Community
Spirituality
Learning
G oo d ne ss
Program focuses on cultivating the good,
not dwelling on the bad.
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer
0
Professor Lawrence Baron
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The Rev. Dr. James R.
Lyons Memorial Program
will highlight research and
discussion of Holocaust
rescuers.
n David Blewett's desk in his office sits a plaque
that reads: "It's not that hate is so loud, it's that
love is so quiet."
Blewett, executive director of the Ecumenical
Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies, hopes an upcoming
program will help teach that lesson.
The Southfield-based agency and the Cohn-Haddow
Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University are
co-sponsoring the Rev. Dr. James R. Lyons Memorial
Program on Christian-Jewish Relations. Rev. Lyons, who
died at age 60 in 1998, founded the institute in 1982.
First in an annual or biennial series of lectures in memory
of Rev. Lyons, the program will focus on "what causes
some people to do. good when everyone around seems to
do bad?" says Blewett.
"Our relationship with Cohn-Haddow is because of
Jim's [Rev. Lyons] relationship with Wayne State," he
addS. Rev. Lyons, founder and executive director of the
Ecumenical Institute, was also the director of the Walker
and Gertrude Cisler Library at WSU. It is a research
library dealing with the role of churches in Nazi Germany.
The three-lecture memorial program will be conducted
by Lawrence Baron, an author, researcher, Nasatir
Professor of Modern Jewish History and director of the
Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies at San Diego State
University.
As the first Lyons Memorial Program scholar in resi-
dence, Baron will speak Sunday, March 19, and Monday,
March 20, on three different subjects.
He first will discuss religious causes for the persecution
and protection of Jews during the Holocaust. As a
researcher of gentile rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust,
particularly in Holland, he says he became "interested in
analyzing the interviews of all the rescuers who cited their
Christian beliefs as the primary motivation for their help-
ing Jews."
"What makes this topic so interesting is that most of
the time we deal with Holocaust issues from the negative
Shelli Liebman Dorfman can be reached at (248) 354-
6060, ext. 246, or by e mail at sdo7finan@thdewishnews.com
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side," says Blewett. "But there are also points of light. If
we can learn what was done and what was not done, we
can apply those lessons to today."
Baron also will look at "examples of Christian-Jewish
dialogue and defamation that appear on Internet sites,"
with the hope of identifying and analyzing Web sites "that
promote toleration or that instigate religious bigotry."
His third lecture is on the non-Jewish victims of the
Nazi persecution.
Baron says he hopes the topics and their discussion "will
sensitize people to be more accepting of people with differ-
ent gender orientations or from different ethnic, political,
racial or religious backgrounds." For him, "this will serve as
a fitting tribute to the legacy of James R. Lyons."
The Cohn-Haddow Center provides programming on
Jewish topics on the Detroit-based WSU campus and also
in the Detroit metropolitan community. Established as a
cooperative venture between WSU and the United Jewish
Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit, the center is
endowed by the Avern and Joyce Cohn and Irwin and
SadieCohn Philanthropic Funds and the Rita C. and
John M. Haddow Family Foundation. ❑
t the Rev. Dr. James R. Lyons Memorial
ogram on Christian-Jewish Relations,
fassor Lawrence Baron of California will
the following talks:
Complicity and Compassion:
Ite#14: for Persecuting and Protecting Jews
Otecatist" 7-30 p m Sunday March 19, at
ean.'Church, 4800 Orchard Lake
e~ rf aith Dialogue and Intolerance,"
onday, March 20, at Holy Spirit
0f Nazi Persecution," 3 p.m.
McGregor Memorial Conference
tate University campus
.
e free and open to the public.
n or reservations call the Cohn-
at (313) 577-2679.