Professor Michael Berenbaum of American Jewish University will be the keynote speaker at Holocaust Remembrance, a free event hosted by Elk Grove’s Good Shepherd Catholic Church on January 16 at 6:30 p.m. He will be joined by Sacramento Bishop Emeritus William Weigand and Monsignor James Murphy.
Berenbaum teaches Jewish Studies. He is also a member of the California Governor’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education.
At Biola University in 2012, Berenbaum spoke about the importance of Christian students studying the Holocaust. He told his audience, "Christianity has to ask itself the question What in our religion would allow people to on one hand conceive of themselves as Christians and on the other hand decide to eliminate this people?" Berenbaum's remarks have been posted on YouTube.
Weigand was bishop, first, of Salt Lake City from 1980 to 1993 and then of Sacramento from 1993 to 2008. He had received a liver transplant three years before submitting his resignation.
Murphy is the author of Beauty and Horror in a Concentration Camp: The Story of Etty Hillesum. He is rector emeritus of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento. Murphy also served as associate publisher of the Catholic Herald.
The Good Shepherd Catholic Church is in the Diocese of Sacramento. It is located at 9539 Racquet Court in Elk Grove.
The United Nations has declared January 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On that day at 6:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will stream a program about survivor Irene Weiss on YouTube.
Weiss will recall the experience of being separated at the age of 13 from her younger sister who was then taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau and gassed. Weiss later discovered that the moment of separation had been documented by a Nazi photographer.
Comments / 2