November 20, 2019

Greetings from Washington, DC, where I’ve been spending several days with local Nashville clergy, sponsored by the Temple! We’ve had a guided, facilitated two days at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and today will do the same at the African American Museum of National History. What an amazing opportunity it has been to see and learn much more about other faiths, and to be connected with other faith leaders in town!

I’m rushing since our schedule is packed! I have long thought about my late mother-in-law and her parents, who came to the US before the war, and about how my husband nor my daughter would exist had they not left (from Eastern Europe, Romania, and Russia. I was with those memories as I walked alone through the exhibits.

And, I learned more about the Sharps, a Unitarian minister, and spouse who risked their lives helping Jews get out of Poland. Their story touches upon Norbert Capek, Unitarian minister in Prague, who was sent to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers. His extraordinary courage, staying in Prague when he could have left, and support the anti-Nazi movement when he was not Jewish, is a model for us. 

Read more about the Sharps here:  https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/river/workshop12/178734.shtml

Or buy the book from Beacon Press here. https://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2016/05/defying-the-nazis-discovering-the-heroic-legacy-of-martha-and-waitstill-sharp.html

There is also a Ken Burns documentary.

We have, as UUs a deep and lasting legacy of advocating for the marginalized, the oppressed, and the vulnerable. Our task is to honor that legacy.

With love and hope,

Cynthia