Denying The Deniers

Iran's Holocaust conference brings support from local Catholics and interfaith group.

Harry Kirsbaum
Staff Writer

C

ondemnation was
swift in the wake of
Iran's "International
Conference: Review of the
Holocaust: Global Vision" held in
Tehran Dec.12-13.
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad addressed the
crowd of about 70 Holocaust-
denying "academics" and
"researchers" on Dec. 12.
"Thanks to people's wishes
and God's will the trend for the
existence of the Zionist regime
is downwards, and this is what
God has promised and what all
nations want:' he said.
"Just as the Soviet Union was
wiped out and today does not
exist, so will the Zionist regime
soon be wiped out."
Ahmadinejad also invited
former Ku Klux Klan Imperial
Wizard David Duke to speak.
"The Zionists have used the
Holocaust as a weapon to deny
the rights of the Palestinians and
cover up the crimes of Israel,"
said Duke, who also served as a
state representative in Louisiana.
"This conference has an incred-
ible impact on Holocaust studies
all over the world."

Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig,
executive director and founder
of the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington Hills, said,
"I am convinced that they know
the Holocaust happened."
Paraphrasing a statement from
Iran's foreign minister — who
said if we can throw a doubt
about the Holocaust, then the
world will have a doubt about
Israel's right to exist — Rabbi
Rosenzveig said, "The interesting
thing is that they would like to
have another Holocaust."
Interfaith Partners, a program
of the Detroit-based Michigan
Roundtable for Diversity and
Inclusion, held a press confer-
ence at the HMC on Dec. 18.
Before reading a prepared
statement from the Interfaith
Partners (see sidebar), Eide
Alawan, representing the Council
of Islamic Organizations of
Michigan, apologized to William
Weiss, a Holocaust survivor in
the crowd. "Please accept our
apologies for what has been said,
and I say this statement to you
and all those that have perished
in the past," he said.
Weiss, a Holocaust survi-
vor born in L'viv, now in the
Ukraine, was in six different
German concentration camps.

Interfaith Partners Statement

Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion

Insidious efforts by the current
president of Iran to invalidate
the horrors and lingering
psychological trauma of the
Holocaust through his so-
called "conference" is an unac-
ceptable act denying historical
sufferings of a people and an
appalling assault on human
rights throughout the world.
The Interfaith Partners, com-
posed of diverse faith tradi-
tions in Southeast Michigan,
stands in solidarity with the
Jewish people and with all cul-
tures victimized by genocide.
It is ironic that as Hanukkah
begins – a testimony of the
Jewish culture that fought to

regain its freedom of religious
expression, and suffered such
misery during the Holocaust
– that the world, and our com-
munity in metropolitan Detroit,
should be faced by such cruel
insolence as perpetrated by
the current Iranian president.
As we enter the holy season of
Christmas and the pilgrimage
to Mecca, we pray together as
Jews, Christians, Muslims, and
ail people of faith for peace in
the Holy Land.
We acknowledge and are
inspired by the words of coura-
geous people like Dawud Walid,
Executive Director of the
Council on American-Islamic

Weiss, a West Bloomfield resi-
dent, didn't speak about the con-
ference; he spoke about his past.
"During the German occupa-
tion, there were 160,000 Jews in
L'viv, including my mother, my
father, my two sets of grand-
parents, my two sisters and 10
aunts and uncles," he said. "They
were all killed, and I was left all
alone." Only 200 Jews were left

alive after the war, he said.
Bishop Francis Reiss of the
Archdiocese of Detroit read a
statement from Cardinal Adam
Maida.
"Those who would attempt
to ignore or erase the horrors of
the Holocaust do a terrible dis-
service to the family of man. As
one who has been to the death
camps in Poland, visited the
Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington and participated in
ecumenical and interfaith recon-
ciliation services for the victims
and survivors, I am painfully
aware of what was done during
World War II to advance a per-
verse political agenda against the
Jews, the Poles, the Gypsies and
other innocents.
"Along with Pope Benedict
XVI, my brother American bish-
ops and my good friends and
collaborators in our local Jewish
community, I reject any and all
efforts at revisionist history."
Robert Cohen, executive direc-
tor of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit,
called the Tehran conference a
"demonstration of hatred, the
same [type of] hatred that led to
the death of 11 million people,
including 6 million Jews."
"Zachor means remember in

Hebrew. We are commanded to
remember the Holocaust. Darfur
shows that the lessons of the
Holocaust are still to be learned,
so let us remember, zachor, how
we all stood together today in
faith and solidarity"
Since the conclusion of the
conference, things have not gone
well for Ahmadinejad.
Jewish leaders in New York,
among them Alan Dershowitz,
a prominent attorney and pro-
fessor at Harvard Law School,
announced an initiative to bring
Iran's president to trial for incit-
ing genocide.
Also, during local council
elections in Iran on Dec. 18,
Ahmadinejad's opponents
waged a comeback, and "Former
President Hashemi Rafsanjani,
a relative moderate, polled the
most votes of any Tehran candi-
date to win re-election to a key
assembly post," according to a
CNN story
"The biggest victory was
for 'moderate conservatives,
supporters of Iran's cleric-led
power structure who are angry
at Ahmadinejad, saying he has
needlessly provoked the West
with harsh rhetoric and has
failed to fix the country's altering
economy," CNN reported. 7_

Relations, who has expressed
outrage at Iran's actions. As he
said, "We are trying to do our
part by standing up for justice
and improving our relationship
with our Jewish brethren."
This effort by the current
president of Iran to discredit
the credibility and insult the
integrity of history threatens
to revive the vicious intol-
erance that prompted the
Holocaust to begin with. As
concerned citizens committed
to promoting religious toler-
ance at home and throughout
the world, Interfaith Partners
calls upon people of all faiths
to voice their opposition
to this hateful propaganda,
and of all forms of genocide.
We urge people to visit the
Holocaust Memorial [Center]

here in [Farmington Hills] to
remember and to study what
occurred to the Jewish people
of Europe and to be aware
of what is done to people
throughout the world.
Though the current presi-
dent of Iran seeks to discredit
the nation of Israel and the
Jewish people, he really is try-
ing to discredit anyone who
testifies to genocide anywhere.
Denial of any people of their
legitimate grievances is denial
to all people of their legitimate
rights.
Interfaith Partners repre-
sents the American culture
of religious pluralism, coming
together as one human voice,
though many faith traditions.
We believe in Gandhi's words,
"We must be the change we

want to see in the world."
Although our focus is regional
interfaith understanding and
collaboration, because of our .
global connections in Detroit
our passion extends to people
throughout the world.
Interfaith Partners believes
that we must follow the Golden
Rule observed by all faith tra-
ditions: by coming to the aid of
our Jewish friends and all who
may be affected by this confer-
ence.
Interfaith Partners is a
program of the Michigan
Roundtable for Diversity and
Inclusion with the mission to
create deeper understanding
among the Abrahamic faiths
and to improve social welfare
through education, dialogue and
cooperative service projects.

William Weiss displays tattoo.

Eide Alawan

December 21 • 2006

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