400 Rabbis Urge Yad Vashem To Recognize Bergson Group,Special to The Jewish Press

In 1943, some four hundred rabbis marched to the White House to urge the rescue of Jews from the Nazis, in the only such protest in Washington during the Holocaust.

Last week, another four hundred rabbis spoke out - this time signing a petition urging Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust center, to recognize the 1943 march and other Holocaust rescue protests organized by the activists known as the Bergson Group.

The petition was organized by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and led by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who was one of the first historians to write about the rabbis' march, and Rabbi Benyamin Kamenetzky of the South Shore Yeshiva, who was one of the marchers in 1943.

The petition was delivered last week to Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, the new head of Yad Vashem, when he visited New York to address the United Nations on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Rabbis marching in Washington on behalf of European Jews, 1943

"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 U.S. 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."

Bergson Group leader Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook)

Orthodox leaders who signed include Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, chancellor of Yeshiva University; Rabbi Shalom Carmy, editor of the Orthodox scholarly journal Tradition; Rabbi Michael Myers, dean of Hebrew Theological College in Skokie; Rabbi Avi Weiss, head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah rabbinical school; and the Biala Rebbe, Grand Rabbi Aaron Shlomo Rabinowitz.

Reform leaders who signed the petition include Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Many leaders of the Conservative movement also signed, including Rabbi Daniel Nevins, dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Rabbi Dr. David Golinkin, president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and grandson of one of the 1943 marchers; and the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Joel Meyers. Reconstructionist leaders who signed included Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Two other notable signatories were the chief rabbi of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's great-grandson Rabbi Joshua Boettiger. Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff called the petition "a remarkable and unprecedented display of intra-Jewish unity," and added: "Imagine how much more might have been accomplished during the Holocaust years if Jewish leaders had acted in this spirit and set aside their differences. Today's rabbinical leaders recognize the mistakes of the past and want the historical record to be set straight, so that we can all learn from it."

Read Comments (1)

So why were Jewish leaders silent?
Date 12:02, 02-7, 09

Please explain ...