Media

Perhaps it was predictable that some of the most interesting cultural dialogues regarding the Middle East would surface in the borough of Queens.

By BOB SUTER

The crowd in LeFrak Concert Hall on May 1 had come to hear Common Chords, a joyous concert of Klezmer and South Asian music. But first, they heard one of the saddest stories to come out of 9/11.

By IMAN KHAN

By DAVID GONZALEZ

Decades before the rest of the world followed suit, the United Nations briefly lived in Queens. The Secretariat building may now tower over Manhattan, but the borough across the East River has arguably done a better job of bringing together people born under every flag on earth -- including a few banners once carried by warring armies.

“When I grew up, two things were in the window of our modest little place in Park Forest,” recalls Mark Rosenblum of his childhood in Chicago’s suburbs. “We had a picture of Ben Gurion and a picture of Adlai Stevenson.”

By LAN N. NGUYEN

QUEENS COLLEGE senior Sadia Mohammed thought that, as a Muslim, she understood the thorny Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

But seven weeks into a class that is part of a four-year project called "The Middle East and America: Clash of Civilizations or Meeting of the Minds," she has been forced to reassess.