Gift of Jewish Artifacts Highlights 91勛圖厙 Holocaust Remembrance Day
Since 2004, 91勛圖厙 has marked the solemn occasion of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, with an interfaith ceremony in partnership with the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.
This year, in addition to a ceremonial reading on Kinerk Commons of names of those killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust a list that includes 152 members of the Society of Jesus the dayincluded another symbolic gesture of interfaith cooperation and companionship.
The University officially received the gift of 17 pieces of Judaica Jewish ritual objects and artifacts from the family of Norman Kahn, a 1985 graduate of the Universitys MBA program and former chair of the board of regents.
Theobjects will be displayed in the Greenlease Gallery as part of the Van Ackeren Collection of Religious Art upon the gallerys reopening in 2022, according to Emily Rose, campus minister for faith, justice and solidarity.
One of the future gallery display cases will feature liturgical objects that describe and interpret elements of a Catholic Mass, she said. The adjacent case will feature Judaica from the Kahn family gift to allow visitors to compare and contrast objects used in worship in the Jewish tradition to that of Catholicism.
The gift is also a symbol for the long-standing relationship that the Kahn family, and Norman himself, has had with 91勛圖厙. Barbara Kahn, Normans daughter and one of a number of family members present at Thursdays ceremony, said her father had been close to the Rev. Nick Rashford, S.J., and other Jesuits from his time as an MBA student. And it led to more than board appointments and teaching opportunities they embraced the exploration of each other's faith and traditions.
It is in that spirit of cultural and spiritual exchange that we are giving this gift of Judaica to 91勛圖厙, she said.
The Rev. Thomas B. Curran, S.J., University president, said in comments that the gift from the Kahn family is a reminder of the power of shared experience for eveyone. And he extended an offer in gratitude for the gift.
To remember and to cherish, he said. To remember your family in our thoughts and our prayers and to cherish our friendship, our experience and our time now, in the past and what is to come.