When you enter the New lobby, you can view a most unusual “Jewish Totem”, it was created by a good friend of Harriett and me, a noted artist and sculptor, Temima Gezari, whose works are found in American, Israeli, and European Museums. The Totem, on 3 levels, depicts Jewish historical figures, others who sought to destroy our people, and finally those who have recreated our peoples present and future. Tomorrow we will drive out to Rocky Point to celebrate her 94th birthday. She is our hero, full of fun, zest and hope.

Dr. Bernie Siegel, the eminent holistic physician, believes in the power of love to give a person hope. To him, “love is the golden thread that unites the many forms of healing.” One of his patients, a woman suffering from cancer, wrote to him: “God’s gifts sometimes come in strange packages. My experience has helped me to understand that I am not in control of the outcome of my illness. I am in charge of my attitude and what I give to my life and how I treat my body...I now know that The Universe/God my not provide me with everything I want, but it will provide me with everything I need.” Dr. Siegel writes that “even if what you most hope for – a complete cure– doesn’t come to pass, the hope itself can sustain you to accomplish many things in the meantime. Refusal to hope is nothing more than a decision to die. I know there are people alive today because I gave them hope and told them they didn’t have to die.” (Love, Medicine & Miracles. P.29)

In a scientific study 122 men were evaluated for the pessimism or optimism they had felt at the time of suffering a heart attack. Eight years later it was discovered that their state of mind was a better predictor of death from heart attack than were any of the standard medical risk factors including damage to the heart in the first episode, artery blockage, cholesterol levels or blood pressure. Of the 25 most pessimistic men, 21 had died after eight years; but of the 25 most optimistic men, only 6 had died. Gregory Buchanan, a psychologist at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston who did the study of pessimism and heart attacks, found that “pessimistic people are less likely to change habits that might be damaging to their health...If pessimists think, `What’s the point of trying-it won’t matter,’ - then they are less likely to make the effort to exercise or try to control the stress in their lives.” (New York Times, 11/26/91)