She plants Seeds of Peace after terror attack.
NEW YORK | Lauren Rosenzweig took on a mission after her husband, Phil, was killed on one of the hijacked airliners that struck the World Trade Center.
In his name, she’s requesting donations to a youth organization trying to snuff out the roots of terrorism in feuding lands.
“I don’t want him to have died in vain,” she said.
Rosenzweig saw a TV report on Seeds of Peace days after her husband died and included an appeal for contributions to their efforts in the obituary.
His friends, co-workers at Sun Microsystems, and even a few strangers have pitched in, raising about $40,000.
“What I wanted to do was to give the money to an organization that would make this not happen again,” Rosenzweig told the 120 youths who attended a Seeds of Peace conference held in New York last week.
The delegates also had attended the Seeds of Peace summer camp in Maine, where children from areas in conflict come together to debate world problems.
“Getting to know each other is the answer,” Rosenzweig said Saturday by phone from her home near Boston. “Every little step toward getting to know another human being makes it that much harder to kill them.”
Last week’s conference featured discussions on what creates tensions in areas such as education, religion, the media and government.
Queen Noor of Jordan also addressed the group. “You have stared hatred in the face and refused to give in,” she said.
Among the participants were Fareed Yaldram, an Indian from Bombay, and Shyam Kapadia, a Pakistani from Punjab, both 17, who have become close friends since attending the Maine summer camp.
“To be honest, I didn’t know Pakistanis and Indians are so much the same,” Shyam said. “My enemy isn’t an enemy, he’s just a human being.”