by Deborah Silverthorn

Special to DJW

More than 500 Jews and Catholics sat together in the pews of the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in Dallas to share in the unveiling and lighting of a menorah donated by the Center for Interreligious Understanding (CIU) in Secaucus, N.J.

The menorah, created by Israeli sculptor Aharon Bezalel, is one of 11 being placed in Catholic centers around the United States. The four-foot 380-pound menorah, which depicts men, women and children being led by a tallis-laden rabbi, is a replica of the Yom Hashoah Menorah presented to Pope John Paul II on April 13, 1999, which is on permanent display at the Vatican's North American College.

"Leaders in the Catholic Church and Jewish community have been working incredibly hard in recent years to gain a closer relationship," said Rabbi Jack Bemporad, founder and executive director of the CIU. "We simply can't keep the transformation between the Jews and non-Jews a secret. One pope after another has changed their minds and said that anti-Semitism must stop and they have begun to give credit where it is due."

Bemporad, who served at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas from 1972 to 1983, started the CIU as a forum for providing better communication and understanding between religions. Eradicating the divisiveness, by helping members of individual faiths to affirm their own beliefs while learning to respect and understand the faiths of others, is the challenge they are diligently working to meet.

Bemporad, who served at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas from 1972 to 1983, started the CIU as a forum for providing better communication and understanding between religions. Eradicating the divisiveness, by helping members of individual faiths to affirm their own beliefs while learning to respect and understand the faiths of others, is the challenge they are diligently working to meet.

"The Yom Hashoah Menorah, standing here in this incredible cathedral," said Bemporad, "will offer a constant reminder to visitors as to the atrocities of the past and that history must never be repeated.

"There were one million more Jews killed in the holocaust than the number of Jews living in the United States today," Rabbi Bemporad told the audience. "This menorah doesn't just represent the six million Jews but the six million non-Jews who also lost their lives between 1933 and 1945." The menorah will sit in the Cathedral, which is under a major renovation project, outside the Chapel of Reconciliation.

"This will be a special location for this incredible gift," said Rev. Ramon Alvarez, rector of the cathedral. "This cathedral, the 'mother church' of the local Catholic community, will be celebrating its centennial this October and as such we are reflecting much on our past and certainly this is a most important opportunity to remember our roots. Like those who fled Europe during World War II, many members of this congregation also left their homelands, while under varying circumstances."

The six candles on the menorah were lit by Rudy Baum, a Holocaust survivor; Most Reverend Charles V. Grahmann, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas; Ron and Joy Mankoff; Rev. Elzie Odom, Jr., director of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches; Barrett Wisstman and Nina Kotova; and Margie Medlin, board member of the Greater Dallas Community of Churches and Diocesan Council of Catholic Women.

"Over 40 years ago the Catholic Church renounced anti-Jewish dogma and sought to build bridges to the Jewish people. In Judaism, true repentance requires forgiveness," said Ron Mankoff, a leader in the Dallas Jewish community who, with his wife Joy, donated the menorah. "Jews should learn the facts about Vatican II and make judgments which look to the possibilities of the future rather than to the injustices of the past. Our reaching out to the Catholic Church is in response to its reaching out to us."

The audience sat in awe as cellist Nina Kotova, accompanied by pianist Simon Sargon, played the moving music of Kol Nidre. Rosalie Alexander, a cantorial soloist at Temple Emanu-El, sang the "Prayer for the Dead," in closing the program. "I am just in awe," said Alexander. "To be here at this time, in this congregation, I think is one of the great events of my life."

"In Exodus we read that 'You shall make the menorah of gold, of sculpted work with six branches coming from its sides and lamps to give light'," said Rabbi Debra Robbins, of Temple Emanu-El as she gave the closing benediction. "This is a miraculous evening in which we dedicate this modern masterpiece which is an interpretation of that ancient text."

The menorah will be lit, as are those in Baltimore, Miami, Palm Beach, Long Island and at Seton Hall in New Jersey, each year on either Yom Hashoa or on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. "This will give us many opportunities to teach the history and the lessons learned," said Most Reverend Charles V. Grahmann, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. "This unity highlights the changes between Catholics and Jews since Vatican II and gives us another chance to foster the unity of the peoples of the world. We can go to the moon and beyond and by leaps and bounds we have the intelligence to assemble the quality of life. We must solve the problems of hatred, conflict, violence and bloodshed."

Rudy Baum, an 87-year-old survivor, believes that education and understanding are both needed to be sure an atrocity like the Holocaust, which took the lives of both his parents, never happens again. "On January 30, 1933, Hitler changed our lives overnight," said Baum. "People we thought were our friends overnight donned swastikas and became our enemies. This menorah and this coming together gives us an opportunity to bring us back to the friendship of past."

CIU is planning dedications of menorahs in Boston, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington, DC.