Committee for Relations with Jews at Yad VaShem

Six of the eight members of the Committee visited Yad VaShem on Friday, May 17, 2013. The group that included Father David Neuhaus SJ, coordinator of the group, Greek Catholic Father Yuhanna Bshouti, Maronite Father Rafic Nahra, Franciscan Father Badie Elias, Sister of Saint Joseph Reem Obeid and Mr. Wadie Abu Nassar, met with Ms. Irena Steinfeld, director of the department that documents the stories of the Righteous among the Nations, non-Jews who saved Jews during the Shoah. Ms. Steinfeld not only explained her own work but also laid out the importance of the Shoah in the lives of the Jews in Israel. The discussion with the group focused on what Christian Arabs should learn at Yad VaShem.

The group then spent two hours visiting the museum at Yad Vashem, focusing on the presentation of the catastrophe that the Shoah constituted for the Jews in Europe but also on how the Church and Christians are presented at the museum. They then spent time after the visit discussing the challenges that the Shoah and how it is presented at Yad VaShem present for the attempts at dialogue between Arabs and Jews in Israel in general and between Christian Arabs and Jews in particular.