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Partly Cloudy 9/11 museum takes shapeFormer Five Towner leads creation of memorial
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Greenwald, who left her longtime post as associate director of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., earlier this year to accept the challenge of directing of the 9/11 museum, has been extremely busy the last few months, preparing for the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. She has been involved in planning the opening of two public exhibits commemorating the anniversary. One is an art exhibit titled ³here: remembering 9/11,² which opened Aug. 24 and will run through mid-October. Fifty-two photos are on display along the perimeter fence around ground zero.
Also, from Sept. 8 until Oct. 7, an exhibit called ³9/11 in the American Landscape: Photographs by Jonathan Hyman,² will display 63 photos on the 45th floor of 7 World Trade Center.
Greenwald seems like a perfect candidate to accept such a challenging post. She was born in Oceanside but her family soon moved to Cedarhurst, where she attended Lawrence schools and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1969. She recalls growing up around Cedarhurst Village Hall, where her father was a clerk, assessor and treasurer for the village.
³All parts of your life help to shape you as a person,² said Greenwald, who now lives in Manhattan¹s Battery Park, not far from ground zero. ³My high school experience was fairly conventional, but I had really great teachers,² she said.
She had worked with the Holocaust Museum since 1986, documenting human tragedy as a member of the design team for the museum¹s permanent exhibition. After she was chosen in February as the 9/11 museum director by the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Greenwald said she ³hit the ground running² in April, and the ideas for the planned museum have been coming in nonstop.
³It is shaping up,² she said of the museum. ³But we still have a huge job ahead of us. It¹s a challenging job, and we¹ve just begun to put together this terrific tribute.²
The museum is slated to have a phased opening in September 2009, when the ground zero memorial plaza is expected to be completed. ³I believe we are on track, but we have a lot of work ahead of us,² Greenwald said.
She explained that it is still too early to release details of exactly what will be included in the museum, but she said that artifacts from ground zero will be on display in the museum. ³It will also include intimate materials and personal effects [recovered from the site], as well as oral testimonials from victims¹ families,² Greenwald said. ³We hope to create an experience.²
She said that the most difficult part of her work has been reviewing material for inclusion in the museum to capture the enormous tragedy of the day. She added that families of the victims have been consulted each step of the way, and she has received much input from them about what they would like to see included in the museum.
³The task is daunting, but it is also most exciting, because we have the ability to create something from the ground up,² Greenwald said. ³And this issue [the Sept. 11 attacks] is the key issue of our time.²
She went on to say that the purpose of the museum is not only to recount the human tragedy, but also to spotlight the best of humanity and the human spirit that came out that day, when rescuers gave their own lives to save others. ³Sure, there was a lot of human tragedy, but it also brought out the best of humanity, and there are plenty of these stories on Sept. 11,² Greenwald said.
³We want to do a good job in paying homage to these people,² she said of the victims of the attacks and the bravery of rescue personnel that day. ³They are due their honors, and we want to create a museum that is an appropriate structure and an enormous tribute to them.²
Greenwald said she was awestruck when she was selected as leader of the 9/11 museum, and that she is well aware of the tremendous responsibility that goes with it. ³I feel that this is giving us an opportunity to make a difference,² she said, adding that she has been given a wonderful staff to work with on this project.
She has said that the story that should be told through the museum is that innocent people went to work on Sept. 11 and lost their lives in an unspeakable horror and indiscriminate mass murder that should never have happened. ³They were people just like you and me,² Greenwald said. ³It just shows you how interconnected we all really are.²
Comments about this story? E-mail: jlipton@liherald.com.
Also, from Sept. 8 until Oct. 7, an exhibit called ³9/11 in the American Landscape: Photographs by Jonathan Hyman,² will display 63 photos on the 45th floor of 7 World Trade Center.
Greenwald seems like a perfect candidate to accept such a challenging post. She was born in Oceanside but her family soon moved to Cedarhurst, where she attended Lawrence schools and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1969. She recalls growing up around Cedarhurst Village Hall, where her father was a clerk, assessor and treasurer for the village.
³All parts of your life help to shape you as a person,² said Greenwald, who now lives in Manhattan¹s Battery Park, not far from ground zero. ³My high school experience was fairly conventional, but I had really great teachers,² she said.
She had worked with the Holocaust Museum since 1986, documenting human tragedy as a member of the design team for the museum¹s permanent exhibition. After she was chosen in February as the 9/11 museum director by the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Greenwald said she ³hit the ground running² in April, and the ideas for the planned museum have been coming in nonstop.
The museum is slated to have a phased opening in September 2009, when the ground zero memorial plaza is expected to be completed. ³I believe we are on track, but we have a lot of work ahead of us,² Greenwald said.
She explained that it is still too early to release details of exactly what will be included in the museum, but she said that artifacts from ground zero will be on display in the museum. ³It will also include intimate materials and personal effects [recovered from the site], as well as oral testimonials from victims¹ families,² Greenwald said. ³We hope to create an experience.²
She said that the most difficult part of her work has been reviewing material for inclusion in the museum to capture the enormous tragedy of the day. She added that families of the victims have been consulted each step of the way, and she has received much input from them about what they would like to see included in the museum.
³The task is daunting, but it is also most exciting, because we have the ability to create something from the ground up,² Greenwald said. ³And this issue [the Sept. 11 attacks] is the key issue of our time.²
She went on to say that the purpose of the museum is not only to recount the human tragedy, but also to spotlight the best of humanity and the human spirit that came out that day, when rescuers gave their own lives to save others. ³Sure, there was a lot of human tragedy, but it also brought out the best of humanity, and there are plenty of these stories on Sept. 11,² Greenwald said.
³We want to do a good job in paying homage to these people,² she said of the victims of the attacks and the bravery of rescue personnel that day. ³They are due their honors, and we want to create a museum that is an appropriate structure and an enormous tribute to them.²
Greenwald said she was awestruck when she was selected as leader of the 9/11 museum, and that she is well aware of the tremendous responsibility that goes with it. ³I feel that this is giving us an opportunity to make a difference,² she said, adding that she has been given a wonderful staff to work with on this project.
She has said that the story that should be told through the museum is that innocent people went to work on Sept. 11 and lost their lives in an unspeakable horror and indiscriminate mass murder that should never have happened. ³They were people just like you and me,² Greenwald said. ³It just shows you how interconnected we all really are.²
Comments about this story? E-mail: jlipton@liherald.com.
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