So I am going to the Stations of the Cross at our local church. I have never gone before. It is Friday evening and there are about a dozen worshipers in attendance and my family is going to lead the procession. In fact, we are the procession.
My daughter and son flank me with candles and I have the heavy cross. We stand before each station as my wife is at the lectern reading the text for the parishioners to follow and respond to. At the cue of the organ, we move on.
Somewhere along the way the candles go out, first with Mary and then with Ned. Kind of symbolic given what comes next.
Laura reads the text from the proscribed booklet, beautifully. I’m trying to follow along but frankly am kind of distracted by the candles going out and my aching feet. Maybe they are supposed to hurt, maybe that’s the point. To reflect on all this suffering, and then death.
But flanked by my children I am jolted back with the utterance from the lectern: something near the tenth station about how somebody in the storyline has to practice Christianity in secret, “…because of the Jews.”
It’s 2013. This is the church that reared me. At the lectern where I eulogized my father, my wife reads the proscribed text: because of the Jews. After the service I check the booklet- yep, it’s there, she read it like she was supposed to. Imprimatur.
* * * * * * * *
Though my father would go to the Stations during Lent, this is our first time. To tell you the truth, I’m left a bit devastated. On the ride home, I can’t help but think back to the pogroms that would occur on Good Friday, where houses are torched and people are beat up and killed after church service. Jews. How innocent people who knew that to be on the streets this day was to be a target, instead had to “lay low” on that day. Since childhood I perceived being born on Good Friday as a badge of honor of sorts-so why now I am reflecting on people murdered by angry mobs on that day, throughout history?
* * * * * * * *
Sometimes I feel the eyebrows arching behind my back for my interest in studying and teaching the Holocaust.
First, the obvious. People I don’t know have railed against me on the Internet, implying that traumatized liberator soldiers are liars. The Jews are lying again. That the survivors are pictures of health. That I should educate myself.
Then, the more subtle. I’m not Jewish. People I do know perpetuate stereotypes about Jews and money, Jews and finance- well, if I was Jewish, very likely at some point in time I would have been forbidden from practicing the trade of my choice. If an angry mob was going to burn down my business and drive me out of my home, my village, maybe I’d go into a more “portable” means of sustaining my family, too.
But also sometimes I think I’m regarded with curiosity by some people in the Jewish community. Some people wonder why I am so dedicated to this mission. Some do not understand why a non-Jew takes the interest to do what I have done, but to me it is simple.
I’m a human being.
It was a Jewish catastrophe, but also an unprecedented tragedy for the entire human race. We all have to deal with it and sort it out. Being an educator, it naturally follows that there are significant lessons here.
I also think I am justified in arguing that these lessons are urgent.
Following the Sabbath, the Jewish mother goes to claim her Jewish son, so many years ago. In 2013, my birthday falls on Easter.
I’ll think about this- meditating on the photos here that I took myself-that maybe it’s time to set aside what keeps us apart. We’ll light the candles again.
And as we begin Passover/Holy Week, I’ll end on this note: “Whether discovered in the story of a nation making the journey from Abraham’s early successes to the Israelites’ slavery and subsequent redemption, or in the story of one who lives, dies and is born again, we must all celebrate that life holds more possibility and potential than we first imagine — that there is reason for hope, and that in celebrating triumphs of hope from the past, we can unleash new stories of hope in the present and in the future.”1
I am a friend of Ted Chittendon”s and a Jew. I have followed your blog for some time now, unsure if you recall I met you on facebook you by request( and you accepted me as a friend) as my daughter has a Masters in Public Humanities( and does living history work , such as you did with this project.
I grew up as one of the Jews in Rotterdam, NY in my high school. I have met many many people over the years from high school , college, and in business ( like Ted ..I assume) who never met a Jewish person. Each of us is a product of our environment, and sterotypes, most out of sheer ignorance ..whether it be jew or non jew, african americans..italians. polish etc.
I can tell you as the subject of anti semitism in small doses, that what work you are doing is precious to me. The world might just be a better place if there were no religion…sometimes I believe that. Unsure how you feel, but for example the movement to get gay marriage accepted is now facing a lot of stereotypes, and some is due to religious beliefs that it is immoral..
My position overall is live and let live..Unless anyone interferes with me and my person, I am tolerant of everyone, and anyone. I also have due to the same ignorance, that breeds a lot of stereotypes been subject to some built in prejudices…but know it too is ignorant.
Within 20 years ? 30 years ? soon there will be no more survivors…and your work will live on …The holocaust museum, will live on…
The fact that you are a Non Jew is important to Jews like me. The looks behind you, and raised eyebrows behind you…shows folks true colors …mostly I believe are out of ignorance….they just never met a Jew, and let’s face it all of us have preconceived notions about everyone..and sadly it is pure ignorance passed on through generations..and means nothing UNLESS these myths and stereotypes are passed on generation to generation..
God bless the work you have done..I applaud it…Thank you on the eve of Passover..as the Haggadah says Once we were slaves and now we are free..
Ted has told me of your family..someday I would like to meet you.
Happy Easter Matthew
Sincerely,
Michael Weinberg
Thanks Michael. I had to cleanout my FB profile- which means I decided to take a hiatus for a while and dropped out. Thanks for following my blog.
I am going to the camps for a study tour this summer. Taking three weeks to travel. (Not your typical “summer camp” tour.) I’ll post about it soon.
Ted and I grew up in this community with little exposure to the outside world. Though my parents had Jewish friends. Like you say. live and let live.
It’s hard to explain to people, but now I have found myself swept up. How does one explain reuniting children about to be killed with the men now in their sunset years who saved them? Now that they are reunited, we ask the questions: Why did this happen? How could this happen? If it happened then, can it happen again? Thanks for your support, it’s important. MR
Matt, I could feel with you the depth of your sentiments. I thank you for the work you are doing, reminding us that we are all sisters and brothers created and cherished by God, by whatever name we care to call her/him. Elisabeth Seaman