul Bartrop, Rick Libowitz, Steve Jacobs, Ilya Altman, Randy Jackson, and Laura Higgins, a few of us (from Russia, Australia and US) had an unforgettable visit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – definitely a “must-see”, – or rather, a “must dance” experience!

Allentown, PA

Though people laughed at me for my excitement about going to Allentown, the days that I spent with the Allentown community mounting my photo exhibition and preparing for the premiere were simply incredible – and I am saying this about Allentown in snow-filled March! To be honest, it’s not the sites in Allentown that earn raves, but rather this amazing community of people who work together the way people – in our idealization – might someday achieve. To Ron Glickman, Chair of Project Yachad, whose idea it was to bring me to Allentown and to Wendy Rosenfeld, with whom I worked intimately on every detail to make it happen, I extend my enormous gratitude. Thanks to Wendy, Director of Project Yachad, which is a consortium of Jewish educational organizations working together, with invaluable assistance from Adele and a host of volunteers (including Adele’s teenage daughter, Ron Glickman, and Wendy’s husband), I arrived a stranger and left with many friends.

An excerpt from Wendy’s letter, following our days of mounting, working, and growing together, gave me cause to think about the impact of her words: Wendy wrote:

“I’ve decided that simply knowing you has made me a better person. I can’t explain it, but it’s true.”

Aside from the way I feel when I read her note – enormously grateful for such a person, as well as such a compliment – there is something else that comes to my mind:

I have just finished writing a 600-page dissertation about goodness, and how we might inculcate it in our society, by examining the personhood of two exceptional Holocaust survivors, and how they came to be the people they became. From this research just completed (with margins finally made right just this week), and from beliefs like Wendy’s, I have come to believe the following: We each can make ourselves better people – and in becoming better ourselves, we serve, both as models and supports, to help others become more of what they wish to be – not by lecturing, certainly not by chastising and perhaps not even by speaking about it, but simply by, as Margaret Meade once said, by “Becoming the change we want to see in the world.”

In Transformation and in Becoming,
I wish you the change you wish to see, both in the world and in yourself,

Ann Weiss