Westchester Remembers September 11th

Sunday September 11, 2011 marks the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Westchester is commemorating the event in many ways this week, and here is what’s happening:

At Scarsdale High School, two assemblies will be held on Friday September 9th at 9:00 am and 10:30 am. According to Student Government Advisor Neil Ginsberg who organized the event, Tracy Garrison-Feinberg from Facing History and Ourselves will be at the school and will show some film clips, discuss what happened, how we responded and what we can do today. According to Garrison-Feinberg, “This event shaped the 21st century, and is to continuing to shape it. It’s is a crucial part of who we have become.” Since the youngest students at the school were only 4 years old at the time and may not even remember 9/11, the assembly should provide them with historic perspective.

Heathcote Music Teacher and recording artist Katherine Bescherer has written and performed a 9-11 memorial tribute song titled, "The World is Upside Down." Discussing the song, Bescherer said, "For me as a songwriter, it was so important to mark the events of 9/11 in a song. However, as one might imagine, it proved to be an especially difficult song to write. I remember 10 years ago being so overwhelmed by the loss and the "attack" that some time needed to pass before I could even begin to sort through it and then approach it musically and lyrically. How do you write about that level of loss? How do you speak literally or poetically about such horrors? How do you write about the images?

Ultimately the song did come, and I have shared it with people who were very close to the attacks and personally impacted by loss, and they have all been powerfully moved by the song. One friend who witnessed the attacks out his classroom window that morning even printed out the words and reflected on them almost daily. It was a way to help him grieve and to help him process. The song was that for me too. And, to record it 10 years later was very important to me. I wanted to give it to others a way to remember and reflect through song. See Bescherer perform "The World Is Upside Down": here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PyipoH_Ds

Westchester County and the United Way are hosting a commemorative event on Friday September 9, 2011 from 2 pm to 7 pm at the Westchester County Center. People from all walks of life will gather to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11 at Serve and Learn: Westchester Remembers 9/11.

In an action to rekindle the spirit of unity that followed the tragic events of September 11, The Volunteer Center of United Way is inviting area residents to honor local victims and heroes by engaging in service to help build a stronger community. With the support of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, his administration and the Westchester County Board of Legislators, this community-wide call to action is designed to engage people of all ages in a wide-variety of one-time and ongoing volunteer opportunities. Serve and Learn: Westchester Remembers 9/11, will take place Friday, September 9, at the County Center in White Plains, NY, 2:00 to 7:00 p.m., and is open to the public for free. Learn more here:

Westchester Reform Temple at 255 Mamaroneck Road in Scarsdale will commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11 at their Friday night service on 9/9 at 7:45. The service will honor those who perished and pay tribute to the responders. The D’var Torah will be offered by Paul Kirwin, father of congregant Glenn Davis Kirwin of blessed memory. Glenn worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. His memory is cherished by family, friends and the WRT community, along with the mories of nearly 3,000 victims of the 9-11 attacks.

Hitchcock Church on Greenacres Avenue in Scarsdale will present a Service of Remembrance, Reflection and Resilience on Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 10:30 am. The regular morning worship service will include music, meditation, special prayers and liturgy appropriate for the day. Music has the power to provide solace, inspiration and hope. The Chancel Choir of the church and the New Choral Society orchestra will present movements from Faure’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Bach’s B Minor Mass and a piece by Glenn Rudolph, The Dream Isaiah Saw, which was written for and dedicated to all who perished on September 11, 2001. It is a powerful text, paraphrasing Isaiah’s vision of peace and harmony among God’s creation. This worship service, which will last about 1 hour, is free and open to the public and ALL are welcome. Childcare will be provided for those children in Kindergarten and younger.

Scarsdale Synagogue on Ogden Road will hold a special service called A Time to Remember on Sunday, September 11 at 9:45. As a congregational community, they will come together to share this time that will always be etched upon our national psyche. Through music and the spoken word the group will remember and commit themselves to a better and more hopeful future.

The JCC of Mid-Westchester at 999 Wilmot Road will hold a day of Chesed (kindness), Service and Remembrance, Good Deeds and Charitable Service on Sunday, September 11, 2011 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The day will include a Remembrance Program at 1:00 pm as well as a Bone Marrow Registry, Rosh Hashanah Package Delivery, Collection of NEW toys, Collection for Overseas Troops, Children’s clothing collection, Cereal collection, Hair Donations for Locks of Love, Pet Adoption, Blood Drive, honey collection, home care/medical supplies collection. Learn more at: http://www.jccmw.org/

Also at the JCC of Mid-Westchester on Sunday September 11 at 4 pm, see the film "Love Hate Love" (2011, USA), Directed by Dana Nachman and Don Hardy, with Executive Producer: Sean Penn

It's been nine years since Liz Alderman's son Peter was murdered on 9/11, and five since Esther Hyman's sister was killed by terrorists on 7/7 in London. Ben Tullipan lives now minus his two legs and most of his hearing because of the one-ton car bomb that went off just several meters from where he was standing outside Bali's Sari nightclub. Every day, they are faced with a choice; succumb to despair, or find a way to survive. “Love Hate Love” follows these families on their journey, which takes audiences to five continents as they strive to build world-changing legacies from wounds that can never fully heal. Screening followed by panel discussion moderated by Barbara Nachman.
Tickets $10. Click here for details

On September 13, Concordia College will present a special concert dedicated to the memory of those lost on September 11, 2001, titled Requiem for 9/11, by composer Hollis Thoms. The performance will be featured at the Sommer Center for Worship and the Performing Arts on the Bronxville campus of Concordia College. The concert features soprano Treva Foss, Instructor of Voice at Concordia College-New York. Dr. Jason Thoms will conduct the professional chamber orchestra in the Requiem for 9/11, along with Elgar’s Serenade for Strings and Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

Both the music and poetry of the commemorative piece are powerful and vivid. Hollis Thoms writes, “A year after 9/11, I came across ‘September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond’ edited by Willliam Heyen, and discovered five poems that seemed suddenly fresh and poignant, awakening me to return to that tragic day with new insights and I felt a creative urge to set five of these poems to music. I couldn’t get going with the work until I started to think about these five poems as a journey culminating in a setting of Rainer Maria Rilke’s famous poem, Herbst, which I had set to music almost thirty years before.”

Dr. Thoms and Ms. Foss will be presenting the Requiem for 9/11 three times this September, including a September 11 performance at Christ Lutheran Inner Harbor in Baltimore, MD, and a September 12 performance at the Medicine Show Theater in Manhattan. This is a return performance of Requiem for 9/11 to Concordia College, where the New York premiere was presented in September 2008. Tickets for the 7:30pm concert are $5. For more information, contact the Music Department at 914-337-9300, x2292 or email jason.thoms@concordia-ny.edu.

(Pictured at top) The Rising is a memorial located in the Kensico Dam Plaza of Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, created by architect Frederic Schwartz. It stands against the backdrop of Kensico Dam, commemorating the September 11 attacks on America and remembering in a special way the men and women from Westchester County who were victims of those attacks.