‘A Man Whose Faith Drove Him to Champion Human Rights’: Stone Carving of Elie Wiesel Added to Washington National Cathedral
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The stone carving of Elie Wiesel that has been added to at Washington National Cathedral. |
A stone carving of the late Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel has been added to the Washington National Cathedral’s Human Rights Porch to honor Wiesel’s “legacy as a lifelong human rights defender dedicated to combating indifference and intolerance,” the house of worship announced on Wednesday.
The Human Rights Porch features carvings of historical human rights-defenders, including Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Jonathan Daniels and Eleanor Roosevelt. While there are many representations of Jewish biblical figures in the Cathedral, Wiesel is the first person from the modern-day Jewish community to featured in the house of prayer. The hand-carved sculpture was put in place by the Cathedral’s stonemasons and created with the involvement of the Wiesel family.
“My father’s faith was a tremendous part of who he was,” Wiesel’s son, Elisha Wiesel, told The Algemeiner. “I hope those attending the various faith-based services at the National Cathedral will remember him as both a passionately proud American and as a man whose faith drove him to champion human rights and the telling of stories that need to be told. Our family is deeply appreciative to the Cathedral for making him part of their institutional consciousness.”
The announcement was made in conjunction with the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Elie Wiesel Foundation
for Humanity.
Born in Romania in 1928, Wiesel was a survivor of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. His father, mother and sister were killed in the camps, and he detailed the horrors of the Holocaust in his autobiographical novel “Night.” He authored 57 books, was a vocal advocate for human rights causes around the world, and served as a professor at Boston University, which created the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies in his honor. He was the founding chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and received numerous prestigious awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal. He died in 2016 of natural causes.
The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said, “From the depths of cruelty inflicted on him, his family, and so many millions of Jews and others during the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel went on to dedicate his life to the pursuit of human rights, and to heed the lessons of history. We are humbled to welcome his likeness to the Cathedral, and pray that his example and legacy will be a blessing and an inspiration to all who enter.”
“Throughout his life, Elie devoted himself tirelessly to preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and working to ensure that other communities do not suffer the same fate,” said Marion Wiesel, Wiesel’s widow and vice president of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. “Not only does his presence in the National Cathedral memorialize his life and honor his commitment to human rights; it also ensures that new generations will learn from his teachings and carry the lessons of his life forward into the future.”
The Wiesel carving was sculpted by North Carolina artist Chas Fagan, a member of the US Commission on Fine Arts whose other works include the official White House portrait of First Lady Barbara Bush; statues of Ronald Reagan and Billy Graham at the US Capitol; and a statue of Pope John Paul II at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington.
A dedication of the bust will take place in fall 2021 as part of a program the Cathedral will launch — in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity — to celebrate Wiesel’s legacy.
The cathedral is part of the Episcopal Church but aims to be “a house of prayer for all people and a sacred space for the nation to gather,” it said in a statement.
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We Episcopalians believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As constituent members of the Anglican Communion in the United States, we are descendants of and partners with the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and are part of the third largest group of Christians in the world.
We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world.
We have a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; women and men serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy cooperate as leaders at all levels of our church. Leadership is a gift from God, and can be expressed by all people in our church, regardless of sexual identity or orientation.
We believe that God loves you – no exceptions.
The Role of the Churches in Nazi Germany
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This article originally appeared in
Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered by the Nazis. Churches, especially those in Nazi Germany, sought to act, as institutions tend to do, in their own best interests -- narrowly defined, short-sighted interests.
The list of "bystanders" -- those who declined to challenge the Third Reich in any way -- that emerges from any study of the Holocaust is long and depressing. Few organizations, in or outside Nazi Germany, did much to resist Nazism or aid its victims.
[I]t has become abundantly clear that [the Churches'] failure to respond to the horrid events...was not due to ignorance; they knew what was happening. Ultimately, the Churches' lapses during the Nazi era were lapses of vision and determination.
Assisting European Jews was not a high priority of the Allied governments as they sought to defeat Hitler militarily. The courageous acts of individual rescuers and resistance members proved to be the exception, not the norm.
To a great extent, this inertia defined the organized Christian community as well. Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered. In Nazi Germany in September 1935, there were a few Christians in the Protestant Confessing Church who demanded that their Church take a public stand in defense of the Jews. Their efforts, however, were overruled by Church leaders who wanted to avoid any conflict with the Nazi regime. Internationally, some Church leaders in Europe and North America did condemn the Nazis' measures against the Jews, and there were many debates about how Christians outside Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied territory should best respond to Hitler's brutal policies. These discussions, however, tended to become focused more on secondary strategic considerations -- like maintaining good relations with colleagues in the German Churches -- than on the central humanitarian issues that were really at stake.
READ MORE:
https://www.adl.org/news/op-ed/role-of-churches-nazi-germany
10 comments:
The National Cathedral is an Episcopalian institution. Color me highly skeptical about the Episcopal Church:
Simon Wiesenthal Center, "SWC Reaction to Bishop’s Apology for Repeating Phony Blood Libel Against Israelis" (20 August 2018) ; Noah Summers, " The Episcopal Church General Convention’s Sin of Scapegoating Israel," Algemeiner (16 July 2018) .
Yeah!
And amazing how Yanky Kanievsky is mevazeh the zayde in any way we request. Yanky got R' Chaim to announce yesterday that the oylam zolt danken G-t that the pandemic is "over".
Israel’s Health Ministry reported today that 41 Israelis have been diagnosed with the Indian covid variant, including 24 who returned from abroad & 17 who were infected in the country, some of whom had not been in contact with returning travelers.
Children are among those infected and the Health Ministry said the variant's been found at 5 different schools in Israel. 4 of the Israelis diagnosed with the Indian variant were vaccinated against the virus.
Most of the Israelis who returned to Israel with the variant had traveled from India but some returned from other countries. All passengers who tested positive for the variant on arriving in Israel had boarded their planes with a negative test.
Officials fear the variant may be vaccine-resistant & the govt's considering tighter travel restrictions. They would ban travel to high-risk countries, ie India, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico & Turkey, as well as mandate quarantine for even vaccinated travelers on returning to Israel.
(They probably want to know how much shmutz they have on Hunter & if it's teef enough to lay false charges on Giuliani as a smokescreen. Welcome to the Democrat Secret Police State.)
Federal agents early yesterday morning seized electronic devices from super-lawyer Victoria Toensing, a close associate of Rudy Giuliani, a source familiar with events said.
The raid came the same time investigators executed a search warrant at Giuliani’s Manhattan apt & office.
A SWAT team came to Toensing’s Washington, DC-area home to confiscate her phone & other devices, the source said.
“She would've been happy to turn over any documents. All they had to do was ask. Ms. Toensing was since informed she's not a target of criminal suspicion,” a spokesman for her law firm said.
SDNY Investigators are probing if Giuliani illegally lobbied on behalf of Ukrainian oligarchs, who were also helping him dig up dirt on Trump rivals, as per the NY Times.
Toensing, a former federal prosecutor & deputy assistant attorney general, had represented an oligarch under indictment in the US, whose help Giuliani sought in his mission to find dirt on Trump opponents, including Joe Biden & son Hunter, the report said.
The US Attorney’s Office in SDNY declined comment on the raid.
A group of Yeshiva University students are suing to force YU to recognize their LGBTQ club — after the group's been repeatedly blocked
4 former & current students filed the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit Tuesday alleging YU denied their requests to register a gay-rights group as a student club 3 times in 2019-2020
The students argue not allowing the group as recognized along 116 other clubs is discriminatory & violates NY’s human rights law
In 2019, YU in an unusual step, overruled the group’s formation despite student council approval, the suit claims
YU said it won’t allow a group with “gay” / “LGBT” in its title — noting it “would ‘cloud’ YU’s ‘nuanced’ position on LGBTQ,” the suit charges
So co-plaintiff YU Pride Alliance was formed unofficially in 2019 at a protest march supporting YU LGBTQ, court papers say
As the new name met YU criteria, the group reapplied in 2020 — but was denied twice that year, the filing claims
Even before this bid, YU has a long history denying LGBTQ clubs, back to 2009's Tolerance Club, court papers allege
The suit says denial unfairly “deprives important benefits at YU’s 116 other student orgs”: funding, meeting facilities, ads in YU emails / bulletins & fair inclusion to recruit incoming students, court documents say
“Beyond depriving student benefits, YU refusal to recognize the YU Pride Alliance causes starkly painful rejection & non-belonging to LGBTQ students & allies,” the suit charges
Students feel isolated-unwelcome from the lack of resources & camaraderie, court papers say
“YU continues to inflict grave dignitary, emotional & psychological harm on these students, indeed all students, who need belonging, safety, community & support,” the documents allege
The students ask a judge intervene to force YU to recognize the YU Pride Alliance
Plaintiff Tai Miller, YU class of 2020 & current Harvard Med student said, “Persistent YU rejection of LGBTQ made me feel ostracized & unwanted by my undergrad community & more broadly, from my faith community
"NY law's open & shut, YU knows it,” plaintiff lawyer Katherine Rosenfeld said. “YU can't discriminate against students due to sexual orientation / gender”
YU said in a statement: “YU policy on harassment-discrimination on the basis of protected classes ie LGBTQ+ are strong & vigorously enforced. Our Torah-guided decision on this club in no way minimizes care & sensitivity we have for each student, nor numerous steps YU already took. We actively engage students, faculty & rabbis to facilitate productive discussions with an eye to embrace diverse perspectives”
Rabbeinu Shmuel tells me these are nazirim who the Tzionim are smearing as "Hippies".
Yechee Adoinainu Moirainu veRabbainu Shmuel Kaminetzky leOylam VoEd!
Pardes Chana, a town near Haifa of 45,000 residents, suffered a covid outbreak this week & is now Israel’s only orange zone.
Town residents are known for “Hippie” lifestyle, many opposed to being vaccinated vs the virus. Attorney Bar Kochva, on Pardes Hanna-Karkur city council, told Ynet there's a group of locals, mostly age 20-40, who're against the vaccine & drove up the town infection rate.
Pardes Hanna also has a history of residents refusing to vaccinate their children for measles, which led to a large measles outbreak in 2018.
The covid outbreak led to the closure of 13 classrooms & 3 kindergartens in town. Some students have been infected with the new Indian variant.
A school-based outbreak was also reported in Jerusalem yesterday, with 23 students in one classroom at Teddy Kollek High School in Pisgat Ze’ev testing positive.
Connecticut no longer allows religious exemption in child immunizations, the 6th state to end that policy
The law was signed yesterday by Gov Ned Lamont, hours after the Democrat-controlled Senate passed the bill. 2,000+ opponents rallied at the state Capitol, shouting the law unfairly infringes religious liberty & parent rights
“Proud to sign this bill to protect as many kids as possible from diseases,” Lamont tweeted
3 groups opposing the law: We The Patriots USA, CT Freedom Alliance & Yeshivas Philly, said they'll file state & federal lawsuits to overturn the law, set to take effect in 2022-23
“The somehow notion that govt can cram its "virtue" down our throats is offensive,” said Norm Pattis, attorney of the orgs. He calls it “far more chilling” to tell parents how to raise kids than to expose others to “miniscule risk” of infection
Other states without religious exemption are CA, NY, WV, MS & ME, as per the National Conference of Legislatures
CT’s law covers public & private schools, higher education, daycare & child care centers
Proponents say eliminating exemptions prevents outbreaks of illness like measles. They cite steady increase in vaccine exemptions & declining vaccination rates: “The exemption was used for years to skirt the law, causing many schools to fall below CDC threshold of 95% for herd immunity vs highly contagious disease ie Measles, Pertussis, Tetanus, Meningitis, etc,” the Vaccination Alliance of health officials, parents & others, said
Vaccines are required as they're safe & protect the vaccinated + others who can’t be by slowing disease spread
Critics, ie parents with vaccine safety fears & religious liberty advocates, argue the bill's unnecessary given overall vaccination rates + discriminatory, forcing parents with concerns to home-school
“Don’t ever call yourself a champion of children! You failed our kids by voting yes, deny services to special needs kids & force parents out of work!” CT Freedom Alliance tweeted at Lamont & legislators & calling Lamont a “tyrant”
A sound byte was distributed from a conference call with Philly's Rebbitzen Kaminetzky. Between bouts of unintelligible screaming, the Rebbitzen was heard referring to Lamont as "Amalek", the name of a Biblical arch-villain
Lamont said he spent much time studying the issue: “For child safety, we need abundance of caution. This law's needed to protect kids vs serious illness: measles, TB & whooping cough, well-controlled for decades but reemerged”
As part of the oylam's emunas chochomim in your's truly, you should be veiter mishtadel in going to mass events where no one wears a pesky mask. Ignore that troublemaker Ponivizh rosh yeshiva who said no one should go. All of the trampled geshtorbena neshomos go into the cheshbon of what's bashert in becoming korbanos for "the cause":
At least 38 people were crushed to death & 65+ hurt, many critically, in a stampede after 12 AM Thurs at the Lag B’Omer mass gathering @ Mt Meron, medics said. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu calls it “a terrible disaster”
Magen David Adom rescuers say at least 38 were killed. Its paramedics treated 65+ people, 6 critical evacuated to hospitals, 18 in serious condition, 2 moderate & 39 light injury
The event appears as one of the worst peacetime tragedies in Israeli history
MDA Director-General Eli Bin told Ynet 38 are dead, the wounded evacuated to Ziv hospital Tzfat, Galilee Medical Center Nahariya, Rambam hospital Haifa, Poriya hospital Tverya & Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital Jerusalem
Hospitals opened hotlines to seek injured family-friends
As for a specific cause, initial reports said a stand collapsed at a concert where 100,000 people took part in events. But Magen David Adom said the tragedy was via a stampede crush from overcrowding
Police said dozens in a concert “slipped,” falling on those below in the stands, in a crushing domino effect
The IDF, which sent its 669 special forces rescue team to the site, said a roof had collapsed
MDA spokesman Zaki Heller told Yediot the deaths are from severe overcrowding
Huge crowds attended the annual gathering in north Galilee, visiting the grave of Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai & massive mountainside bonfires
“Rescue teams responded @ a concert by Bar Yochai’s tomb after a terrible crush by a building. Dozens were trapped on a stand. It took time to save them,” Heller said
“Fatalities, terrible tragedy,” adding it's a very complicated rescue ongoing thru the night
Pictures at the scene show bodies in blankets & bags
Video shows soldiers setting up a field hospital & dozens of ambulances trying to navigate thru huge crowds
Video before the incident shows 10,000s in the makeshift arena, jumping up & down on stands to music
Around midnight, organizers estimate 100,000 onsite, with another 100,000 expected to arrive by morning
Police closed the event to evacuate participants. Roadblocks were set up to stop people continually arriving
Police struggled to clear the crowds for ambulance access. Loudspeakers cried in Yiddish & Hebrew to make way for rescuers
Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, on a stage at the time of the apparent collapse, remained with other rabbis, saying Psalms for the wounded
President Rivlin tweeted he's watching developments with great trepidation & praying for those hurt
Bibi asked “everyone pray for recovery of the injured,” & offered support to rescue orgs
The huge gathering, Israel's largest since the pandemic, had already sparked health fears
Due to crowd size, police said they're unable to enforce virus restrictions at the site, despite 5000 officers deployed
Earlier in the evening, MDA already treated 148 people at Meron before the disaster, 8 taken to Ziv hospital
Most early injuries were fainting, heart problems, light injuries & exhaustion, with 2 in critical at the hospital: An 80 year old who lost consciousness & a 40 year old with acute allergic reaction
Health officials urged Israelis skip Meron, worried it'd lead to super-spreader contagion
Latest feste protim filtering in, but they missed the funnest part of a gepakteh, virus shedding "roiv am hadras Philly" ohn masks:
Horrific tragedy unfolds in Meron with Lag Ba’omer transformed to mourning. Multiple people have been killed & many more injured where the Toldos Aharon Rebbe was conducting hadlakah.
As per early reports, the stampede was set off by a collapsing balcony, though others cite a ramp collapse. Other sources attribute sheer volume of people.
Medics are providing assistance to 150+ injured, dozens in serious / critical condition.
CPR was performed on many injured, some of whom succumbed.
In light of the horror, the Northern District Police commander ordered all buses headed to Meron to turn around. No new visitors will reach the mountain tonight.
Buses are removing all from Meron. Police ask the entire assemblage walk to parking lots so all evacuate. “We ask all to retrace their steps. The mountain's closed,” police said.
Phone service failed at Meron. Most present have no reception. If you try to contact family & there's no answer, do not panic.
All livestream feeds from the Lag Ba’omer celebration have ended.
Helicopters, ambulances, even military planes, continue to transport the injured to hospitals, as Zaka & other chevra kadishas deal with fatalities.
MDA said 12:50 AM, the 1st report was received by MDA’s 101 hotline of collapse of a balcony on Mt Meron.
Following the collapse, fearing for public safety, a ban to enter Meron was implemented. All shuttles ceased operations.
Empty buses continue to ascend the mountain to bring people away from Kever Rashbi.
UPDATE: MDA's Zaki Heller says the injuries were caused due to overcrowding - NOT from a collapse.
According to an eyewitness, police blocked the back entrance to kever Rashbi, meanwhile, inside, pressure built when people couldn't leave. Ultimately, a mass human avalanche followed & people were crushed to death. “Police completely mishandled it! They weren't equipped or prepared!”
Rabbeinu Shmuel tells me this is the one exception when we do NOT quote R' Elya's: "vos vet zein mit der kinder":
A Zaka emergency officer speaking at the service’s field hospital on site, told Channel 12 there's chaos, with parents separated from children.
Zaka is attempting to gather all children who've become separated from their parents.
“We're also trying to locate people believed to be missing, to organize a register of names,” he said.
Mobile telephones not working, he says, makes the situation even more chaotic.
“There are 30+ children here right now whose parents aren’t answering the phone.”
“Without getting graphic,” he said, “I’ve been with Zaka for decades yet I’ve never seen anything like this. We don’t know exactly what happened, but the result is unthinkable.”
Zaka has a long history of dealing with tragedy, including collecting body parts from suicide bombings.
In response to a question from someone in the crowd identifying himself as a contributor on the UOJ blog comments section, the Zaka officer said rapist Meshi-Zahav has no access to any displaced women or children at it's field hospital, that Meshi-Zahav is not in any shape to make it to Meron from his ICU bed.
Channel 12 has just learned that following the impromptu press conference, Zaka received a telegram from a resident of Brooklyn, NY, one Lipa Margulies, who angrily protested it was inappropriate for the Zaka officer to field a question from the "contributor". Margulies describes UOJ as a "fake news" site & further alleges that the blog's owner pretends to be a health & wellbeing advocate. The real purpose of UOJ, according to Margulies, is to manufacture crises of "molesters" & "contagions", intended to bring about financial collapse of select yeshivas in Brooklyn, Philadelphia & Israel, where UOJ has a personal axe to grind.
After Peleg, Satmar, Philly & the rest of the Fressers had a hand in how huge the crowd was after all their selfish downplaying of the virus, they must be happy now that little kids are among those crushed to death.
It's sickening that many of the above ferds were dancing & laughing AFTER the stampede & quickly turned hostile & violent to disobey police orders to evacuate.
All paths from mountain now reek of urine with these behaymos relieving themselves like stray dogs.
A hospitalized Charedi tracked down by a reporter to his bed, complains he was surrounded by heimisher peasants who make the shtupping by Tish look like Ms Manners. They only cared about themselves while those around them were dying. One chazir in heimish levush was even punching him in an attempt to free himself!
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