Pope Joins Holocaust Survivors at a Concert of Commemoration

Highlighting the Roman Catholic Church’s commitment to the fight against renewed anti-Semitism, Pope John Paul II joined with Holocaust survivors at a concert Thursday commemorating the Shoah.

On the eve of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, thousands gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI auditorium to hear the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London pay tribute to the 6 million Jewish victims of the war.

The concert marked the first time in the nearly 50 years since the end of WWII that the Vatican has officially commemorated the Holocaust.

It followed the establishment in December of diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Israel.

The 7,500 guests included the chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff; Avi Panzer, Israel’s ambassador to Rome; Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro; and representatives of Catholic and Jewish groups from around the world.

The Vatican provided a kosher lunch.

The Holocaust survivors in attendance at the concert, who came there from 12 different countries, wore special scarves marked with the letter “J” to identify themselves.

In a meeting with about 100 survivors and their families before the concert, the pope expressed hope that listening to music together would confirm the shared resolve of Catholics and Jews “to consolidate the good relations between our two communities so that, with the help of almighty God, we can work together to prevent the repetition of such heinous evil.”

American Jewish conductor Gilbert Levine led the Royal Philharmonic in Max Bruch’s setting of the Yom Kippur prayer “Kol Nidrei,” with cellist Lynn Harrell as soloist. The orchestra also played the “Adagio” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

The Cappella Giulia Choir of St. Peter’s Basilica sang a piece for Psalm 92 in Hebrew composed by Franz Schubert for the inauguration of a new synagogue in Vienna in 1826.

Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss narrated parts of Leonard Bernstein’s “Kaddish,” a symphony incorporating the Jewish prayer for the dead.

The program also included selections from Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” in Hebrew, with Gregory Daniel Rodriguez as soloist.

The concern opened with a brief ceremony in which Holocaust survivors lit six candles in memory of those who perished.

Following the performance, the pope addressed the crowd, calling for a moment of silence to “hear the voices of those who say `do not forget us.'”

The concert – which was broadcast live on European television and will be shown on public television in the United States – was the brainchild of conductor Levine, a Long Island native whose mother-in-law survived Auschwitz.

Levine is conductor laureate of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Krakow and acts as one of the pope’s musical advisers.

In 1988, Levine conducted the Krakow Philharmonic in a concert marking Pope John Paul’s first 10 years in office. He also conducted the 1993 Vatican concert in Denver.

Two years ago, Levine suggested the idea of a concert commemorating the Holocaust to the pope, and the pontiff then offered to hold it at the Vatican.

Funding for the concert came from both Catholic and Jewish sources, including $50,000 donated by Holocaust survivors.

In the meeting with survivors, the pope stressed his commitment to Jewish issues and warned against new waves of anti-Semitism.

“It is not enough that we remember; for in our own day, regrettably, there are many new manifestations of the anti-Semitism, xenophobia and racial hatred which were the seeds of those unspeakable crimes,” he told the survivors.

“History cannot permit all that to happen again,” he said.

The Polish-born pontiff recalled that he had made pilgrimages to Auschwitz and Dachau as a young man and returned to Auschwitz on his first trip to Poland after his election as pope in 1979.

Rabbi A. James Rudin, interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, said he believed that the 73-year-old pope has a special understanding of the Shoah because he lived through World War II in occupied Poland.

“I think what’s important here is that we have a commitment from this pope that the building of positive Catholic-Jewish relations is central to church teaching,” he said.

He said that the concert “sends a signal to the whole world, particularly to people who are denying that the Holocaust ever happened.”

Rudin, who helped organize the concert, called the event a “milestone.”

“This is one more of the pope’s building blocks in improving Catholic-Jewish relations,” Rudin said.