TRUST YOUR AFFAIR TO
THE FINEST CATERER

0

0

O

0

JEWEL

0

CATERERS

OPINION

The Sins Of Omission
And A Need To Heal

CLASSIC CUISINE

Approved by Council of Orthodox Rabbis

WE'LL BEAT YOUR
BEST PRICE!

• Weddings
• Bar/Bat Mitzvahs
• Showers
• Banquets
• Anniversaries
• Reunions
• Birthdays
• Etc.
We Cater At Most Synagogues,
Temples, Hotels and the Halls
Of Your Choice

PHILIP TEWEL

Food & Beverage
Director

(248) 661-4050

Farmington Hills

EQUILIBRIUM
Nfind-Body

FltrIESS

Exercises for the millenium
The methods taught at our
studio offer you over
1,000 years of
HEALTHY, MIND-BODY
TRADITION!

•PILATES • NIA
•YOGA • FELDENKRAIS
•T'AI CHI • CALLANETICS
•PHYSIOBALL

248.723.6500

Bloomfield Medical Village
on Telegraph just 1 block
north of Maple.

Interiorcorp, LTD.

DAVID MARK WEISS
FINE INTERIOR
DESIGN/MATERIALS

Selection and
Specifications for
Your New
Construction/Custom
Furniture

By Appointment Only

5/8

1998

32

248-626-1777

T

But the document used the "mis-
here is an 18th century Yid-
takes
were made" technique reminis-
dish proverb that says, "If
cent
of
politicians seeking to distance
you want to have good rela-
themselves
from direct responsibility
tionships develop low
for
sins
of
the
past.
expectations."
To
many
of
us who read the Vati-
It is advice we tend to ignore when
can's
piece
for
the
first time, we took
it comes to interfaith dia-
the
"it
is
better
than noth-
logues — maybe because we
ing" approach. After all, it's
hold religions to a higher
central premise realizes that
standard or maybe because
hostility
toward Jews existed
hope springs eternal.
"in
some
Christian quarters"
But most Jews thought
for
centuries.
It admits that
when it came to the Holo-
"Christians
also
have been
caust and the Catholic
guilty
of
the
long-standing
Church that it might be dif-
sentiments of mistrust and
ferent this time around.
hostility that we call anti-
Maybe because this Pope is
Judaism."
so different when it comes
RABBI
After being in the Vati-
to Jews. Perhaps our expec-
DANNEL I.
can
for 10 minutes, it is
tations were so high because
SCHWARTZ
easy
to realize that admit-
the German, French, Hun-
Special to
ting
mistakes
is not a strong
garian and Polish bishops'
The Jewish News
suit.
Getting
the
Holy See
conferences have gone so far
to
admit
to
thousands
of
in recognizing the Church's
years
of
official
anti-Semitism
is
a
role in contributing to the moral cli-
major event of gargantuan propor-
mate of the Nazi era in Europe.
tion.
Maybe I was too invested in this 14-
It is equally true that this docu-
page document that the Church called
ment
equivocates! It distinguishes
"We Remember: Reflections on the
between
the direct teachings of the
Shoah." I served on a commission of
Church
and
the actions of Christians.
seven rabbis, six bishops and one cardi-
And
rather
than
deal head-on with the
nal who, for the first time in the history
criticism
of
Pious
XII for not speaking
of the world, traveled to Israel and
out
even
though
he
knew that Jews
Rome together under the auspices of
were being slaughtered by the mil-
the National Conference of Catholic
lions, the document praises Pious for
Bishops and the Jewish Council for
Public Affairs. We were to negotiate and saving thousands of Jews during the
war.
confer with Israeli officials on Jewish
We spent two and a half hours with
and Catholic relations and finally to
Cardinal
Cassidy, and the bishops and
speak to the Vatican authorities upon
rabbis
alike
spoke about their expecta-
the release of a document that promised
tions
and
disappointments.
If it had
to have historic implications because it
been
released
10
years
ago,
the
docu-
was to be "more than an apology, this is
ment would have been revolutionary.
an act of repentance."
Because it took 11 years to create
Dannel Schwartz is a rabbi at Temple
this paper, to most of us sitting
Shir Shalom.
around that table it seemed like there

•

was a tremendous wind up and no
pitch. I .wanted desperately for the
church to make some changes — but
it didn't. I wanted them to talk about
the "teachings of contempt"!
I wanted them to admit that
because of their overarching need to
missionize, it gave tacit permission for
them to demonize and that is what
caused pogroms and persecutions and
the final solutions that plagued Jews
for 2,000 years. But despite these dis-
appointments and sins of omission
within the 14 pages of the Church's
statement, I believe with perfect faith
that this is just the beginning!
It shows more reflection and more
remorse than any statement made by
the Catholic Church to the Jewish 44
people in 2,000 years. It reflects intro-
spection and expresses "deep sorrow"
for the "failures" of the Catholic
Church's "sons and daughters in every
age." And it says, "We pray that our
sorrow for the tragedy which the Jew-
ish people has suffered in our century
will lead to a new relationship with
the Jewish people."
There are a billion Catholics in thiA
world. Ninety percent of them have
absolutely no idea that the Holocaust
existed. Many of them were unaffected
by it because they didn't live close by
when it was happening and even more
weren't even born yet. It's easy to tell
the pope and the bishops that it's too
little and too late. It's all too cute to
write off this report as insignificant.
To those who try to revise history 14
and say that there was no Holocaust:
this report is here. It is more than
"better than nothing." The Church
has promised the world, in public,
that they will teach this document and
make it part of Catholic life. And that
to me is a beginning to a Never Again.
And that is a lot. El

LETTERS

it will show up. Someone opening the
tube and seeing the Hebrew hand let-
tering could either toss it away or
maybe think it is another Dead Sea
Scroll worth a fortune.
I want whoever finds it to know it's
invaluable to me.

Arnold Michlin
Farmington Hills

Many Groups
Have Deep Roots

The Michigan Coalition of Secular

and Humanistic Jews, representing
five constituent groups, was pleased to
see the story about our friends of the
Sholem Aleichem Institute. We cele-
brate both their deep roots in the
Detroit Jewish community and the
many meaningful activities they pro-
vide for their members and the com-
munity.
There are strong secular and
humanistic Jewish schools thriving in
four member groups: Birmingham
Temple, Jewish Cultural Society of
Ann Arbor, Jewish Parents Institute
and the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter

Sarah Friedman tells a Sholem Ale-
ichem fable.
Ring.
Among our constituent groups, we
offer: schools, teen programs, holiday
observances, adult education, bar and

•