Saturday, October 30, 1993 Union News Religion 13 Holocaust Museum's impact lasts By BEATRICE O'QUINN What Cathy Schwartz remembered most was the sea of shoes. Thousands of shoes that belonged to actual victims of the Holocaust, among them a young girl's pair that appears to be the same size as that worn by Schwartz' 9-year-old daughter. The stale, musty stench of death hangs in the air around the pile. "I lost it at that moment," Schwartz said. This scene is among the images of horror 45 Jewish women saw last week when they visited the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The women went on the daylong trip with the Women's Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Springfield. 'The museum through thousands of oral testimony, artifacts and film the rise of Nazism in "Germany and the killing of 6 mil; lion Jews and 5 million others. There but for grace feel we are all Holocaust to care for aging parents and children while men emigrated; and. how women survived the horrors of the death a through friendships, survivors," Schwartz, communica'tions coordinator at the Jewish Federation.
said. "Many of us had an overwhelming feeling of 'There but for the grace of God go "This museum teaches us about intolerance. Even today awe see this happening. Just last "week in Ireland a little Protestant was killed by an IRA bomb. The Catholics and Protestants have been fighting there for over '25 years." The women made the trip with Dr.
Ellen Cannon, a political professor at Northeastern University who is considered an expert on women and the Holocaust. Cannon spoke to the group before they went in the musuem. She raised such issues as how women assumed the role of caretaker for orphaned children; how many more women stayed behind SCHWARTZ SCHWARTZ verbal intimacy and the creation of "substitute" families. Marjorie Karlin, women's division director at the Federation, said the trip became a bonding experience for Jewish women. "We saw how often times women had to hold people together by recreating that sense of family.
Many times men faced the horrors in silence while women were nurturing, more intimate with HOLOCAUST MUSEUM Troubling photographs like this from a Nazi World War II concentration camp confronted members of the Women's Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Springfield last week when they visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. each other," Karlin said. "Today's women are similar. We need to talk about this, to tell our children." In fact, the exhibit is considered so disturbing museum officials do not recommend viewing for children under 11.
Images included: photographs of children emaciated from malnutrition with those of men and women who were maimed during Nazi experiments. There are piles of possessions confiscated from the Jewish victims of the Holocaust: toothbrushes. hairbrushes, boots. concentration camp uniforms, baby items. One video shows German soldiers throwing babies into the air and shooting them.
The museum is divided into three parts: the first section deals with the period from 1933 to 1939 with the origin of the Nazi movement and the rise of Hitler. The second section looks at 1940 to 1944, the years of the Nazi death squads. The third section recounts activities from 1945 to the present with the liberation of Jews, the war crimes trials and the aftermath of the war with the emigration of Jews to the U.S. and Israel. Visitors to the museum are given the identification card of a Jew who experienced the Holocaust.
Visitors are matched in age and gender with the real person on their card. The cards are similar to ones Jews had to carry during the war. "Getting that card gave me some perspective," Schwartz recalled. "My card was of a little girl who would be about the age In fact. on Thursday, a Malden man who claimed the Nazis did not kill millions of Jews was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany minutes before he was to appear on television there.
Fred Leuchter, 51, who built electric chairs and lethal injection machines in the United States. has participated in extreme rightist party mectings in Germany and was arrested on charges of inciternent. The U.S. knew Polansky said she is afraid that the Holocaust could happen again, even in the United States. "There was an overwhelming amount of evidence in the museum that Americans knew what was going on and the State Department knew what was going on in the beginning," said Polansky who had also visited a Holocaust museum in Los Angeles.
"I saw how powerless the American people were to their government. In relation to Bosnia today, we are experiencing the same thing. Could this happen here, could it happen again? We have to walk away (from the museum) wondering that." Many women left the exhibit feeling a sense of mission. "I will never forget. I will work to prevent this from happening again.
I've always had that mission but this museum intensified it. rekindled the fire," Kimball said. "I'm concerned about Bosnia. It's the same thing. We have other human beings who have decided to wipe out fellow human beings because of their differences." Visitors may reserve tickets for the Holocaust museum through Ticketmaster, 800-551-SEAT.
There is a $3.50 service charge. U.S. in need of spiritual revival as in times past By KEN BROWN Tipper Gore showed remarkable insight on the problems facing the nation last summer. The vice president's wife said she hoped to promote "a politics of meaning" that would encourage the "better angels of people's "Perhaps we have swung too far in the past few years and been too careful that there wasn't any kind of connection between spirituality and politics," Gore told a leading news magazine. She also touched upon a 'statement first made by President.
'John Adams in 1798: "We have no armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality 'and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any Times of duress But where are our ethics and morals today, and what place is there for religion? A Gallup poll in July 1992 revealed that 'Americans rank the honesty and ethical standards of politicians 20th out of 25 professions. Politicians barely placed higher than insurance salesmen and car dealers. Kentucky legislators took that poll seriously earlier this year, and investigated the concept of ethical standards.
They discovered that the best standards were those built upon the foundation of religious principles adhered to by clergy. History tells us that during times of duress we have turned to Christ. There were three major movements in the United States to spread the moral standards as Ensemble Torah's The New Avodah Dance Ensemble of New York will present a free concert at Temple Beth El, 979 Dickinson Springfield tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. The troupe uses dance as a form of midrash or commentary on the Torah, and tries to illuminate and interpret religious text, making characters come to life. The concert will be followed by a series of workshops for adults and students.
For further information, contact Russell Finer, executive director, at 733-4149. WORLD COMMUNITY DAY, sponsored by Church Women United of Greater Springfield. will be held Nov. 5 at Trinity United Methodist Church, 361 Sumner Springfield, at 8:30 a.m. The Rev.
Lloyd E. Chorpenning will lead Bible study at 9 a.m. Worship service will follow with the women of South Congregational Church at 10 a.m. and a message by the Rev. J.
Willard Cofield, director of the Community Partnership and Prevention Alliance. A luncheon will follow at noon. Cost is $4. Call Elinor Young at 783- 3072. "EYE OF THE STORM," a movie produced by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's World Wide Pictures, will be shown at Praise and Glory Church of God in Christ at Rifle Street in Springfield on Nov.
6 at 6 p.m. Connie Sellecca, star of the TV series "Hotel," and Jeff Conaway. of and "Grease" fame, star in the film about a TV journalist's struggle to be at peace with himself. The film showing is free and open to the public. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH of Turners Falls will host the Green Mountain Messengers tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.
The group, which comes from the Green Mountains of Vermont, plays a variety of bluegrass and contemporary music. Instruments played include a guitar, banjo, bass and piano. The program will conclude the church fall Harvest Festival with a service at 11 a.m. and a pot-luck dinner at 12:30 p.m. First Baptist Church is at 10 Prospect St.
DR. PAUL ACHTEMEIER, professor of Biblical interpretation at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, will lecture on "The Wisdom Given to Him: Continuing Attempts to Understand the Theology of Paul," on Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Andover Newton Theological Seminary. The lecture i is free and open to the public and will be held in Stoddard Hall on the Newton Centre campus.
Achtemeier. a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA and a member of the Presbytery of the James. will explore recent developments to interpret aspects of Pauline theology. Achtemeier has published 13 books. the most recent "Easter." in his series "Proclamation 4: Aids for Interpreting the Lessons of the Church dances meaning Religion today my mother is now.
My a survivor but many got someone who perished in One visitor, Harriett president of a packaging in East Longmeadow, had Yad Vashem Holocaust in Israel last April. It through again. "I KIMBALL away second KIMBALL person was cards of the end." Kimball, company gone to Museum was an emotional whirlwind left her and She wondered she put herself that that angry sad. why would with a different set of feelings. This is really a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, but it is also an intense study to help us understand how this could happen, how Nazism could be accepted and how Hitler rose to power.
"I realized though, this is not unique. There is a lot of religious history that shows hatred of Jews. Hitler thought he had accomplished what many religious groups set out to do," Kimball said. And although the museum recounts the tragedy of millions most women said they really had a sense of the individuals' struggles. Susan Polansky of Longmeadow could not believe that even with such graphic evidence of Holocaust atrocities, there are some people today who contend it.
never happened. FROM THE PULPIT Ken Brown, Sunday school teacher at Heritage Baptist Church in Springfield, has been a biblical counselor for eight years. A graduate of Heritage Baptist Bible Institute in Easthampion, Brown, 60, holds a certificate in Biblical counseling from the National Association of Biblicai Counselors in Laverock, P.A. Retired from Hamilton Standard, Brown attends Springfield Technical Community College pursuing a degree in human services. cast by God.
The first was led by Jonathan Edwards of Northampton from 1703 to 1758. It was called the "Great Awakening." A sermon written and recited by Edwards, "Sinners, in the Hands of an Angry God," is regarded as one of his greatest. With that sermon, Edwards saw hundreds of colonists turn their lives over to Jesus Christ. 'Two-edged sword' As the spirit of God moved across the scene, other great preachers reported on that religious movement. George Whitefield, a preacher in Newport, R.I., said in 1740, "Persons of all denominations attended.
God assisted me much. I observed numbers affected and had great reason to believe the word of the Lord had been sharper than a two-edged sword in some of my hearer's souls." As wagon trains moved westward, thousands attended camp meetings that lasted for days, and fell under the preaching of the gospel. John Wesley, who rode hundreds of miles on horseback to preach, once said, "This revival of religion has spread to such a de- came this time gree as neither we nor fathers had known." Quieter "awakenings" took place from 1775 to 1800 such as at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and at Yale University in New Haven. The president of Yale at the time was Timothy Dwight, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards. He allowed the students to attack the Scriptures; he then answered the attacks in chapel sermons.
Many were said to be converted. Another spiritual renewal took place in 1850 and went through to the 1900s in the cities of Boston, New York and Chicago. Promoted YMCA seven-block area in Chicago. He also gained nence in promoting the Men's Christian which was noted for its meetings. One New York Tribune article from 1858 ed how the meetings were overcrowded with the onslaught the financial panic of that People were called together the striking of a bell five noon, for the "Hour of Prayer." Humanity today is no need of the presence of God those who suffered the Revolution, the Civil War, many financial crises of our ing country.
We, like them, a mode of change that brought devastation to our omy, our society, our families, country, and the world around And. we need to hear the ing of the bells calling us only one with the power us: God. We need to learn our history, that as and as a nation, we need a al revival. The Union-News invites clergy or lay leaders to "From the Pulpit." For formation, contact Religion America was an industrial gi- tor Beatrice 0'Quinn at ant, and Dwight L. Moody was a or write to the Union-News, great preacher of that time.
His Main Springfield, Bible Institute still stands on a 01101. South Congregational Church invites you to attend our weekly worship services this week: Sunday mornings at 9AM 11AM "A Church Like What?" South Congregational Church Where The City Takes Heart 45 Maple Street Springfield, MA 01105 732-0117 ample parking available By BEATRICE O'QUINN: THE REV. KEITH MASON of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 60 West Leominster, has announced that he will resign his post as of Jan. 1, 1994.
Mason may be remembered in the Greater Springfield area as having served as a priest in 1965 and 1966. as a "locum tenens" one who serves 1 in place of the priest in charge -for the Rev. Tom Schmidt, who was serving in Africa at the time. In a letter to Rev. Robert Denig.
Bishop of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, he wrote of his regret at leaving after more than 27 years of service to St. Mark's. "I do so with the fervent prayer that. even after our first 100 years here. the work of St.
Mark's is just beginning," he wrote. SINGERS ARE INVITED to participate in the Grand Chorus of the 9th annual American Cancer Society Benefit Concert, set for Sunday, Dec. 12 at 3:30 p.m. at Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Western Massachusetts in Springtield. The Christmas concert will include the Westfield State College Wind Symphony, the Bay Path College Glee Club and the Greater Springfield Grand Chorus.
Grand Chorus rehearsals will be held on the four Mondays preceding the concert. All singers are invited to the rehearsCall the Greek Cultural Center, 737-1496, or Richard Marcil, 739-2082. BETHESDA LUTHERAN Church in Springfield will hold a ceremony tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the dedication of its mosaic mural depiction of Martin Luther. The 12-by-22-foot mural, which depicts Luther displaying his Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, contains more than 140.000 pieces of glass.
A guest speaker will speak to the attendees during the ceremony, and a reception will follow. CONGREGATION B'NAI JACOB, 2 Eunice Drive, Longmeadow, will hold its first meeting of a study group for women on Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. The discussion topic will be, "Women's roles in the Jewish world; how far should they go?" The meetings will discusss topics ranging from prayer. cooking, sex, motherhood, being single, Hebrew songs.
Hebrew dances, Kashrut, Israel and more. The group is for women eager to socialize, to learn and to enlighten their spirituality. Call Judy Green at 567-0058. downtown promiYoung Association, prayer Daily reportoften of day. by times at less in than American and the groware in has econour us.
strikto the Directory of Religious Activity Check This Directory for Religious Services and Activities Every Saturday in The Union-News to save from individuals spiritu- Assemblies of God 9104 Charismatic 9121 GRACE CHURCH OF CHRIST BETHANY ASSEMBLY OF GOD Springfield St. tat Armory) R1 57 Main St. Agawarn Springfield. MA area Bethany Hour WHYN 56Ckc The Rev Gino L. Rufo.
Pastor for 9.00 Sr. 8 Pastor 10-45 Morning George D. worship Cope Sun Sun. 10.30am 9.30am Sunday Sunday School Worship write in- 6 PM Sunday Evening School Service Wed Sunday 7:30 Mid 7.30pm Week Evening Victory Service more Edi- Wed. Signing 7 p.m.
For Family The Deal Night WITH Fri 7.30 HOLY healing COMMUNION service 788-1275, All services 789-2306 TDD Prayer Help Phone 24 hrs 781-7777 789-2930 1860 CHRISTIAN Lutheran 9135 LIFE CENTER TRINITY 1590 Sumner MA Albert A Vantassel, Pastor LUTHERAN CHURCH 9:30 Sunday morning learning hour MISSOURI-SYNOD Classes for ail ages 400 WILBRAHAM ROAD "Through The Bible 10 Hours MA Session 3 8:30 A SUNDAY SCHOOL 10:30 "Gods a.m. Morning 8 45 BIBLE CLASS Care For His Own' 19 A.M WORSHIP SERVICE Wednesday 7p.m Family Night Rev 783-9112 James or Butler, Pastor tp.m Groups Church Office Leisure Time Your weekly what-to-do guide in The Sunday Republican Methodist 9136 BETHEL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 27 Pendleton Sptld 734-7611 Rev Dr Donald Tucker Pastor IN THE THIRD CENTURY Sun 9am Divine Worship Service Tues Thurs. 12 noon to 1 30pm SOUP KITCHEN Wed. 7pm Prayer class meeting Sat llam Church School GOD Our Father CHRIST Our Redeemer MAN Our Brother Nondenominational 9137 PO Box 418 739-3230 CALVARY CHAPEL Sunday Worship Service Child Care Available Howard Johnson Hotel 1150 Riverdale St W. Spfld 9146 GLORIOUS GOSPEL CHURCH 627 State St.
785-1891 Sun. Worship Service 10.00am 7pm Sunday School Mid Week Service Wed.
