–Yahad - In Unum News

No. 6May 2010


Cardinals meet with U.S. Jewish leaders, visit U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Arrival of the Cardinals’ delegation at the Jewish Children’s Museum in Brooklyn, New York, during U.S. trip

Cardinal Vingt-Trois, Professor Deborah Lipstadt and USHMM’s Paul Shapiro listen to a question from the floor during conference in Washington, D.C.

Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, invited and led a delegation of bishops and cardinals to New York for meetings with orthodox rabbis and visits to orthodox Jewish centers for studies and education.  The ongoing dialogue between major Jewish orthodox schools and leaders of the Catholic Church was initiated by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and is being continued by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois.  The delegation then visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where they heard a presentation on “Responding Strategically to Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial” from Professor Deborah Lipstadt, a member of Yahad – In Unum’s Scientific Committee.  The delegation was welcomed by USHMM Director Sara Bloomfield, Director of the Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Paul Shapiro, and other USHMM officials.   Yahad – In Unum organized and provided support for this important visit.

European Parliament presentation newsletter article/video 

As part of the coverage of Father Desbois’ April 7 presentation in Brussels at the European Parliament (see YIUN N°5), an article on Yahad – In Unum was included in the European Commission’s newsletter, “Commission en direct,” which is sent to 33,000 members of the European Union community.  A video of the full presentation and the special exhibition displayed at the Parliament also can be viewed online.

Meeting in New York with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko is pictured with Father Desbois during a meeting in New York, at which the minister expressed encouragement for Yahad – In Unum’s ongoing work.  Yuriy Sergeyev, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Serhii Pohoreltsev, Consul General of Ukraine in New York, also participated in the meeting.

Stephen S. Weinstein Holocaust Symposium at Wroxton College  

Father Desbois will join professionals and academics of diverse disciplinary, cultural, and religious backgrounds at the Stephen S. Weinstein Holocaust Symposium (formerly Pastora Goldner Symposium) at Farleigh Dickinson’s Wroxton College in the UK from June 25-29.  Also participating will be Suzanne Brown-Fleming, who will be presenting at Yahad’s Thursday’s at CERRESE on June 24 (see below). The biennial Holocaust Symposium, began in 1996 to provide an opportunity for reflection and dialogue about the Holocaust and its impact on modern life, is committed to making a contribution to tikkun olam, the “repair” of a world devastated by the events of 1933-1945.   
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California student awarded scholarship for Holocaust essay

Congratulations to Charlotte Geaghan-Breiner, a junior at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, winner of the 2010 Morris Weiss Scholarship for her essay on the topic, “Losing Sight of One’s Own Humanity.” Entrants in the essay contest were asked to respond to a quote from Father Desbois regarding “The Holocaust by Bullets”:
“It happened in 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1944 in the very heart of Europe, one of the oldest civilizations in the world that had been shaped by centuries of Christian religious thinking and by the Enlightenment - yet human beings had stopped recognizing their own fellows! Human beings had not seen that by killing others, they were killing themselves.”
Morris Weiss was a founder of the Holocaust Center of Northern California. A Holocaust survivor who testified at Nazi war crimes trials, Morris Weiss was dedicated to fighting Nazism. In his memory, his family established a scholarship open to 11th and 12th grade San Francisco Bay Area students each spring.   
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Yahad to sponsor workshop on Soviet local administration before the Nazi occupation

Research conducted by historians and Yahad – In Unum teams regarding the Nazi executions of Jews, Roma and others in Eastern Europe have raised questions about the organization and methods used to involve local populations in the concentration and extermination of the victims.  Answering these questions or, at least, proposing some possible answers and establishing a bibliography will be the subject of a workshop to be held at Yahad – In Unum’s CERRESE research center on June 14, 2010 in Paris.  Specialists in the Russian or Soviet world from the beginning of the 20th Century, especially as involves the rural environment, who are interested in participating in the workshop are invited to contact Johanna Lehr of Yahad – In Unum for additional information.

Meet Team Yahad

This month, we profile one of the dedicated team members who help make the work of Yahad – In Unum possible.

Jacqueline Seité is frequently the first point of contact for first-time visitors and callers to Yahad’s Paris headquarters.  For return visitors, she is a familiar and welcoming presence as well as a source of institutional memory, having worked with Father Desbois for 11 years, starting with the Catholic Bishop’s conference prior to the founding of Yahad – In Unum.  Born in Meuse in Eastern France, she remembers the horrors of the Second World War from her childhood.  Jacqueline calls the opportunity to contribute to Yahad’s research “a gift from God.”

Recent conferences

Among recent appearances in the Paris region by Father Desbois were presentations in April to 200 students at the Cité Sinai (left) and an update on the status of Yahad’s research to another audience of 200 members of the Synagogue of Vincennes.

Upcoming public events

• Paris: Suzanne Brown-Fleming will deliver a lecture “Research from the Vatican Archives,” discussing what is revealed by the partially opened Vatican Archives from the period of the Third Reich at a special “Thursdays at CERRESE” on June 24 in Paris.  Dr. Brown-Fleming is Director of Visiting Scholar Programs for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust studies in Washington, D.C.  The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. and be conducted in English.  College of Bernardins, 18 Rue de Poissy, 75005 Paris, tel: 01 53 10 74 44 
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