ABSTRACT

The author was never simultaneously so happy and as sad as when she was in Israel; she never cries so much or laughs so much. It is the people who move her to such extremes of feeling, the people who exist in this state of war. When in Israel she was surrounded by some former, beloved students who have become her friends and colleagues. And she has discovered a few little-known family members from her husband’s side. On this particular occasion, November 1999, the author was invited along with two colleagues, Tom Andersen and Gianfranco Cecchin, to give a conference. There were fifty people sitting around Aram and myself in a big circle to listen to their conversation. They were the listeners, the witnesses, to Aram’s story so they could help him develop new possibilities to think about. When the interview was over, all of them who listened broke into six groups and reflected on what had been said.