Simon Schwartz president of the United Synagogue of America, disagrees with a report in the Nov. 28 Bulletin that most of the 2000 delegates attending the United Synagogue biennial convention in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y. on the night of Nov. 11 “gorge(d) themselves on the Concord delicacies, a la ‘Goodbye Columbus’ “He says they were not there to gorge themselves that night.
“That day, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, was specifically devoted to commemorations of that event in ways that were meaningful, “with an address by Jacobo Timerman relating how he was tortured and imprisoned in Argentina and with a presentation of “a dramatic rendering of ‘Dear Kitty,’ a program in remembrance of Anne Frank produced by the American Friends of The Anne Frank Center,” Schwartz says. In addition, he notes the reason many of the delegates tried to ignore the presence of a young rabbi wearing the uniform of an SS officer that evening was “for fear of inciting an incident.”
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