In memory of Holocaust victims, Cardinal William Kasper, a top Vatican liaison to the Jewish people, rededicated a menorah at the Boston Archdiocese. He's calling the menorah a reminder of "a common duty and a common responsibility" to promote peace among religions. The ceremony was held before about 200 people, including rabbis, priests, and Holocaust survivors.

The menorah was originally dedicated in 2002, but moved to a new home after the archdiocese sold its land to pay off debts. The recent dedication was on Wednesday in honor of Yom HaShoah. 

Kasper reportedly called the Holocaust-denier bishop Richard Williamson's comments "stupid" and "unacceptable." This comes two weeks after the Pope, in a rare admission of fault, apologized for the Vatican's actions in relation to Bishop Williamson.

Cardinal Kasper's full remarks can be found here.

I was struck last week by several Holocaust-related stories in the news, and specifically how they all have the typical tunnel vision we’ve come to expect from anything vaguely related to the Holocaust. 

The first covered a former suburban Cleveland automaker, who may be extradited to Germany to face charges of murder. German authorities claim John Demjanjuk, 88, was a guard in Sobibor, a concentration camp in Poland more than 60 years ago. John Demjanjuk: formerly a Nazi guard?Demjanjuk has already been extradited once, to Israel, when he was under suspicion of being the notorious Ivan the Terrible, a guard at Treblinka. Demjanjuk was convicted, but Israeli officials eventually received evidence that Ivan the Terrible was a different old Ukrainian guy, so Demjanjuk was released and returned to the US. Germany is hoping to have him in their custody within the next few months. Demjakjuk’s lawyer says his client cannot get up from a chair by himself, and John Demjanjuk Jr. says his father is “not in good health right now.”

In another story, we learned that the Vatican is continuing to restrict some archives having to do with Pope Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, and who is often derided by various Jewish organizations for not doing enough to ensure the safety of Jews and Catholics during the Holocaust. A Vatican official recently said that Jewish archives should be opened before people get angry at the church for restricting access to its documents. Jewish groups responded by declaring that their archives are already open.

Finally, Yad Vashem is being asked to recognize the work of a man named Peter Bergson, who was a major player in all of the public work and activism done by American Jews during the Holocaust. Among other things, Bergson initiated a Rabbis’ March on the White House with more than 400 Orthodox rabbis. It was the only protest demonstration calling for Holocaust rescue activities ever held in Washington during World War II. Bergson was deeply involved in shaming the Roosevelt White House into creating the War Refugee Board, which helped save more than 200,000 lives during the final 18 months of World War II. Bergon’s family presented Yad Vashem with a petition signed by more than 100 public Jewish figures asking that the museum recognize Bergson in some way. Thus far the museum has refused.

All three of these stories demonstrate an intense connection and sensitivity to the Holocaust—and this intensity is baffling. Even in the best case scenario, the stakes in these cases are extraordinarily low. John Demjanjuk may be a bad guy, he may have done terrible things, but is there anything that can be done to him now that would be even remotely humane? The man cannot stand up. He is already a prisoner in his body. What is to be gained by extraditing him to Germany?  The Vatican’s finger pointing is embarrassing, but regardless, what’s the advantage of knowing just how much Pope Pius didn’t do to save more people?  And Peter Bergson was no doubt a remarkable man who did exemplary things, but does that mean Yad Vashem should be pressured into honoring him?

The world has real problems right now—Darfur, the rising cost of food, global warming—and I don’t see any benefit in constantly focusing time, money, and energy on minor issues just because they are tangentially related to the Holocaust. ‘Never again’ means we have to be vigilant about our behavior and advocacy in the present.  It doesn’t mean investing all of our resources in digging up the past.

• It’s nice to see that there are still some religious figures who can keep their pants on: Prominent cantor of the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, Naftali Hershtik, seems to have been the target of an entrapment scheme that aimed to get him fired for sexual misconduct. Hershtik was lured into the hotel room of a young woman while hidden cameras caught everything on tape. Apparently, though, nothing untoward happened. The plot seems to have been the work of Israel Rand, a former student of Hershtik’s.
  

• Gravestones were defaced and smashed in a London Jewish cemetery, Damaged fences and a small fire were also reported in the apparently anti-Semitic attack. So far there have been no arrests.
  

• Also in England, the Jewish community is catching some flack because several state-aided Jewish schools have been asking parents for inappropriate personal information and/or requesting donations on admissions applications. This is in breach of the government admissions code. The problem seems to stretch to most state-aided Jewish schools, and the Jewish Chronicle reports that some schools have violations in up to seven categories.
  

• The Pope’s big news for Jews again. He’ll be attending Park East Syangogue in Manhattan on erev Pesach. This is the first papal visit to an American synagogue. Meanwhile, the Vatican has just released a statement about the revised version of the traditional Good Friday prayer for Jews. Though some rabbis and Jewish leaders are still not happy with the text, the Vatican maintains that the Good Friday prayer, "in no way intends to indicate a change in the Catholic Church's regard for the Jews."

• On a lighter and slightly bizarre note, this week is the premiere of Margot Frank: The Diary of the Other Young Girl, at Shea Center for the Performing Arts at William Paterson University. The premise is a musical exploration of Anne Frank’s sister’s diary, where Margot reveals that she and Peter are in love, and calls Anne, “a conniving little bitch.” Writers Diana Rissetto and Lori Mooney say that the show is a serious attempt to ponder the voices silenced by the Holocaust and history. Um, okay.

The Vatican Runs On Solar Power: does your house of worship?This week the Vatican announced a list of new sins. Included in the corrupt collection are ominous warnings against polluting the earth and "causing environmental blight." These "ecological" offenses are listed alongside "New Forms of Social Sin," including excessive wealth, contributing to the growing gulf between the rich and the poor, and stem cell research.

At first glance this might look like a lame ploy by the Vatican to appeal to young people who are socially and environmentally conscious, but at least with the green initiatives, they’re backing up the rhetoric with real action.

Pope John Paul and successor Pope Benedict have made great strides in greening the Vatican: Vatican City has already teamed up with a Hungarian carbon offset company to plant the Vatican Climate Forest, which will cover 37 acres (Vatican City is only about .2 square miles, so it doesn’t take much to make it carbon neutral).

The papal audience hall is completely powered by solar panels installed in a rooftop garden. Planktos/KlimaFa--the carbon offset company working with the Vatican--has announced that it’s committed to helping them develop methods to calculate the carbon emissions of individual Catholic churches, and offer eco-restoration options to turn their carbon footprints green.

In his World Peace Day 2007 speech, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Disregard for the environment always harms human coexistence. There is an inseparable link between peace with creation and peace among men.”

It’s a fairly humble beginning, but if a billion Catholics follow the Pope’s example on this issue, the world would be in a much better ecological state. Likewise, it would be great to see any of the branches of Judaism pushing a green agenda as enthusiastically as the Vatican has. Thus far, the Reconstructionist movement seems to be doing the most, including building some great green synagogues.

Pope Benedict XVI recently decided to reformulate the Catholic Church's traditional Good Friday prayers, which apparently have repeated references to the “darkness” and “blindness” of Jews. According to the Jerusalem Post:

Pope Benedict XVI: pissin off the Yids

The Latin prayers for Good Friday ask Catholics to "pray also for the Jews that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge Our Lord Jesus Christ," and ask God not to "refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness."

The move upset Jewish leaders, and prompted the Chief Rabbinate [of the UK] to write to the pope expressing their concern.

Abraham H. Foxman, US director of the Anti-Defamation League, said then he was "extremely disappointed and deeply offended" by the reintroduction of "insulting anti-Jewish language" that would "now permit Catholics to utter such hurtful and insulting words."

Jewcy isn’t exactly Foxman’s biggest fan, but he’s making a reasonable degree of sense here.

The Pope recently released the revised version of the prayer, but Jewish leaders still weren’t pleased.
Reuters:

Cardinal Walter Kasper spoke in an interview in a leading Italian newspaper a day after world Jewish leaders said the new prayer could set back inter-religious dialogue by decades.

"I must say that I don't understand why Jews cannot accept that we can make use of our freedom to formulate our prayers," Kasper, a German, told the Corriere della Sera.

Jews criticized the new version because it still says they should recognize Jesus Christ as the savior of all men. It asks that "all Israel may be saved" and keeps an underlying call to conversion that Jewish leaders had wanted omitted.

"We think that reasonably this prayer cannot be an obstacle to dialogue because it reflects the faith of the Church and, furthermore, Jews have prayers in their liturgical texts that we Catholics don't like," Kasper said.

I’m not a big fan of this particular prayer, but I do think Kasper has a point. We have fundamentally different religions. Our prayers should be free to recognize that.