Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky
Honoured Posthumously
The
theme for the celebration of the Centennial of the Anti- Defamation
League (ADL) was “Imagine a World Without Hate”. The
100th
Annual Meeting was held in New York from October 31 to November 1,
2013. In 1987 the ADL established the Jan Karski Courage to Care
Award, named for a young Polish Roman Catholic diplomat who urged
Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt to save European Jewry.
On October 31, the Jan Karski Courage to Care Award was presented posthumously to Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, the head of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church from 1900 to 1944. In 1942 Sheptytsky wrote to protest the murder of Jews to the head of the Nazi SS, Heinrich Himmler. In his reports to Pope Pius XII, he alerted the Pope of the mass murders of Jews taking place, hi the Foreword to David Kahane’s “Lvov Ghetto Diary” Harvard University Lecturer on Jewish Studies Erich Goldhagen wrote “No other ecclesiastical figure of equal rank in the whole of Europe displayed such sorrow for the fate of the Jews and acted so boldly on their behalf. Sheptytsky also saved the lives of Jews by hiding them in monasteries under his control, and one of those thus saved was the author of this memoir David Kahane. Kahane’s account of his hiding, his discussion of Ukrainian-Jewish relations, his conversations with Sheptytsky, his sketches of the priests, monks, and nuns, their humanity and their cool and efficient manner in the face of mortal danger to themselves during German searches for hidden Jews, all form an important addition to the theme of the “Righteous Gentiles” in the literature on the Holocaust.”
Accepting the Jan Karski Award on behalf of the families of survivors, whom Metropolitan Sheptytsky saved, was the Metropolitan’s grand-nephew Jerzy Weyman, a Professor at the University of Connecticut, who expressed his gratitude to Eileen Ludwig and the ADL for their thoughtful decision. He concluded “As a man of God, he was primarily concerned with bringing comfort to people and saving their lives, regardless of their nationality and background. And, thanks to his moral vision, he succeeded in saving many.”
Attending the Awards presentation and delivering remarks was Bishop Paul Chomnycky of the Eparchy of Stamford Connecticut. Also in attendance was the newly elected Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University Fr. Bohdan Prach, Fr. Peter Galadza, Professor at Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies of Saint Paul University, Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations Guillermo Rishchynski, Alexander Kuzma of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation.
This latest recognition of Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s courageous deeds on behalf of humanity answers emphatically the question; “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Ihor Bardyn,
Toronto
PHOTO
National Chair Barry Curtiss-Lusher and National Director Abraham H. Foxman, present the ADL Jan Karski Courage to Care Award to Metropolitan Sheptytsky during the League’s Centennial Meeting in New York City