THIS WEEK'S TRIBUNE  THIS WEEK'S TRIBUNE Canadian rabbis join US peers to make 1943 march of the rabbis, Bergson group part of Yad Vashem
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Canadian rabbis join US peers to make 1943 march of the rabbis, Bergson group part of Yad Vashem |
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Written by the Jewish Tribune staff
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 |
NEW YORK – Fifteen Canadians are among 400 rabbis of all denominations who signed a recent petition urging Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem to include information on the 1943 rabbis’ march to the White House and other Holocaust protests organized by the maverick Bergson Group, which worked actively to save European Jewry despite opposition from mainstream American Jewish leaders.
Last year, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington agreed to add material about the Bergson Group to its permanent exhibit.
The petition was delivered to Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the new head of Yad Vashem, who was visiting New York to address the United Nations on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“The rabbis’ march was the only rally for rescue of Europe’s Jews that was held in the nation’s capital during the Holocaust,” the petition states. “The march and the Bergson Group’s other protests – rallies, lobbying in Washington and hundreds of newspaper advertisements – helped shatter the silence surrounding the Holocaust and put pressure on the Roosevelt administration to take rescue action. These efforts played an important role in bringing about the creation of the US government’s War Refugee Board, which helped save more than 200,000 Jews from Hitler.
“Yad Vashem already includes material pertaining to various aspects of the Allies’ disappointing response to the Holocaust,” the petition points out. “Visitors to Yad Vashem need to know that although too many people were silent during the Holocaust, there were some who spoke out. Publicizing this fact can help inspire future generations to speak out against injustice.”
In July, David Silberklang, a senior historian at Yad Vashem, in an article in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, justified the exclusion of Hillel Kook – aka Peter Bergson – in the museum by claiming that Yad Vashem “focuses on the main points of the history of the Holocaust,” while the Bergson Group is “a side story.” According to a response to that claim by David Wyman, founder of the Wyman Institute, also in Ha’aretz, “operating independently of the organized American Jewish community, Bergson mobilized large numbers of prominent non-Jews and built an ecumenical coalition that made rescue a major issue in 1943…. That is not a side story.”
Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute, said: “Yad Vashem cannot ignore the fact that such a wide range of American Jewish religious leaders feel so strongly about the omission of the Bergson Group from Yad Vashem’s museum.”
Two of the Canadian signatories are the sons of rabbis that personally participated in the march. Montreal Rabbi Reuben Poupko’s father, Rabbi Eliezer Poupko, and his maternal grandfather, Rabbi David Novoseller, both participated. Toronto Rabbi Zvi Kamanetzky is the son of Rabbi Benyamin Kamenetzky, dean emeritus of the South Shore Yeshiva in Long Island, NY, who took part in the march and spearheaded the petition with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, one of the first historians to write about the rabbis’ march.
The Canadian rabbis who signed the petition are: Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka, Congregation Machzikei Hadas, Ottawa; Rabbi Ari Ellis, Herzlia - Adas Yeshurun Synagogue, Winnipeg; Rabbi Daniel Friedman, Beth Israel Synagogue, Edmonton; Rabbi Mark Friedman, Congregation Sha'ar Shalom, Chomedey; Rabbi Zvi Kamenetzky, Menahel Talmud Torah Toronto; Rabbi Leigh Lerner, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom , Montreal; Rabbi Lionel Moses, Shaare Zion Congregation, Montreal; Rabbi Schachar Orenstein, the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal; Rabbi Charles S. Popky, Agudath Israel Congregation, Ottawa; Rabbi Reuben J. Poupko, Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation, Montreal; Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem, Cote St. Luc; Rabbi Michael Whitman, Adath Israel Poale Zedek Anshei Ozeroff, Hampstead; Rabbi Stephen Wise, Shaarei-Beth El Congregation - Ontario, Oakville; Rabbi Moshe Jablon, Congregation Beth Ora, St. Laurent, and Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Glick, Congregation Ahavat Yisroel, Montreal. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 February 2009 )
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