CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER 03.15.00 METRO EDITORIAL LETTERS SURVIVORS WON'T ALLOW RACISTS TO DISTORT TRUTH ABOUT HOLOCAUST 03/15/2000 The Plain Dealer Cleveland, OH We would like to commend The Plain Dealer and, particularly, reporter Clint O'Connor, for researching and exposing the expanding recruitment efforts of the neo-Nazi, white-supremacist group known as the National Alliance ("Sounds of hate," March 5). This article clearly describes the connection between Resistance Records and the goals of the National Alliance, which uses rock music as a medium for propagating its message among our youth. How horrifying to discover that even as noted Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt is made to defend herself in London's Royal Courts of Justice against those who would claim that the Holocaust never occurred, the National Alliance's Cleveland chapter, under the direction of Erich Gliebe, is contending as much right here in our own back yard. The Face to Face Holocaust Education Initiative, operated out of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood, works with parochial- and public-school students in grades eight through 12 in an attempt to combat the rhetoric of groups like the National Alliance. Face to Face brings students together with survivors of the Holocaust in order that they hear first-hand testimony from those who experienced it. As they do so, students strengthen their factual and personal knowledge of the horrors of Nazi Germany. Since 1994, Face to Face has empowered approximately 8,000 young people to resist the propaganda of groups like the National Alliance. Our program arms students with the necessary intellectual and emotional tools to become active agents in creating caring communities. The goals of Face to Face stand in stark contrast to those of the National Alliance and other neo-Nazi organizations. As leaders of Face to Face and on behalf of the survivor community, we regard it as terribly important that no one either deny the existence of or minimize the work of these hate groups. Accordingly, we urge all parents and educators to work with our youth to increase their sense of security and belonging, and to emphasize our mutual responsibility in building a culture in our country of tolerance and respect for those of differing races and creeds. RABBI GARY J. ROBUCK SHARON S. FAGIN Beachwood Robuck is founder of the Face to Face Holocaust Education Initiative, and Fagin is its executive director. ###
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.