The Lower East Side Tenement Museum family would like to offer condolences to all who have suffered through the trauma and horror of last week's events. Likewise, everyone here at the Tenement Museum has been very moved by the tremendous number of calls and e-mails of concern and support that we have received from the public, our colleagues, members, and friends over the past few days. We are so appreciative of the solidarity and kindness that we have seen and felt in this very difficult time.

Every one of the Museum's staff has been accounted for, as have the immediate family members of our staff. The Museum is located about a quarter of a mile from the Twin Towers, so our staff was spared the physical trauma that thousands of people suffered in the Financial District. However, we witnessed the events of September 11th first-hand, seeing the towers collapse some twenty blocks away and then working with many of the victims.

As thousands of people staggered up Allen Street from the Financial District, the Museum opened its offices and tenement building to minister to the dazed and dusty survivors. Providing water, food, and bathrooms, the Museum staff made sandwiches, applied bandages and ice packs, helped people clean up and contact their loved ones, listened when people needed to talk, and offered hands and hugs to anyone in need. Afterward, many of our staff walked miles home only to find out that their own friends or neighbors were among the survivors, missing, or dead.

In the past week, some staff found that their loved ones or neighbors had become targets of hatred, simply because of the color of their skin or perceived nationality or religion. Many of us overheard hateful expressions of bigotry against immigrants, particularly against Arabs and Muslims.

The Museum staff is united in the belief that our nation’s diversity makes the United States unique and that our tolerance for diversity is a source of great strength. It is unthinkable that Americans would give comfort to the terrorists by giving in to the hatred that they visited on our country last Tuesday.

On the Friday after the attack, our first day back in the office, the Museum's staff worked on a set of pragmatic and programmatic responses to address the issue of ethnic and religious tensions and tolerance in our country. We will be sharing this programmatic plan with the public in the near future. In the meantime, we hope that you will join us in standing against statements and acts of hate and terror.