In 2001-2002, I was privileged to serve as the Associate Director of the Washington Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values.  Here, I honed my skills to effect change for young people in the United States. The Institute brought hundreds of students from the far reaches of our great nation to participate in four-day seminars.  They experienced how government works and learned that one person can make a difference with Judeo-Christian values behind them.

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My first experience implementing a seminar for the Institute was to meet the top twelve Youth Directors from JCC's around the country, at 10:00 A.M. on September 11, 2001, in a hotel in downtown Washington, DC.    

 

Does the date sound familiar?

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At about 8:55 A.M., I parked in the Metro lot in Rockville, Maryland, as my radio told me that a plane had just crashed into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.  I, as many others, thought it was a small plane that had gone astray. I turned off the car and made my way into the Metro station and boarded a train on the Red Line at about 9:10. 

 

At 9:50 A.M., I rode up the long escalator from the Metro to the street to the sound of sirens with police and fire personnel everywhere. I was 8 blocks from the Pentagon.  Here is what happened while I was on the Metro...

 

• At 8:46 A.M., hijackers on American Airlines flight 11 crashed in-between floors 93 and 99 in the North Tower of the World Trade Center incinerating hundreds of people.

• At 9:03 A.M., United Airlines flight 175 crashed in-between floors 77 and 85 in the South Tower murdering hundreds more.

• At 9:37 A.M., American Airlines flight 77 crashed, full throttle into the Pentagon ending the lives of more than 200 people.

 

At 10:03 A.M., I arrive to the hotel where my fist seminar was to begin.  On a TV monitor I see a replay of the South Tower crumbling to ash, which happened a scant four minutes prior. Exactly at the same time, United Airlines flight 93 is crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board. This plane would have crashed in DC, its suspected destination, within 20 minutes.

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I share with you my auspicious beginning at a job that went on to positively alter my senses as a professional educator. I was tasked with showing the beauty, and the flaws, of our unique democracy.  The twelve Youth Directors all voted to return home, despite our willingness to complete the seminar; they had no trains or planes as everything stopped in the USA.  They shared rental cars and called friends to help. 

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The 9-11 attacks changed everything.  I, like many other citizens, sat stunned, wondering in those first few days if our homeland was in further danger.  The seminars the Institute provided in the wake of the attack were profound, as we brought students to see the fragility of freedom.  We emphasized to the students who participated in that 2001-2002 school year, the essence of tolerance education and the golden rule that all religions quote, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." (Leviticus 19:18)   

 

This simple bible verse has been passed to all three western religions, atheists and the eastern religions.  It is the key to our democracy and the key to offering experiences that alter life-paths.  You do not have to be religious to appreciate the simple brilliance of getting along.  This has guided me and is a basis of how Jack R. Consulting does business. As a former school principal and a former director of the March the Living I follow this ideal in my professional and personal life.

 

In the 1960's, my mother and I watched on TV other human beings being hosed and beaten, just because their skin happened to be black, while standing up against injustice.  We watched the unequaled Martin Luther King Jr. speak of this golden rule in front of the Lincoln Memorial in the summer of 1963, especially when he enunciated, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation when they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

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My September 11 experience laid the capstone on the golden rule and has directed my life-path to assist those with whom I interact. That fateful morning led me to a path to deepen my work in Tolerance, Holocaust/Genocide and Service Education.  

 

Learning, Initiating and Acting begets Change. Come change the world with me at your side.

 

I invite you to contact me to discuss your project.