Bedford Observed Kristallnacht on Wednesday, November 9

November 12, 2016

Tonight we stand together with our light burning bright in the darkness.  ….  From the brokenness and despair of the world, we create hope.

– Spoken during Wednesday’s Kristallnacht vigil on Bedford Common

By Julie McCay Turner

At Kristallnacht - Image (c) Dan Brosgol, 2016 all rights reserved
At Kristallnacht – Image (c) Dan Brosgol, 2016 all rights reserved

A larger group than typically gathers for Kristallnacht assembled on Bedford Common on Wednesday evening, November 9 for the Bedford Clergy Association’s annual observance of “The Night of Broken Glass.” The vigil honors the lives and property lost across Germany during the Nazi pogrom that began on the night of November 9, 1938 and lasted into the wee hours of the next morning.

Bedford resident Dan Brosgol said, ” This year’s Kristallnacht commemoration was both a powerful remembrance of the terrifying events of 78 years ago and a reminder of the most important lesson we can take from the darkest moment of modern history: never again.

“In a week where tropes of intolerance and hatred filled my news feed, on Wednesday evening, as the wind whipped across Bedford Common, and as Jews and non-Jews alike recited the ancient words of the Mourner’s Kaddish (the Aramaic prayer for mourners) by candlelight, I felt thankful and hopeful at the same time for the future.”

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Dr. Andrew Lovy, visiting family in Bedford, was born in Budapest and lost many relatives in concentration camps. “Remember,” he said, “[the same thing] could happen here, but I’m counting on the American people.”

According to organizers Rabbi Susan Abramson of Temple Shalom Emeth in Burlington and Rev. Megan Lynes, the parish minister at First Parish, “During Kristallnacht, 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 275 synagogues were razed or burned and 30,000 Jews were arrested. 100 Jews died.  The majority of those who were arrested were sent to the German concentration camps and were killed.”

Representatives of several Bedford faith traditions took part, including Rev. John Castricum, pastor of First Church of Christ, Congregational; Phyllis Landman, representing the Bedford Jewish Community; Bishop Jared Koyle, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Billerica; Rev. Christopher Wendell, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church; Rev. Sharon Dickinson, a Catholic Chaplain; Joshua Leach, ministerial intern at First Parish; and the youth of Temple Shalom Emeth. State Representative Ken Gordon also spoke.

“Our commemoration of Kristallnacht is no mere remembrance of history,” said First Parish Senior Minister John Gibbons. “This vigil is more like exercising a muscle that will be put to use now.  Tonight we exercise our resolve to stand up for those whose rights are most in jeopardy.””

Earlier in the day Gibbons attended an interfaith gathering in Boston, “where we resolved to defend those who, in this new political environment, may be most vulnerable: Muslims, in particular, and immigrants.”

“Kristallnacht comes but once a year,” Gibbons noted, “and yet we will likely need to gather again and again in the coming days and months.  We need one another!”

Rev. John Castricum read Martin Niemöller’s  poem

In Germany first they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. 

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

By candlelight at the end of the vigil, the assembled participants recited the Kaddish, and made a wish for peace.

As we each breathe our own wishes now into these flames, together we spread our light in the darkness.

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