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Director’s Column ..............Page 2 Spotlight on Catholic Institute for Holocaust Studies Graduates ...................Pages 6-8 Anne, A Personal Essay ......Page 9 INSIDE Center Publishes LeFrak 2016 - 2017 Edition Proceedings by Dr. James Paharik Holocaust By Bullets Forensics Tour: The Holocaust and Nostra Aetate: Toward a Greater Understanding (Seton Georgetown University & Seton Hill University Hill University, 2017, edited by Carol Rittner, RSM), is the proceedings of the Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Education total of thirty Conference which took place at Seton students from Hill University in the Fall of 2015. Seton Hill The conference commemorated the and Georgetown A fiftieth anniversary of the landmark participated on an Vatican II document, “Nostra Aetate: eight-day forensics A Declaration on the Relation of the tour in March to the Church to Non-Christian Religions.” killing fields of the It featured many leading scholars of Holocaust in Poland Jewish-Christian relations, including: and Belarus. The Mary C. Boys, forensics trip was SNJM; John part of a three-credit Pawlikowski, spring semester course. Fr. Dennis McManus, Georgetown University, Fitzgerald Robertson, OSM; Kevin Fr. Patrick Desbois, Seton Hill University student, and Dr. Tim Crain, Director of Seton Hill University’s National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education Spicer, CSC; a French Catholic John K. priest and noted Holocaust Most victims of the Holocaust died in death camps Roth; Dennis historian, led the excursion or concentration camps during World War II. The McManus; in Eastern Europe. Holocaust forensics tour though focused more on Jews Elena Procario- Fr. Dennis McManus who were murdered and buried in mass graves across Foley; and Steven Leonard Jacobs. of Georgetown, and Dr. Poland and Belarus. The volume includes fifteen papers Tim Crain of Seton Hill, The trip began in Poland, and the first stop was and an afterword by Gemma Del also participated on the Auschwitz, where an estimated 1.1 million people were Duca, SC, co-founder of Seton Hill’s tour. Both Fr. Desbois and murdered, most within hours National Catholic Center for Holocaust Fr. McManus presented of their arrival at the camp. Education. at the 2015 Ethel LeFrak In Belarus, the The papers in this impressive Holocaust Education Georgetown/Seton Hill group volume focus on examining the mean- Conference at Seton Hill. interviewed eyewitnesses ing of Nostra Aetate in the context of The classroom aspect to the murders, and also its time, documenting its impact on of the course focused on discovered three new mass Jewish-Christian relations, and reflect- the Holocaust itself, with graves outside of Brest, that ing on how it might continue to nur- particular focus on the contained the corpses of over ture Jewish-Christian understanding legacy of Christian anti- 1,000 Jews. The forensics in the future. The contributors make it Judaism, Germany’s defeat tour focused a good deal of clear that Nostra Aetate dramatically in World War I, and the attention on the cities of rise of Adolf Hitler and the Fr. Patrick Desbois and Continued on page 3 Nazi Party. Dr. Tim Crain Continued on page 3 1 Center Publishes LeFrank Proceedings Continued from page 1 of Seton Hill University’s re-oriented Catholic doctrine toward in the Middle East Jews and Judaism by calling for a re- and the Israeli- National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, jection of the “teaching of contempt” Palestinian conflict toward Jews which had characterized have the potential aspects of Church teaching before to undermine the he past year has been very exciting and produc- Interfaith dialogue has long been a major part World War II. They also point out that progress of the tive as the National Catholic Center for Holocaust of our Center since its inception, and I have been Nostra Aetate affirmed the Jewish past half-century. T Education continues to expand. The year was very impressed with the many rabbis, priests, and roots of Christianity as well as the Yet as Mary Jo highlighted by Seton Hill University’s participation sisters we work with, as well as many outstand- eternal covenant between God and Leddy points out, in a joint forensics tour with Fr. Patrick Desbois of ing Jews, Catholics, and Protestants. The National the Jewish people. an important lesson Georgetown University, to the killing fields of the Catholic Center for Holocaust Education began in To a large extent, Nostra Aetate learned both from Holocaust in Poland and Belarus. Patrick Desbois, a 1987 with an interfaith Kristallnacht commemo- was motivated by awareness of the Holocaust and French Catholic priest, has dedicated his life to iden- ration. We were honored to have four Holocaust the great damage that centuries of more recent tragedies tifying mass graves in Eastern Europe in an attempt survivors this past November. Ruth Drescher, Christian antisemitism did to Jewish- is the necessity to better understand the murder of Holocaust survivor, delivered the keynote lecture, Christian relations. In Germany, the of respecting the millions of Jews during World War II. and she discussed her early life in Nazi Germany. contempt, which many Church leaders “authority of those His research has uncovered thousands Yolanda Willis, Shulamit Bastacky, and Solange had expressed toward Jews, provided who suffer.” Similarly, of mass graves, containing the corpses Lebovitz also described their experiences during the cultural context that permitted Bjorn Krondorfer Elisa Di Simone of Staten Island, NY, completed requirements of over one million Jews. Many of you the Holocaust. The interfaith service marked the Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda to argues persuasively for for a graduate certificate in Genocide and Holocaust Studies during would remember Patrick Desbois and 30th anniversary of our Center, started by our two flourish. As Kevin Spicer explains, a renewed commitment the spring semester, and she traveled to Seton Hill University to his excellent keynote lecture during co-founders, Sr. Mary Noël Kernan, S.C., and Sr. though there were certainly notable to “unsettling empathy” participate in the May 13, 2017 Commencement. Elise teaches the 2015 Ethel LeFrak Holocaust Gemma Del Duca, S.C. exceptions, many German clerics as a means of attaining religion at St. Joseph Academy High School. From left to right above Education Conference at Seton Hill We look forward to two major events in the up- discussed the “Jewish question” in reconciliation in this are: Wilda Kaylor, CIHS 2000, NCCHE Associate Director, University. The March tour to Belarus coming year. This fall, the National Catholic Center terms strikingly similar to those used current climate of religious James Paharik, CIHS ’05, Professor of Sociology and Genocide and Poland was an unforgettable expe- for Holocaust Education is co-sponsoring a confer- by the Nazis. With the publication of and political strife. These and Holocaust Studies Coordinator, Elisa, and Dr. John Spurlock, rience for Seton Hill and Georgetown ence with Northern Arizona University entitled, Nostra Aetate, the Church emphatically ethical commitments will CIHS ’91, Professor of History. University students. “Strangers or Neighbors? Abrahamic Perspectives declared once and for all that such serve us well in advancing I had the privilege of presenting at a number of on Refugees,” October 15-17, 2017, in Flagstaff, views were fundamentally contrary to Nostra Aetate’s legacy of tolerance academic conferences over the past year. I delivered Arizona. Bjorn Krondorfer, director of the Martin Catholic doctrine. and constructive dialogue in the years memoir about World War II and Holocaust By Bullets Forensics lectures at the Association of Catholic Colleges Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University, Dennis McManus, John K. Roth to come. the Holocaust. Tour: Georgetown University and Universities in Washington D.C., the Lessons and I have been planning this conference for a and John Pawlikowski carefully docu- An additional highlight of the Finally, the book is graced with & Seton Hill University and Legacies Conference at Claremont McKenna number of years. The Arizona symposium will bring ment the changes in Catholic liturgy conference was the presentation by many illustrations by Polish-Jewish Continued from page 1 and theology that were engendered Father Patrick Desbois, author of artist Arthur Szyk. It also includes an College, and Manhattan College’s Abrahamic together scholars from Judaism, Christianity, and Krakow, Brest, and Minsk. by Nostra Aetate. Examples of the Holocaust by Bullets, describing the overview of Szyk’s Holocaust-related Religions: Challenges and Cooperation in the Islam who will address major challenges associated Although the eight- latter are Pope John Paul II’s 1997 efforts of his organization, Yahad – In work written by Irvin Ungar, Curator Age of Extremism. I participated as part of a with the most significant refugee crisis since World day trip was not uplifting, speech, “The Roots of Anti-Judaism Unum, to document the Nazi mass of the Arthur Szyk Society. panel discussion on the Syrian Refugee Crisis at War II. Our triennial Ethel LeFrak Conference, many students from the in the Catholic Church,” and Pope murders of Jews in Eastern Europe. Ohio State University, and continued Holocaust which will focus on women, the Holocaust, and two universities described Benedict XVI’s 2011 book Jesus of The proceedings contain an edited Book Review by Dr. James Paharik, teacher training in Pennsylvania and at the Illinois genocide, will be held in October of 2018. We an- it as “life-changing.” It Nazareth. In her contribution, Carol transcript of Desbois’ address, which Professor of Sociology and Coordinator Holocaust Museum and Education Center outside ticipate an excellent and informative conference. was a tremendous honor Rittner reviews the pioneering recounts in riveting detail what he of Seton Hill University's Genocide and of Chicago in Skokie. I The calendar of our Center continues to fill for students from Seton initiatives begun by Catholic women has learned in the process of identify- Holocaust Studies Program.

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