c. 2004 Religion News Service
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Database of Holocaust Victims Unveiled, Accessible Online
JERUSALEM (RNS) Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, launched its much-awaited central database of Holocaust victims Monday (Nov. 22). Its goal is to register as many additional names as possible before the information is gone forever.
To date, Yad Vashem has entered the names of approximately 3 million of the estimated 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust into the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names. It is accessible to the public via Yad Vashem’s Web site (http://www.yadvashem.org).
Although the site will serve as a memorial and an educational tool, Yad Vashem’s primary impetus is to register as many of the 6 million victims as possible. Half remain unknown.
At a press conference to announce the launch, Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem directorate, said the online database is the central tool in the “11th hour campaign” to collect unrecorded names. “It is a race against time,” he stressed, noting that those who were young children in the Holocaust are now in their 70s.
There are several reasons why so many remain unaccounted for, according to Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari.
“For a lot of survivors, it was too emotionally difficult to fill out the memorial pages” that have existed at Yad Vashem for decades. “Registering a victim is the final acknowledgment of their loved one’s death.”
Yaari told Religion News Service that “there are some people who we will never know because their entire families, their entire communities, were wiped out. There was simply no one left to record their names.”
By going online, Yaari said, “perhaps grandchildren will sit down at the computer with their grandparents and input the data. There will come a day when the people who know the names will no longer be with us.”
The online database will enable users worldwide to access millions of personal and historical documents archived in 14 languages using cutting-edge Web search systems. Users can perform comprehensive searches, submit information and take part in educational programs.
_ Michele Chabin
Conservatives Vow to Keep Close Eye on Specter
WASHINGTON (RNS) Conservative groups who tried to derail Sen. Arlen Specter’s bid to head the Senate Judiciary Committee said they are disappointed he will get the post, but vowed to keep a close watch on him.
Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, was forced to defend his expected chairmanship after he warned President Bush that judicial nominees who do not support abortion rights would have a hard time winning confirmation.
After he assured the White House and other GOP leaders that he would not block Bush’s appointments, the nine Republican members of the committee said Thursday (Nov. 18) that they would support the maverick Specter.
“Sen. Specter will be held to his word, ” said James Dobson, founder and chairman of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family, adding, “We will be watching Sen. Specter closely, and reporting on him fully.”
Critics, led by the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition, staged a “pray-in” on Capitol Hill on Nov. 16 in an attempt to deny Specter the chairmanship.
The conservative Family Research Council said it would also keep pressure on Specter to allow a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to clear his committee.
“This is an issue that will not subside and the integrity of Sen. Specter’s word will be tested through his leadership of the Judiciary Committee,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.
Specter, who supports abortion rights, vowed to give a full and fair hearing to any nominee sent up by the White House. He noted that he has voted for all of the president’s nominees, even those he disagrees with.
“I have no reason to believe that I’ll be unable to support any individual President Bush finds worthy of nomination,” Specter told reporters.
_ Kevin Eckstrom
Sixty Oregon Sex Abuse Claims to Go to Mediation; More Claims Possible
PORTLAND, Ore. (RNS) The bankruptcy reorganization of the Archdiocese of Portland has taken a big step with an agreement by about 60 clergy sex abuse plaintiffs to try to settle more than $530 million in claims through mandatory mediation.
Mandatory mediation, which was supported by both sides, covers all claims frozen by the church’s bankruptcy filing July 6, the day it was scheduled to begin a jury trial on a $135 million lawsuit.
There could still be more claims. On Friday (Nov. 19), U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris set an April 29 deadline to file claims against the archdiocese.
In a hearing room packed with dozens of lawyers, Perris ordered opposing attorneys to report back to her in mid-January on a mediation schedule and a choice for a mediator.
Perris won’t decide on the size of the archdiocese’s holdings _ estimated at $19 million by the church and at $500 million by sexual-abuse plaintiffs _ until early next year.
Perris also sided with the Roman Catholic archdiocese on how it would let possible victims know that they had to file claims by the April 29 deadline.
The claimants had argued for an extensive media campaign, hoping to educate people about the nature of sexual abuse and injury, which people sometimes interpret only as physical rather than also psychological. The estimated cost of the TV, print, direct mail and Internet campaign ranged from $4 million to $34 million.
Instead, the judge chose the archdiocese’s $265,000 media campaign, which calls for one-eighth-page legal notices in 19 regional and West Coast newspapers, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, church publications, Internet sites and mailings to 80,000 Catholic households in western Oregon.
Perris asked that the media campaign be expanded to include newspapers in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Montana.
On another issue, however, the judge sided with the plaintiffs, who wanted to expand the universe of claimants beyond minors and adults with repressed memory syndrome, a controversial condition in which a person blocks out the memory of a traumatic event. She agreed that future claimants also should include those who remembered the abuse but failed to associate it with current problems such as alcoholism or marriage troubles.
_ Steve Woodward
Central Baptist Theological Seminary Names First Woman President
(RNS) Central Baptist Theological Seminary has elected Molly T. Marshall, a longtime professor at the Kansas school, as its 10th president.
When Marshall begins her new position Jan. 1, she will be the first woman to hold the top position at any Baptist-affiliated seminary accredited by the Association of Theological Schools.
“We interviewed a field of exceptionally well-qualified candidates, but Dr. Marshall’s love and devotion for theological education is what convinced the committee that she is the right choice to lead the seminary into a new era,” said incoming board chairman Don Wissman in a statement.
Marshall has worked at the seminary in Kansas City, Kan., for nine years, most recently as acting academic dean. She also has been a professor of theology and spiritual formation.
“I’m grateful for the trust and confidence the board has given me to lead Central as a teaching church seminary _ realigning congregational life with theological education,” she said in a statement.
Marshall moved to the seminary after resigning under pressure from a position at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in the midst of the denomination’s battles between moderates and conservatives. She had been critical of the Southern Baptist Convention’s position against women pastors.
Over the course of her career, she has served as a minister at churches in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Kentucky and has been president of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion.
_ Adelle M. Banks
Quote of the Day: The Rev. Jan Edminston of Alexandria, Va.
(RNS) “We have a duty as people of faith not only to imagine a life that is bigger than we are today. We have a duty to bring glimpses of this life now _ to seek justice and healing and fairness _ all in the name of the one who lived and died so that we might know what the realm of God looks like.”
_ The Rev. Jan Edminston of Fairlington Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Va. She was quoted in The Washington Times.
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