Here and Now

This was written for the 50th Reunion of the Habonim Workshop that took place in 1952 at Geva, Israel.  Hadassah was in Santa Fe, New Mexico when she wrote these remarks.

I’ll call this bio “Here and Now’. “Here”, 18 + 50 is where | am presently in my life. A life that included educational and psychological work with children and adults, devotion to writing intercultural dialogue and environmental and peace activism has brought me to this point I’ve aways juggled the polarity of involvement with people and the ‘world’ with a strong meditative bent. Like most folks I’ve had and have my share of relationships that nurture the soul. | guess I’ve traveled the world a bit more than some; have dual citizenship Israeli and American.

Which brings me to the “Now”. A year ago I moved from Jerusalem to Santa Fe. In my heart I’m in both places and | expect to be back in Israel for a longer or shorter period a year from now. There’s a group of Jews and others, loosely affiliated with Michael Lerner’s Tikkun Movement, that I’m involved with here. The primary focus is on striving to promote a peaceful and just resolution of the conflict between Israel & Palestine.  By e-mail I’m in close touch with Israeli political psychologist Olek Netzer, who believes that the dismantling of settlements, of at least one settlement NOW to begin with, is imperative if we’re to reverse inter communal dialogue and mutual help projects such as Ta’ayush and the Israel Interfaith Association are important aids to mutual understanding.

Aside from this preoccupation of mine, I’m facilitating a “Self Renewal Workshop” in which | teach Progoff’s Intensive Journal Technique and psychosynthesis exercises.   Writing of poetry and prose continues as does the search for a publisher for a few of my bigger (book length) brain children, including, in particular, GET THEE FORTH, the record of my journey to and within India from Israel (1977-78). Oh, and I like to meditate at the Friends Meeting house each week and once a month with  a few friends who share my attunement to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy. Walking out in nature, dreaming beneath the grandmother apricot tree in my yard, digging organic matter into the earth, praying for peace.

Highlights

A website featuring Hadassah Haskale’s poetry and prose

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HELLO OUT THERE FELLOW EARTHLINGS !

It is August 12th, 2006 as I write this. I’m recently back from a reading tour in the American southwest where I shared poetry from my book Dreaming Beyond War, a quarter century of reflections on war and peace in Israel and the USA.   The war Israel launched July 12th, 2006, after Hizballah fighters fired rockets from Lebanon, killing soldiers inside Israel and taking two hostage, continues. Sirens are intermittent in northern Israeli towns and villages, bombardments relentless, some people huddled in shelters for a month. Devastation is even heavier in Lebanon.

Who are we, who am I, who are you, as we live in the midst, part of a continuum? I shut the chaos out to find peace of mind. But I want to know, to understand what’s happening. Where/how do we fit into the pattern of events, the stream of consciousness surrounding and swaying us when the natural mind is polluted with war cries, with language sanitizing dirty work? That’s where poetry comes in. To scrape off the silver obscuring the code, to remove the blinders, re-open the eye.

We can have a say. Can we dig our way out of traps we humans set for ourselves?

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