Insight

Remember
When • •

Shoah Remembered

7AT

Staff Writer

1981

Detroiter Judith Laikin Elkin's The
Jews of Latin American Republics
was nominated for a 1981 National
Jewish Book Award.
Detroiter Mike Must was named
chairman of Congregation B'nai
David's membership breakfast.

D

espite a few protesters and a brief out-
burst, a moving Holocaust remembrance
service was held at the church where
Father Charles Coughlin made anti-
Semitic sermons beginning in the 1930s.
"The destruction of European Jewry was the worst
tragedy since the destruction of the second temple," said
the Rev. Dr. Franklin H. Linen, the keynote speaker, to a
hushed group of 125 Jewish and non-Jewish participants
at the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak.
"What had happened was also a disaster beyond measure
for my faith and the faith of my fathers.
"The Holocaust was committed by baptized
Christians in the heart of Christian Europe," he added.
"If that's not a credibility crisis, I don't know what was."
The hour-long service sponsored by the Ecumenical
Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies in Southfield,
included silent meditation, readings by local ministers
and high school students and a recitation of the
Kaddish (mourner's prayer).
A disturbance occurred outside the Shrine when a
small group of protesters passed out literature
demanding an apology from the Jews for refusing to
acknowledge Christ as Messiah and for opposing the
Roman Catholic Church.
Monsignor William H. Easton, Shrine pastor, apolo-
gized for the group, stating they are "not in any way affiliated
with the church," he said. "This being the country that it is,
people have the right to express their opinions, and I would
simply ask them to not do that on church property."
The leaflet referred to an apology made during a cable
television interview by Cardinal Adam Maida to the Jewish
people for Father Coughlin's anti-Semitic remarks. The
interview will run during April on the Catholic Television
Network of Detroit.
The Cardinal "should have called for a public apology from

the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community for the conspira-
torial role played by the Jewish officials and high priests in the
crucifixion and death on the cross of the Son of God," it stated.

To Repent Is Right

The Rev. Littell, professor of Holocaust and Genocide
Studies at Stockton College in New Jersey and the only
Christian member of Yad Vashem's international council,
told the crowd that unless Christians repent to the Jews for

Related editorial: page 28

1991

Detroiters Barbara Stollman and
Neal Zalenko were appointed gen-
eral chairs of Bar-Ilan University's
Detroit campaign.
Detroiter Matt Friedman of
Pisgah B'nai B'rith, won the recent
bowling tourney.

National Shrine of the Little Flower hosts ecumenical service
in memory of those who died in the Holocaust.

HARRY KIRSBAUM

From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1971

Left: The Rev.
Dr. Franklin Littell
makes a point to
Holocaust survivor
Jack Pludwinski
and others.

Above: Holocaust
service at the
National Shrine
of the Little Flower.

what they were part of during World War II, they will
"continue to be pilgrims in a wasteland."
"Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!" shouted an unidentified woman,
as she stormed out of the church. The Rev. Littell is famil-
iar with such behavior.
"The problem is not a few eccentrics. I had to take unlisted
phones sometimes because they threatened my life and my wife
and children," he said after the event.
During his talk, he also spoke of innocence.
"If you want to be safe in . a modern war, get into uni-
form," he said. "People who paid the price were the women,
the children, and the helpless. Therefore, Jews and Christians
in the shadow of Auschwitz owe it to themselves, to each
other and to our God, to work together against this monster
evil, this most terrible crime of the age, that is genocide.
Then perhaps we'll be able to look each other in the eye."
The outburst and pamphlets didn't bother Jack
Pludwinski of Southfield, a survivor of eight concentration
camps, including Auschwitz and Birkenau.
"Those people don't believe there was a Holocaust, they
still don't like the Jews," he said. "It's still important to come
to these events. People should know what happened." El

The Rabbinical Court of Justice of
the Associated Synagogues of
Massachusetts invalidated all inter-
marriages, even those solemnized
by a rabbi.
Detroiter Carl R. Lichetenstein
was elected president of the Great
Lakes region, National Federation
of Jewish Men's Clubs Inc.

1961

Detroiters Norman and Sarah
Cottler, of Dexter Davison Market
fame, left for an extended stay in
Israel to mark their 40th wedding
anniversary and the bar mitzvah of
the Stare of Israel.
Detroiter Linda Plein was named
editor in chief of the Mumford
High School yearbook.

1951

Detroiter Mrs. Julius Hersh became
the new president of the
Congregation B'nai Moshe
Sisterhood.
Detroiter George Weiswasser, for-
mer editor of the Detroit Jewish
Chronicle, joined the faculty of the
Wayne University department of
journalism.
Police in Frankfurt, Germany,
offered a reward for information on
the vandals who desecrated a memo-
rial to the Jewish victims of Nazism,
removing the Star of David.

—Compiled by Sy Manello,
Editorial Assistant

3/30
2001

27