From Dec ’07 Spotlight: I heard many wonderful lectures at this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival, but two really stand out. “An Evening with Alan and Marilyn Bergman” (October 27) was a total delight…
Far more sobering, but equally fascinating, was journalist Emily Hauser’s presentation: “The Jordan – Politics, Pollution, and the Death of a River” (November 11). “Perhaps deserts weren’t meant to bloom,” Hauser suggested, while offering her deep respect for the sacrifices of Zionist pioneers who had made that their mission. Audience members gasped, but as gut-wrenching as that sounds, Hauser isn’t saying anything that isn’t equally true of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and other booming American cities with looming environmental problems. Visit www.jewishjournal.com to read her provocatively-titled April article, “Israel river pollution brings call for ‘new kind of Zionism’.”
Wow, what a fun thing to find this here! Thanks very much!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the lecture — I really like the Festival audience, always very interested and interesting.
If anyone would like to read the lecture in its entirety, nowadays it can actually be found on my blog: http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/the-jordan-politics-pollution-and-the-death-of-a-river/
The blog itself is just called In My Head, because it’s all kind of ramblings from inside my noggin. http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/