At the Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center in Plainview, NY, the first organizationally-sponsored Forgiveness Garden in the country was dedicated. The "Holocaust Memorial Wall and Forgiveness Garden" is the culmination of an extraordinary partnership among many organizations, including On The Same Page, an adult Jewish learning and outreach initiative of SAJES; Crossing Borders, a unique program of the Mid-Island Y JCC that creates cultural dialogue and exchange opportunities between New York and Israeli teenagers, and The Garden of Forgiveness organization based in New York City.

It was a groundbreaking event in which the topic of forgiveness was considered as a strategy for personal and communal wellness. Reverend Lyndon Harris, co-creator of the Garden of Forgiveness at Ground Zero, joined Rabbi Reevan Slavkin, associate professor at Suffolk County Community College, for the Nov. 19 dedication ceremony, which was attended by teenagers, adults and Holocaust survivors.

Joshua Tallis, 15, a participant in the Crossing Borders program, expressed his personal reflections in an insightful and poignant speech. The following are his heartfelt remarks:

"I am a Jew. I was never in the Holocaust. And yet I am here today introducing a forgiveness garden. As a student, I learn to question, and there is plenty to ask. What is forgiveness? Who can forgive? Why should we forgive? Well, forgiveness is NOT accepting or agreeing with the atrocity. No person could ever forgive under those terms. Forgiveness, rather, is our ability to move on. I, as a 15-year-old, cannot grant the type of forgiveness to the Nazis that we are accustomed to. That is, granting immediate pardon to the offender. I cannot speak for others or offer amnesty to Nazis for their individual offenses. Yet I can forgive in a sense by resisting the desire to do unto the oppressors as they did to us. Never forget does not mean never forgive, or never move on, it means to learn. As Jews we must learn to take lessons from tragedies. We must learn the importance of a single human life. The power to create or destroy lies within all of us. Our lesson is to create. We must forgive in order to resist genocide. Sudan, Rwanda, East Timor, Cambodia, Bosnia, Guatemala, Yugoslavia. This garden is to forgive but in forgiving we are saving. This garden was created out of history's most horrendous hours, and is our shining light to save the future's innocents from persecution. This is represented in its very design. The left side of the painting, dark and ghastly, is our past, and we aspire to move into a world of brightness and universal freedom. One by one, we plant single flowers to make the world more beautiful. In the same way, any act of kindness is needed to make our world better. Our action is forgiveness."

Following Tallis' presentation, other young adults from the Crossing Borders program shared in a candle-lighting dedication ceremony that remembered and honored those who were killed in the Holocaust and planted seeds of hope for the future through the power of forgiveness. The ceremony culminated with a quotation from Psalm 34: "Leave the bad and embrace the good, search for peace and pursue it."

After prayers and comments of dedication, guest speakers Rabbi Slavkin and Rev. Harris each offered thoughts about the nature and possibilities as well as the challenges of forgiveness. Rev. Harris congratulated the participants for creating this country's first Forgiveness Garden and challenged those present to offer their experience in this pilot program to other Jewish community centers around the country.

At the conclusion of the program, On The Same Page project coordinator Shariee Calderone expressed her gratitude to the following organizations for their partnership and support in sponsoring these events: the Mid-Island Y JCC and JCC President Ruth Jeifa, UJA-Federation of New York, JCC Association, United Way of Long Island, J Learn, and BJE of Greater NY, Nassau/Queens Center.

The Crossing Borders program is made possible by a grant from UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Agency for Israel, which funds Partnership 2000. Recognizing Jerusalem's unique significance within the Jewish world and recognizing New York as the largest and most diverse Jewish community outside of Israel, Partnership 2000 seeks to establish and strengthen relationships of mutual understanding between these communities through the development and support of programs and activities.

Teens interested in participating in the Crossing Borders program should contact Caroline Kushnitz, supervisor of Teen Services, at 822-3535, x324 for an application and to schedule an interview.