World

Marking 25 Years

Photos by Jos hua Nowic kl

Holocaust Memorial Center dinner honors past and future.

Institute of the Righteous Director Dr. Guy Stern, keynote speaker Irwin Cotler,

honoree Gail Rosenbloom Kaplan and HMC Executive Director Stephen M. Goldman

Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor

T

his year's Holocaust Memorial
Center annual dinner was signifi-
cant in many ways. Not only did
it mark the 25th anniversary of the HMC,
but also a major change in leadership with
the introduction of new executive director
Stephen M. Goldman.
Goldman, who has more than 20 years
experience in the Holocaust museum
field, takes over from Dr. Guy Stern, direc-
tor of the International Institute of the
Righteous, who stepped in as interim
director when HMC founder Rabbi
Charles Rosenzveig died last year.
"Twenty-five years is a significant mile-
stone Goldman told the crowd of nearly
900 Sunday night at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield. "Now, together, we
will forge ahead to take Holocaust educa-
tion into the 21st century, beginning the
transition from an era of remembrance
into one of memory. As the witnesses go
from among us — the survivors, the ref-
uges, the liberators and the rescuers — we
must take the next step to make all people
aware of the consequences of unbridled
hate, deceptive propaganda and state-
sponsored discrimination.
"It is left to us, the second and third
generations, the (upstanders: all those who
care deeply about the human condition, to
take up the mantle of being witnesses for
the witnesses, to accept the responsibility,
the duty, to continue to speak out, to edu-
cate he said.

22

October 22 = 2009

"I take the job of standard bearer, to
be the voice of Rabbi Rosenzveig, upon
whose legacy we must build. I cannot do
it alone. You cannot do it alone. We must
work together;' Goldman said. He also
stressed the importance of reaching out to
non-Jewish communities as well.
To emphasize that outreach, Stern and
two representatives of the Greek corn-
munity unveiled new panels bound for
the Institute of the Righteous that tell of
heroic acts by Greek citizens and clergy
who saved Jews during World War II.

Hatred Still Rages
Several speakers linked the lessons of
the Holocaust to current world situations
where lives are being lost to hatred, politi-
cal injustice and genocide.
"Darfur. Rwanda. Uganda, Ogaden. It is
difficult to comprehend that in 2009, some-
where in the world genocide is taking place
Goldman said. "Every 14 seconds, an inno-
cent life is snuffed out as a consequence of
genocide, politicide, religious persecution or
the slave trade. The lessons of the Holocaust
have, indeed, not been learned."
New HMC president Gary Karp said,
"The tragedy that befell 6 million of our
mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts,
uncles, cousins and friends left deep and
lasting scars on all of us. It also has forever
etched into our collective community that
every life is uniquely precious ... that life
must be valued and cannot ever be taken
for granted?'
Keynote speaker Irwin Cotler, a member
of the Canadian parliament and a human

Dinner committee chair Marci and board chair Dr. Steven Grant with board member
Larry and Jackie Kraft of Bloomfield Hills

rights law expert who represented Nelson
Mandela and Natan Sharansky, among
other former prisoners of conscience,
focused on lessons from the Holocaust
and the global re-awakening of anti-
Semitism.
Lessons included realizing that each per-
son lost in the Holocaust represents a name,
an identity, a universe; that state-sanc-
tioned incitement to hate must be present,
as in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran today;
that inaction and indifference to human
rights crimes and not holding perpetrators
accountable occurs, as with the Sudanese
government's genocidal actions in Darfur;
and that the powerless are most vulnerable.
Coder spoke at length about the danger
of anti-Semitism. "Anti-Semitism did not
die with the Holocaust:' he said. "Jews and
others died, but not anti-Semitism. We are
witnessing yet again an escalating, global,
virulent anti-Semitism."
This new anti-Semitism, Coder said,
focuses on Israel as the Jewish state, a
nation accused of human rights viola-
tions in the occupied territories, labeled
apartheid and even called Nazi-like on the
world stage and in the United Nations.
"This is laundering anti-Semitism
under the protective cover of the U.N.,"
Cotler said.
Blending modern politics with Jewish
law, he invoked the Torah's famous phrase
— Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof (Justice, justice,
shall you pursue) — using it as a call to
action to speak and act against injustice.
Other speakers include U.S. Sen. Carl
Levin, D-Mich.; Dr. Steven Grant, board

chair; Arthur Weiss, dinner chair; Michigan
Attorney General Mike Cox; and U.S. Rep.
Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Hills, whose first
piece of legislation, HR Resolution 283,
recognizes the late Rabbi Rosenzveig for his
life's work and his commitment to humani-
tarian ideals.
A highlight of the evening was recogni-
tion of honoree Gail Rosenbloom Kaplan
for her efforts to have the Kindertransport
Memory Quilts Exhibit installed in the
Institute for the Righteous.
An artist, Kaplan's Holocaust-related
work was inspired by a Torah breastplate
she discovered as an intern at the Jewish
Museum in New York.
"Holding that breastplate, miraculously
saved from the pillage of Nazi years [in
Danzig, Poland], led me to dedicate myself
to the preservation of our Jewish culture and
history, an inspiration I still follow when I
serve the Holocaust Center," she said.
Another highlight was the announce-
ment that the Holocaust Memorial Center
Zekelman Family Campus is a recipient
of one of 11 saplings grown from the ail-
ing 150-year-old horse chestnut tree that
Anne Frank gazed upon from her hideout
in Amsterdam. The Anne Frank Center
USA chose the sites, all are dedicated to
fighting intolerance. Among them are the
White House and the 9-11 Memorial.
Kaplan wrote the application for the
sapling. She says plans are being devel-
oped. The saplings are in an Amsterdam
nursery and will be shipped to the U.S. by
year's end, but must remain in quarantine
for two years. I I

