points of view
Black-Jewish from page 31
Commentary
drinking fountains that my parents
witnessed other than what I learned
through history.
Let's work to create a better under-
standing about everyone who is dif-
ferent from us, including those in our
own community. Let us respect each
other for who we are, while at the
same time, seek a better understand-
ing of each other.
Christians Mostly Failed To Act
In Response To Kristallnacht
Worthy Initiatives
As a Jewish community, let us invite
the African American community
into our synagogues, just as we want
to be welcomed into their churches.
Let's invite African Americans to
the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills to see how we were
treated and almost exterminated by
a person who did not respect us for
our differences. Let us open our seder
tables to those that want to learn how
we were once enslaved. And let us ask
the African American community
if we can walk with them to trace
their ancestors' footsteps along the
Underground Railroad, while visit-
ing the Charles H. Wright Museum of
African American History to see how
they once were enslaved.
Together, let's package and deliver
kosher food through Yad Ezra in
Berkley — and the next week, let's
serve food at a church's shelter. Then
we can celebrate our differences and
respect our cultures, while eating
rnatzah ball soup with cornbread and
brisket with some sweet potato pie.
Once we have a better understand-
ing of each other, perhaps we can
find ways to partner in a new busi-
ness venture, mentor others and
otherwise be vested with each other,
not as two separate groups of people,
but as a region.
We may look a little different, but
in the end, we all want the same
thing — the opportunity to live side-
by-side as one community.
With the help of the Michigan
Chronicle, the Detroit Jewish News
and my children's generation, who
will respect each other just because
that is who they are, we will bridge
the cultural divide not just in
Detroit... but in the region. 1—
Daniel Cherrin is an attorney practicing
strategic communications and public
affairs with Fraser Trebilcock in
Detroit and Lansing. He is former
communications director for the city of
Detroit and former press secretary to
Detroit Mayor Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. He
has served as spokesperson for the city
of Detroit, Mackinac Island and the Ann
Arbor Art Fair.
32
November 10 • 2011
Washington
ost American Christian lead-
ers strongly condemned
the Kristallnacht pogrom
that the Nazis carried out against
Germany's Jews 73 years ago this
week, when hundreds of
synagogues were torched,
the windows of thousands
of Jewish businesses were
smashed, 100 Jews were
murdered and 30,000
more were dragged off to
concentration camps.
But the words of con-
demnation were not
always accompanied by
calls for action. When
it came to advocating
steps such as opening
America's doors to Jewish refugees
or severing U.S. relations with Nazi
Germany, Christian voices too often
fell silent.
The liberal Catholic publication
Commonweal called for suspending
America's immigration quotas in order
to admit more refugees. The larger
Catholic weekly magazine America,
however, took a different line. America
headlined its post-Kristallnacht issue
Dry Bones
"NAZI CRISIS." But the two feature
stories did not focus on the plight
of Hitler's Jewish victims. The first
was a report about the mistreat-
ment of nuns by Nazis in Austria. The
second article charged that protests
by American Jews against the Nazi
pogrom were generating "a fit
of national hysteria" intended
"to prepare us for war with
Germany." The issue did
include an editorial titled "The
Refugees and Ourselves," but
it was about the "grave duty"
of American Catholics to help
European Catholic refugees.
Jewish refugees weren't even
mentioned.
An editorial in the leading
Protestant magazine Christian
Century did address the
Jewish refugee problem: It argued that
America's own economic problems
necessitated "that instead of inviting
further complications by relaxing our
immigration laws, these laws be main-
tained or even further tightened."
Refugee Spotlight
A few months later, refugee advocates
proposed legislation to help German
Jews that could not be construed
as undermining
America's econo-
my. The Wagner-
Rogers bill would
have admitted
20,000 children —
too young to com-
pete with American
citizens for jobs.
Yet even then,
Christian Century
found a reason to
oppose helping the
Jews. "[A]dmitting
Jewish immigrants
would only exac-
erbate America's
Jewish problem," it
wrote.
One notable
Christian response
to Kristallnacht
was an initiative
by the U.S. branch
of the Young
Women's Christian
Association. Less
than two weeks
after the Nov. 9-10,
THE ISLAMIST FORCES ARE A
DIVERSE GROUP, LESS UNIFIED BY
THEIR LOVE OF GOO
1938, pogrom, the YWCA established
a Committee on Refugees, which
undertook information campaigns
aimed at persuading the public that
refugees were loyal and hardworking.
Unfortunately, the YWCA's national
board soon lost interest in the project
and declined to fund it. According to
Professor Haim Genizi, the American
Jewish Committee ended up providing
much of the committee's budget.
Monitoring The Aftermath
Christian Scientists, although small
in number, had the opportunity to
exercise influence through their mass-
circulation newspaper, the Christian
Science Monitor. But true to their
church's emphasis on the potential
of prayer to heal all ills, the Monitor's
editors argued that in response to
Kristallnacht, "prayer ... will do more
than any amount of ordinary protests
to heal the hate released in the last
few days and to end injustices and
excesses practiced in the name of anti-
Semitism."
The Monitor did acknowledge that
"finding havens for [the] refugees"
was a necessity, but refrained from
suggesting that America should serve
as one of those havens.
One of the few consistently strong
Christian voices in the aftermath of
Kristallnacht was that of U.S. Sen.
William King of Utah, a former mis-
sionary who was arguably the most
prominent Mormon in America at the
time. While President Roosevelt only
recalled the U.S. ambassador from
Germany temporarily for "consulta-
tions," Sen. King urged the administra-
tion to completely break off U.S. diplo-
matic relations with Hitler. While FDR
said that liberalization of America's
immigration quotas was "not in con-
templation," King introduced legisla-
tion to open Alaska to Jewish refu-
gees.
Sadly, Sen. King's initiatives
attracted almost no support from
America's churches. The response of
most Christian leaders to Kristallnacht,
like the response of the Roosevelt
administration and most of the
American public, was, in the words of
Professor Henry Feingold, "no more
than a strong spectator sympathy for
the underdog."
Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of the David S.
Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in
Washington D.C. The material in this article
is based on the Wyman Institute's ongo-
ing research project on American Christian
responses to the Holocaust.