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Arlington Advocate
Feb 28 2010
A journey through the `Wall of Fire'
Muriel Mirak-Weissbach's book `Through the Wall of Fire ' was published in 2009.
By Nicole Laskowski/Staff Writer
The Arlington Advocate
Posted Feb 28, 2010 @ 06:30 AM
Arlington, Mass. ' Muriel Mirak-Weissbach may have grown up in the
quiet neighborhoods of Winchester and Arlington, but she's no stranger
to the fallout of conflict.
Instead, for Mirak-Weissbach, the daughter of two Armenian genocide
survivors, it was all around her when she was growing up. Even if she
didn't realize it back then. Even if it only became clear and then
clearer as she grew older.
The linchpin of clarity came as Mirak-Weissbach, now a citizen of
Germany, traveled again into the fallout of conflict.
Always interested in politics, Mirak-Weissbach became involved in the
political movements in Germany during the 60s and 70s. And as the
years turned from one to the next, her interests also turned ' to
Arabic and Islamic work.
In 1991, after Dessert Storm, she led an initiative called the
Committee to Save the Children in Iraq, assisted by the Chaldean
Church of Iraq and a human rights organization called the
International Progress Organization. The group put together
humanitarian aid in the form of food and medicine and, in even in the
face of an embargo on the country, delivered it to the people of Iraq.
The group was also able transport some of the children who most needed
medical attention back to children's hospitals in Virginia and
Germany.
She took these stories home with her, back to Arlington, and shared
them with her mother. Stories that were so close to her mother's own
experiences in Armenia, they soon unlocked memories long buried away.
And so began the journey of `Through the Wall of Fire:
Armenia-Iraq-Palestine From Wrath to Reconciliation,' a book focused
on conflict, struggle and finally hope told through the eyes of
children.
Q. Each of the section ` Armenia, Iraq and Palestine ` focuses on the
stories of children. Why?
A It's my understanding that if one can grasp the nature of the trauma
they went through, one can somehow open one's heart to the
catastrophes and find the courage to identify the forces ultimately
behind these tragedies. And my argument is that in order to overcome
these conflicts, one has to first come to terms with historical
reality, but there is no collective guilt. Instead, there was a
discreet group backed by powerful international people. That has to be
acknowledged in order to be forgiven.
Q So the message here is forgiveness?
A To forgive and forget. But to forgive, you first have to acknowledge
it happened. Peace could only come about if each side acted in the
interest and the benefit of the other. It's a noble concept. I believe
this can be achieved.
Q But this doesn't just happen. How can these countries get to the
place you're talking about?
A The example I chose at the end of the book is a metaphor for how
this could unfold. In an experiment launched by the Argentine-Israeli
musician Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian intellectual Edward
Said ¦ an orchestra made up of Israeli and Palestinian (and other
Arab) youth to play great classical music.
They had to find kids willing to enter such an experiment ¦ They
practiced in daytime with Barenboim. In evenings, at least three or
four times a week, they had open-ended discussions with Said about
everything. In the course of these discussions, these kids learned
about the tragedies of the other side.
At the height of Gaza war in January 2009, the orchestra was beginning
a world tour to celebrate their 10-year jubilee. Because of
hostilities in Gaza, they couldn't play, and they shifted their venue
to Berlin.
The concert sold out immediately after it was announced ¦ It was
overwhelming. Here you have this brutal insanity taking place in Gaza.
And here you see Israelis and Palestinians really struggling to
communicate great ideas in music. This for me ' I was struggling with
the book at the time ' and then after seeing this concert, I thought,
this is the key. This is how Israelis and Palestinians should be
relating to each other ¦ The experiment proves that people can change
fundamentally.
Q What is the `Wall of Fire?'
A The title comes from an episode of Dante's `Divine Comedy.' It was
an important work for me when I was younger.
Dante goes through Hell, Purgatory and then wants to enter Paradise.
Virgil tells him he can, but that he will have to go through a Wall of
Fire to get there. He is terrified, since the flames remind him of the
suffering in Hell. Virgil tells him: On the other side of the Wall of
Fire is Beatrice. Suddenly there's a change inside Dante. The name
somehow sparked an internal change in his emotional outlook. Instead
of being obsessed with fears or himself, he's focusing on someone
else, his beloved, on a loving relationship. And at this point he goes
through flames, and on other side, he reaches Beatrice.
I chose the title as a metaphor for the emotional challenge, I
believe, the political leadership and the populations in these areas
are faced with.
If someone signs a piece of paper, it's not going to bring peace.
Because peace is not the absence of war. It's a transformation of an
adversarial relationship into a relationship of cooperation.
Q Did you have to travel through your own Wall of Fire to write this book?
A I knew somewhat about my parents' suffered, but I didn't really
learn the details of it until the 1990s. After many years of work in
this field and a lot of travel in the region, I decided to write the
book. This came out of a certain sense of reflecting back on what had
shaped my decisions to become politically active and a political
analyst and journalist in these areas.
I had to work through what my parents actually experienced. And doing
research of what my parents experienced was like going through Dante's
hell ¦ Confronting the brutality of that genocide in the context of
the insanity of the First World War, it was an intellectual and
emotional confrontation that I can compare to this wall of fire. In
reading accounts, there is a tendency to be bitter, to hate, to blame.
I had to really confront that and say it's not true. It's not a
population, the Turks, who actually did this. I had to reorganize my
emotional attitude toward these events and toward my own personal
background. And I had to overcome it.
Muriel Mirak-Weissbach's book `Through the Wall of Fire' is available
at NAASR, 395 Concord Avenue, Belmont; Armenian Cultural Foundation,
441 Mystic Street, Arlington; St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, 465
Mount Auburn St., Watertown; abrilbooks.com and amazon.com.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/ fun/entertainment/books/x1487810228/A-journey-thro ugh-the-Wall-of-Fire
Feb 28 2010
A journey through the `Wall of Fire'
Muriel Mirak-Weissbach's book `Through the Wall of Fire ' was published in 2009.
By Nicole Laskowski/Staff Writer
The Arlington Advocate
Posted Feb 28, 2010 @ 06:30 AM
Arlington, Mass. ' Muriel Mirak-Weissbach may have grown up in the
quiet neighborhoods of Winchester and Arlington, but she's no stranger
to the fallout of conflict.
Instead, for Mirak-Weissbach, the daughter of two Armenian genocide
survivors, it was all around her when she was growing up. Even if she
didn't realize it back then. Even if it only became clear and then
clearer as she grew older.
The linchpin of clarity came as Mirak-Weissbach, now a citizen of
Germany, traveled again into the fallout of conflict.
Always interested in politics, Mirak-Weissbach became involved in the
political movements in Germany during the 60s and 70s. And as the
years turned from one to the next, her interests also turned ' to
Arabic and Islamic work.
In 1991, after Dessert Storm, she led an initiative called the
Committee to Save the Children in Iraq, assisted by the Chaldean
Church of Iraq and a human rights organization called the
International Progress Organization. The group put together
humanitarian aid in the form of food and medicine and, in even in the
face of an embargo on the country, delivered it to the people of Iraq.
The group was also able transport some of the children who most needed
medical attention back to children's hospitals in Virginia and
Germany.
She took these stories home with her, back to Arlington, and shared
them with her mother. Stories that were so close to her mother's own
experiences in Armenia, they soon unlocked memories long buried away.
And so began the journey of `Through the Wall of Fire:
Armenia-Iraq-Palestine From Wrath to Reconciliation,' a book focused
on conflict, struggle and finally hope told through the eyes of
children.
Q. Each of the section ` Armenia, Iraq and Palestine ` focuses on the
stories of children. Why?
A It's my understanding that if one can grasp the nature of the trauma
they went through, one can somehow open one's heart to the
catastrophes and find the courage to identify the forces ultimately
behind these tragedies. And my argument is that in order to overcome
these conflicts, one has to first come to terms with historical
reality, but there is no collective guilt. Instead, there was a
discreet group backed by powerful international people. That has to be
acknowledged in order to be forgiven.
Q So the message here is forgiveness?
A To forgive and forget. But to forgive, you first have to acknowledge
it happened. Peace could only come about if each side acted in the
interest and the benefit of the other. It's a noble concept. I believe
this can be achieved.
Q But this doesn't just happen. How can these countries get to the
place you're talking about?
A The example I chose at the end of the book is a metaphor for how
this could unfold. In an experiment launched by the Argentine-Israeli
musician Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian intellectual Edward
Said ¦ an orchestra made up of Israeli and Palestinian (and other
Arab) youth to play great classical music.
They had to find kids willing to enter such an experiment ¦ They
practiced in daytime with Barenboim. In evenings, at least three or
four times a week, they had open-ended discussions with Said about
everything. In the course of these discussions, these kids learned
about the tragedies of the other side.
At the height of Gaza war in January 2009, the orchestra was beginning
a world tour to celebrate their 10-year jubilee. Because of
hostilities in Gaza, they couldn't play, and they shifted their venue
to Berlin.
The concert sold out immediately after it was announced ¦ It was
overwhelming. Here you have this brutal insanity taking place in Gaza.
And here you see Israelis and Palestinians really struggling to
communicate great ideas in music. This for me ' I was struggling with
the book at the time ' and then after seeing this concert, I thought,
this is the key. This is how Israelis and Palestinians should be
relating to each other ¦ The experiment proves that people can change
fundamentally.
Q What is the `Wall of Fire?'
A The title comes from an episode of Dante's `Divine Comedy.' It was
an important work for me when I was younger.
Dante goes through Hell, Purgatory and then wants to enter Paradise.
Virgil tells him he can, but that he will have to go through a Wall of
Fire to get there. He is terrified, since the flames remind him of the
suffering in Hell. Virgil tells him: On the other side of the Wall of
Fire is Beatrice. Suddenly there's a change inside Dante. The name
somehow sparked an internal change in his emotional outlook. Instead
of being obsessed with fears or himself, he's focusing on someone
else, his beloved, on a loving relationship. And at this point he goes
through flames, and on other side, he reaches Beatrice.
I chose the title as a metaphor for the emotional challenge, I
believe, the political leadership and the populations in these areas
are faced with.
If someone signs a piece of paper, it's not going to bring peace.
Because peace is not the absence of war. It's a transformation of an
adversarial relationship into a relationship of cooperation.
Q Did you have to travel through your own Wall of Fire to write this book?
A I knew somewhat about my parents' suffered, but I didn't really
learn the details of it until the 1990s. After many years of work in
this field and a lot of travel in the region, I decided to write the
book. This came out of a certain sense of reflecting back on what had
shaped my decisions to become politically active and a political
analyst and journalist in these areas.
I had to work through what my parents actually experienced. And doing
research of what my parents experienced was like going through Dante's
hell ¦ Confronting the brutality of that genocide in the context of
the insanity of the First World War, it was an intellectual and
emotional confrontation that I can compare to this wall of fire. In
reading accounts, there is a tendency to be bitter, to hate, to blame.
I had to really confront that and say it's not true. It's not a
population, the Turks, who actually did this. I had to reorganize my
emotional attitude toward these events and toward my own personal
background. And I had to overcome it.
Muriel Mirak-Weissbach's book `Through the Wall of Fire' is available
at NAASR, 395 Concord Avenue, Belmont; Armenian Cultural Foundation,
441 Mystic Street, Arlington; St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, 465
Mount Auburn St., Watertown; abrilbooks.com and amazon.com.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/ fun/entertainment/books/x1487810228/A-journey-thro ugh-the-Wall-of-Fire