OTHER VIEWS

A Witness At Yad Vashem

Jerusalem
he new Holocaust History
Museum at Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem has just opened
and it is an overwhelming experi-
ence.
Having been to Yad Vashem many
times, especially as a tour guide, I
was a bit complacent and did not
expect the impact to be so deep and
moving. The new exhibit takes place
in a new, architecturally minimalist
and angular building with bare
cement walls that tower above you,
creating a powerful sense of space
and awareness of one's physical limi-
tations.
As our guide explained, the muse-
um has taken nearly a decade to plan
and build. Previous exhibits were
incorporated into this presentation

T

Moshe Dann, a former Detroiter and
past assistant professor of history at City
University of New York, is a writer and
journalist living in Jerusalem. His e-
mail address is
moshedan@netvision.netil.

using documentary films, narratives
from survivors, creative video pro-
ductions and art produced by the
victims themselves to create a very
personal, deeply moving educational
experience.
The museum also includes some
thought-provoking surprises, and
innovative and perhaps controversial
additions. Room by room, step by
step visitors are drawn into the world
of European Jewry, moving closer
and closer to impending destruction,
sharing in some way the immense
tragedy that is beyond words, beyond
human imagination except that it did
happen, to us, to our families and
relatives, to the Jewish people.
All of the familiar historical mark-
ers are there to mark the descent into
this nightmare, but this museum
searches for something different, to
help us connect to who the victims
were as people, surrounding us with
bits and pieces of their lives,
melodies they sang as we are sur-
rounded by stark, haunting photo-
graphs.
Excellent explanations accompany

Can New Pope Transcend His Past?

Philadelphia
he name of the first pope,
Peter ("Petros"), meant
"Rock." According to the
Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said,
"Upon this Rock — this Petros — I
will build my church."
But if Peter was a rock, he was a
rock of future solidity and solidarity
— not a fossil from the past. Living
through the earthquake that the
Roman Empire brought to his coun-
try, he sought to dance in the earth-
quake — to renew and transform the
Judaism and the Hellenism he grew
up in.
Walking now in the earthquake of
modernity, the Catholic Church has
just chOsen not to dance in the
earthquake by renewing itself.
Instead, it chose to search for a fos-
silized rock of the past — a rock of
certainty that it hopes will not be
shaken by the earthquake.

T

JN

4/28
2005

38

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of the
Shalom Center, www.shalomctrorg. He
is the author of books on public policy,
religious renewal and the Jewish renais-
sance, including "Godwrestling-Round
2" (Jewish Lights).

Yet does the name of the new pope
matter — the name he chose for
himself?
John Paul II balanced seeking the
future through renewal and hanging
on to the past through restoration.
He sought to renew the Church by
abandoning its old hostility to
Judaism and Islam. Yet when it came
to the role of women and issues
involving sexuality, not only in his
Church but also beyond it, he made
every effort to restore the past.
Pope John Paul II's appointments
to the College of Cardinals made a
miracle of renewal almost impossi-
ble. Indeed, Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger was even more anchored
in the past than was the pope who
gave him such latitude.
Cardinal Ratzinger was the pope's
bulldog on many of these issues. He
became the Prince of No in the
Church:
"No!" to married priests, "No!" to
women priests, "No!" to birth con-
trol (even as protection against
AIDS), "No!" to vigorous action to
reveal and correct sexual abuse' by
priests, "No!" to civil rights (let
alone holy rites) for gay and lesbian

each presentation through-
will ponder the unbearable
out, to help absorb the
inhumanity that this muse-
intense sensory impact as one
um documents and question
struggles to comprehend the
how the world allowed this
meaning and the brutal reali-
to happen. It may even
ty of such immense human
prompt a renewal of human
loss, the systematic attempt
dignity in efforts to prevent
to annihilate Europe's entire
such tragedies from re-occur-
population of Jews.
MO SHE
ring. They may even help
A book called To Bear
D ANN
combat growing anti-
Witness is available at the
Semitism and Holocaust
Sp ecial
museum. It includes many of
Comm entary denial.
the pictures and explanations
For those who plan to visit
included in the exhibits. And
this museum during your
that is how one feels as one walks
next trip to Israel, I suggest that you
towards the exit; one has become a
allot several hours (at least) to this
witness. We cannot forget or allow
experience and that it be scheduled
the memory of those who perished to in the morning when you are physi-
be forgotten. That is, in itself, a
cally and emotionally stronger. A
transforming experience and our
kosher cafeteria is available and the
obligation.
museum provides well-trained
I experienced this museum as a
guides.
Jew; this is what was done to Jews. It
I also suggest that you take some
is about us. But for a quirk of fate, I
time afterwards to digest what you
would have been there. Perhaps my
have been through, personally and as
soul was there.
a group, or family. That may include
I don't know how others will react.
a walk around the site, including
Perhaps they will say, "Oh, them,"
some of the other places of interest.
and walk quickly away. Perhaps they
Because this is visually powerful,

people, "No!" to abortion
He described inter-reli-
under any circumstances at
gious dialogue as part of the
all (even rape, incest, mortal
‘`evangelizing mission" of the
danger to the mother), "No!"
Church, "just one of the •
to stem-cell research, "No!"
actions of the Church in her
to liberation theology, "No!"
mission to the nations." For
to exploration of new ideas
Jews, Muslims, Buddhists
by eminent scholars within
and others, this may drop
the Church, "No!" to full
a
poisoned pill into the
RABBI
respect for other religious
shared
cup of interfaith
ARTHUR
traditions.
dialogue.
WAS KOW
Indeed, where John Paul
So is there any hope at
Sp ecial
went further than Vatican II
all,
any sign that the new
Commentary
along the path shaped by
Benedict XVI might give
Pope John XXIII to open
hope to some aspects of
doors to Jews and other
religious renewal and
faiths, Cardinal Ratzinger in 2000
prophetic witness? One hint: his
proclaimed the absolute primacy of
name. Benedict XV was the pope of
the Roman Catholic Church and
World War I. He tried hard —
condemned other religious commu-
though utterly unsuccessfully — to
nities as "deficient."
urge a general Christmas truce in
His paper on other religions,
1914, and on Aug. 1, 1917, he
"Dominus Jesus," denounced "the
issued a peace proposal rooted in
theology of religious pluralism." He
reconciliation rather than victory for
insisted on the Catholic Church's
either side. But he did not try to
traditional claim to be the unique
mobilize the grass roots of the
and universal means to salvation:
Church to make it real — by refus-
"Followers of other religions can
ing to bear arms, for instance.
receive divine grace ... [but] objec-
Perhaps by choosing his name, the
tively speaking, they are in a gravely
new pope is trying to stir himself
deficient situation in comparison
and his Church to address the grow-
with those who, in the Church, have
ing dangers of worldwide religious
the fullness of the means of salva-
war. Is he ready to commit himself
tion."
to seek an end to the U.S. occupa-