The descendants of rabbis who participated in a 1943 march against the Holocaust are petitioning the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to mention the event in its exhibitions.
More than 150 children and grandchildren of the 400 participating rabbis are calling for the inclusion of the march, which was organized by the Bergson Group, a collection of Jewish activists now the subject of an ongoing campaign by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies to win greater recognition for their efforts. A petition sponsored by the institute and signed by 100 Holocaust scholars and Jewish leaders was delivered to the museum earlier this month.
“We feel it is vitally important that some reference to the rabbis’ march, including a photo of the marchers, be added to the museum’s Permanent Exhibit,” the petition reads. “Visitors to the Museum need to know about those Americans who spoke out for rescue.”
Among those who signed the latest petition are Dr. Yehuda Ben-Meir, Israel’s former deputy foreign minister; Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, dean of the Yeshiva University rabbinical seminary; singer-songwriter Neshama Carlebach; and prominent Washington attorney Nathan Lewin.
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