Unitarians recognized as "Righteous Among Nations" (moral, choices)

[lilithu]

This was announced a while ago but I'm not sure it was posted here on RF. It was mentioned again at GA and I get to go to the dedication at the Holocaust Museum here in DC in Sept!

(Boston, December 6, 2005)
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee announced today that the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Israel has designated the late Rev. Waitstill Sharp Martha Sharp Cogan as "Righteous Among the Nations," an honor conferred to individuals who extended aid to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. To date, over 20,000 individuals have been named as "Righteous Among the Nations," but until the Sharps were so designated, the honor had only been bestowed on one American, Varian Fry.

Unitarians and Universalists watched along with the rest of the world as Hitler and fascism took hold in Europe. As the UU Service Committee notes in a piece on its history and founding, "Between l934 and 1938, the Reverends Charles Joy and Robert Dexter (both members of the American Unitarian Association staff) traveled abroad and reported back regularly on conditions among the refugees." Although delegates to the 1933 and 1936 General Assembly of the AUA had passed resolutions decrying the persecution of Jews in Europe by the Nazis, the outcry went unheeded by the US government." In October, 1938, Czechoslovakia fell. American Unitarians, who held close ties to Czech Unitarian congregations and to the Rev. Norbert Capek, were stunned and in December of that year, the Board of Directors of the AUA agreed to a plan for a "service mission to Czechoslovakia."


In February of 1939, Martha Sharp and the Rev. Waitstill Sharp (minister of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills, MA) sailed for Europe as representatives of the American Unitarian Association on what was described as an 'exploratory visit.' They arrived in Prague as Nazi troops were marching into the city, which held 250,000 refugees. Working independently, Martha interacted primarily with refugees; her persistent efforts enabled many to cross borders safely. Meanwhile Waitstill set up an underground escape route from the city about which little is known to this day.


Largely as a result of the Sharp's courageous efforts, the Unitarian Service Committee was established in May 1940 as a standing committee of the AUA. The nascient organization decided on a mission that would orient it firmly on the side of promoting democracy outside of the United States – a controversial decision during a time of US isolationism.


The Sharp's rescue list focused on intellectuals and anti-Nazi political leaders as well as children. In August l940, the Sharps returned to the US from Europe, barely escaping arrest and detention. Later, after the fall of almost all of Europe, they sailed again for Marseilles and then, Lisbon. There, Martha Sharp arranged for 29 children and 10 adults, refugees from Nazi-occupied countries, to set sail for the US. They thus escaped internment under the Vichy French government, which later deported hundreds of thousands to Nazi death camps.


The numbers of people rescued by the Unitarian Service Committee during and after the war years (often in collaboration with other agencies) has been estimated to be between 1,000 and 3,000.

http://www.uua.org/news/2005/051206_YadVashem.html

[Green Gaia]

I think it was posted here, but it's good to read again. Thanks, Lilithu!

[michel]

Thanks for sharing, lilithu.

[lilithu]

The dedication ceremony for the plaque for the Sharps was today, and I got to attend.

There was a great article about it in the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...091302202.html

Senator Harry Reed from Rhode Island was there to inform the Sharp family that the U.S. Senate had passed a resolution recognizing Martha and Waitstill as true American heros.

For me, the most moving thing was their grandson speaking about how his grandparents did not think of themselves as heroes, only people responding to what was needed of them at the time, and they would have expected anyone else to do the same. As Bill Schulz (former president of the UUA and former executive director of Amnesty International USA) pointed out, what made them heroes was the moral choice they made, not any particularly special ability. How many of us would have been willing to do what they did? To leave our homes and our children behind, to risk our lives and possibly leave our kids orphaned, in order to save the lives of others? The fact that they were willing to kinda leaves us with less of an excuse for our own moral failures to act.

Sept 9th marked the second anniversary of the first time the U.S. recognized what's happening in Darfur as a genocide. At that time 15,000 to 30,000 had died. Since then, 400,000 more have died. Every extra day that we dawdle over 500 people die. Just a few short years from now, we will be asking ourselves and our children will be asking us, how we let it happen... What can we say other than we just didn't care enough?


We who believe in Freedom cannot rest...
We who believe in Freedom cannot rest...
Until the killing of black men, black mother's sons,
is as important as the killing of white men, white mother's sons,
We who believe in Freedom cannot rest
(from Ella's Song)


To find out what you can do, please visit the UUSC website:
http://www.uusc.org/index.shtml

[Green Gaia]

UUA Article:

US Holocaust Memorial Museum Honors Unitarians

(Washington, DC - September 14, 2006) A somber, rainy morning provided a fitting backdrop for a ceremony held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to honor the late Martha and the Rev. Waitstill Sharp. The Museum dedicated a plaque recognizing the Sharps on its "Rescuers Wall" in the black granite room where an eternal flame burns. Others who were named Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Yad Vashem memorial are similarly memorialized in the room.

In June of 2006, Yad Vashem recognized the Sharps—only the second and third Americans to be honored at Yad Vashem—as "Righteous Among Nations." This honor, recognizing the few individuals who courageously acted to save lives in the face of genocide, is the highest honor that the nation of Israel can bestow on non-Jews on behalf of the Jewish people.

Among those in attendance for the Washington ceremony were the Sharps' daughter, Martha Sharp Joukowsky and other family members; their grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III, who is principally responsible for the recognition of the Sharps as Righteous Among the Nations; several survivors of the Holocaust; Sara Bloomfield, Director of the U.S. Holocaust Museum; John Heffernan, Director of the Museum's Committee on Conscience (COC); US Senator Jack Reed (D-RI); Dr. Charlie Clements, president of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC); the Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz, chair of the Board of Trustees for the UUSC; and the Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Sinkford delivered the invocation at the ceremony. Sinkford spoke of the Sharps' spirit, recognizing that they saw beyond the boundaries of religious identity, and, referring to the religious divisions that are present in our world said, "we are called in the same way to find a means to make real the promise of one human family and to fight, day by day, the energy that would work against and kill members of that family."

Senator Reed, in recounting the Sharps' accomplishments, announced that the US Senate had chosen, on September 8, 2006, to "honor the heroic efforts of the Rev. Waitstill Sharp and Martha Sharp with a resolution recognizing them as genuine American heroes."

Dr. Schulz introduced a documentary film on the Sharps, "Heroes of the Spirit," noting that the US Holocaust Memorial Museum had received thousands of papers, letters, and reports documenting the heroic work of the Sharps. Schulz spoke of the greatness of the Sharps as reflected by their moral choices.

The twenty-minute film was produced by the UUSC and Artemis Joukowsky III. Joukowsky noted that his grandparents were modest people who "did not see themselves as heroes. They did what the circumstances called them to do, and would have expected that anyone else would have done the same." Other speakers pointed out that, heroic as the Sharps were, they did not and could not have acted alone. Support came from their church—members of whom looked after their two small children while they were away—and from Unitarians across the country who made contributions to aid the Sharps' rescue work as they could.

The event ended with a "call from memory to action" that highlighted the current genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Senator Reed reminded the audience that September 9, 2006, marked the second anniversary of the US recognition of genocide in Darfur. Since that official recognition another 400,000 people have died. Dr. Atema Eclai, director of programs for the UUSC, said that four million people are currently displaced and that "a few short years from now people will be asking why we let this happen. As we remember the heroism of Martha and Waitstill Sharp, the question [is], 'who will be today's heroes and when will the day come when such heroes are no longer needed?'"

For further information on how you can fight the genocide in Darfur and join the Save Darfur rally on Sept. 17: www.uusc.org/darfur/sept_rally.html

Media Coverage:

• 9/15/06: "Honoring a 'Righteous' Pair" by John E. Mulligan, Providence Journal
• 9/14/06: "The Couple Who Fought Genocide" by Alan Cooperman, Washington Post
• 9/14/06: "Holocaust Museum Honors Waitstill and Martha Sharp" by Michael Jay Friedman, usinfo.state.gov
• 9/14/06: "Holocaust Museum Honors Rescuers," Jewish Telegraphic Agency
• 9/11/06: "Two Americans Honored Posthumously by Holocaust Museum for World War II Heroism," Religion News Service

[Djamila]

I'd like to note that Bosnian Muslims more such declarations, per capita, than any other Islamic group in the world.

And no, this kind of pride is not a sin.

[lilithu]

I helped write that article! (Have I told yall that I like my job?)

[Djamila]

Congrats, lil! Coming back, I only just now realized which forum this thread was in. I thought it was in General Discussion or something, I didn't realize it was in UU - so sorry for my irrelevent previous post. lol