Shoah, a week to remember

The 25th Holocaust Education Week in Toronto organized by Christian-Jewish Dialogue

A week to remember the Shoah atrocities. But it's also an opportunity to make sure that what was a people's tragedy can today be a showcase of all the injustices to be eliminated, so history can no longer repeat itself.
These are the challenges facing the organizers of Holocaust Education Week, taking place in Toronto October 27 to November 10. Corriere Canadese/Tandem talked to organizers Barbara Boraks and Leda Vescio, from Christian-Jewish Dialogue in Toronto, about the programme and the many events that will take place around the city. The Christian-Jewish Dialogue was founded in 1962 with the aim to unite Christians (Catholics and Protestants) and Jews regarding social and cultural issues.
"Out intent is to celebrate the 25th edition of Holocaust Education Week and especially solidify the relationship between Christians and Jews," says Boraks. "But the other challenge we want to tackle is anti-Semitism and intolerance: things we'd like to fight together with all our might. And the best way to do so is to make sure that no one forgets, that history doesn't disappear, and that genocide and discrimination no longer gets repeated. Those who forget find new dimensions and don't connect with the horrors and pain of the Holocaust and to all the racial and religious persecutions. This is the great danger today. If oblivion wins, it can all happen again."
For this not to happen, for 10 days Toronto will be transformed into a memory lab with conferences, screenings of movies and documentaries, roundtables, and accounts by survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
"Thursday, November 3, for example, at the Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, between Yonge and St. Clair, we'll organize a meeting with some Holocaust survivors who live in Toronto," explains Boraks. "The groups that will talk to them will be small, 7-8 people at the most, so everyone can have a personal rapport with them; a proper and real dialogue. Another important event, especially for the Italian community, will be the meeting of Tuesday, November 8, at Shaarei Tefillah Congregation, 3600 Bathurst Street. We'll talk about those who were deported to Italy, a country allied with Nazi Germany, but where ordinary people risked their lives helping the persecuted Jews. We will have live witness accounts by Bianca Schlesinger and her cousin Esther Bem, who live in Toronto."
Leda Vescio, one of the other organizers, focuses on memory and more. "This event is about hope, about the future," she says. "Remembering is important but it's not the ultimate purpose. Youth today are used to doing things with a clear objective. So this dialogue that we want to create in this week of remembrance has to look towards the future. We have to make sure that past experiences, the tragedy of persecution, become the hope of a world that no longer has similar atrocities. In fact, the fundraising dinner that takes place at the end of the Week, is an attempt to raise money so we can carry out our intention of dealing with intolerance and anti-Semitism. The idea is that we don't only want to talk about it, but also do something concrete about it."
The final day of Holocaust Education Week coincides with the 40th anniversary of the apostolic declaration "Nostra Aetate", the most important document regarding Hebrew-Christian dialogue issued by Vatican Council II. "It will be a busy but exciting day, "says Boraks. The morning begins with a talk by father George Tavard, an expert on Vatican Council II, and professor emeritus of theology at Methodist Theological School of Ohio. He will trace the steps that were taken to create the document that opened up talks between the two great monotheist religions.
Later that day Jesuit father Ovey Mohammed, professor emeritus at Regis College, and David Novak, from the Centre of Religious Studies at the University of Toronto, will analyze the reaction of "Nostra Aetate" by the Christian and Jewish communities. In the afternoon, Cardinal Edward Cassidy, ex president del Papal Council for Unity of Christians and rapports with Jews, Riccardo Di Segni, head Rabbi in Rome, and Franciscan James Puglisi, will talk about the future of "Nostra Aetate" and of the challenges of inter-religious dialogue."
But there's more. "The evening of November 10 will end the Week at the Montecassino Place where the fundraising dinner will take place," says Vescio. "Politicians, institution representatives, university professors and students, and religious representatives from Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities will be present. There will be music with St. Michael Cathedral Choir and the Renanim Youth Choir, a Jewish choir: the two will perform together, an event that's never happened before and will be proof tangible of the dialogue between the two religions, in the name of brotherhood and fight against intolerance. Against the Holocaust, certainly one of the worst atrocities in history. And against all the genocides and violence of the past and future."

Publication Date: 2005-10-23
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5658