From the Director's Chair

Holocaust Center Hosts Film

Genealogy Gems

Your HMC membership is a
valuable gift to the future.

We are pleased to present Four
Seasons Lodge, April 28, at
Birmingham's Palladium Theater.

Our genealogical collections
are convenient, user-friendly,
and unparalleled in our area.

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Spring 2010

NEWSLETTER

info@holocaustcenter.org
www.holocaustcenter.org
www facebo ok. co m/HMCZF C
www twitter.com/HolocaustMI

Samuel Bak's Icons of Loss

By Stephen M. Goldman

IMAGE: COURTESY OF PUCKER G ALLERY

Next month marks another mile-
stone in the history of the Holocaust
Memorial Center Zekelman Family
Campus. Not only are we continu-
ing to bring you the finest and most
interesting and varied exhibitions from
around the world,
we are fulfilling
the mission of the
HMCZFC with in-
novative programs of
all types.
When we open
Icons of Loss on May
23, we will have one
of the finest and
most celebrated art-
ists living today in
attendance. Some
of the commentators
who know him best,
and others, will come to our Center to
bring additional perspectives on this
truly inspiring and evocative work.
I have known Sam Bak's work for a

number of years and watching the evo-
lution of his coming to grips with his
(our) past has been a revelation. His
repetition of themes, (in this exhibit
the Nazi photograph of a young boy
from the Warsaw Ghetto, and Albrecht
DOrer's angel from Melencolia 1) is to
art what the chorus is to the musical
ballad.
This exhibi-
tion presents very
differently from the
other retrospective
exhibitions of Bak's
work that I have
mounted. These
two particularly
strong and evoca-
tive subjects in
repetition speak
to one another
as well as to us.
We get no relief
from the impact of this duet, with no
focus, as in other works of Bak, on
pears, on Stars of David, on cremato-
ria chimneys, or on the tablets of the

it, but which has an expanded visual
Ten Commandments. Many of these
vocabulary in Bak's brush.
elements appear, but as background
My profound thanks go to Bernie
music, themes from another stanza.
Pucker
of Pucker Gallery in Boston
In Icons of Loss, we have two
and his staff, and especially to Samuel
indelible icons, certainly, but Bak has
Bak for his willingness to share his
set us into so many notes and layers
vision, his brilliant work and his
of harmonies, that there is a visual
Neshama, his soul, with us. I have
symphony, sometimes discordant, but
often said of teaching about the
always striking chords deep within our
Holocaust that, "It is easy to make
psyches.
people cry, it is much more difficult to
For me, the Warsaw Ghetto boy
make them think." Sam's work does
has always had a particularly personal
that and more; so let us think about
evocation. Perhaps because when I
this child and all the children who
first entered the Holocaust Museum
perished in the Shoah
business, my children
On exhibit at the HMC
and the innocents who
were close in age
May 23 — August 15
are persecuted today,
to that anonymous
and let us dwell on the Melachim, the
child, and the loss of children is such
angels of our brothers and sisters who
anathema to me. Perhaps because of
over the centuries, have died at the
the plaintive look on his face. Bak has
hands of opressors.
taken this photograph to a new place
We are pleased to bring Sam Bak's
beyond the iconography of his own
work to a Detroit audience. The
work so familiar to those of us who
Holocaust Memorial Center is new to
know it, yet symbolic on its own for
the world of special exhibitions, and
those who may be new to Sam. The
his work sets a high bar for the quality
angel, too, has its own environment
of our future programs.
in which we are accustomed to seeing

Symposium to Explore Origins of Altruistic Behavior in Religion

What impels people to risk their
safety and lives, even that of their
friends and relatives, to help an endan-
gered fellow human being? We need to
know, in order to honor such valiant
heroes — to keep their memories alive
— and to help spread such attitudes,
especially among the younger genera-
tion, whom our Center serves.
The International Institute of
the Righteous at the HMCZFC has
pursued these goals since its inception.
Throughout the years visitors have
acclaimed the success of this mission.
Most recently (and very relevantly) a
Methodist Pastor from East Lansing
wrote us:

In a world where the capacity for
racism, hatred and silent compliance

with evil seems to run across through our Friday May 7, 9 am to 2:30 pm, will
explore the role that religion can and
human DNA, it is very important that
ought to play in leading us to altruistic
we are reminded both of that evil and
behavior.
of human beings who have made great
We have succeeded in assembling
sacrifice to make a positive difference and
three outstanding
stand opposed to that
keynote speakers
evil. Your memorial is a
representing three
great service to the hu-
major religions. The
man family and for that
Catholic point of
I am grateful.
view
will be advanced
We have also pur-
by Archbishop Allen
sued our goals through
Vigneron of Detroit,
our annual symposia.
and Dr. Saeed Khan of
The first five have ex-
Jeffrey Kluger at th e 2009 Symposium
Wayne
State University
plored diverse motiva-
will address Islamic scripture. Professor
tions of righteous behaviors, ranging
Everett Fox, the Allen M. Glick
from explanations based on parental
Professor of Judaic and Biblical Studies
upbringing to evolutionary necessity.
at Clark University, will present the
This year's symposium, scheduled for

Jewish tradition and perspective.
This event prompts the return of
Jeffrey Kluger, Senior Editor of TIME
Magazine and last year's keynote speak-
er, who will be the commentator of the
forum. Professor Martin Shichtman
of the Eastern Michigan University
English Department and Director of
Jewish Studies, will act as historian.
For the first time the sympo-
sium will also be sponsored by the
Holocaust Education Coalition and its
president, Dr. Rene Lichtman.
The public is most cordially invited
to an event which will fill a need of
utmost importance at a time when so-
cially responsible behavior and the role
of religion have become, once again,
the focal point of public discussion.

