Resolution on Yom HaShoah Observance

May 2000

 

   

United Methodist resolution calls for
  Yom HaShoah observance

 

In recent years, Jewish communities have developed the custom of remembering the   Holocaust (Shoah) on the Jewish calendar at a designated time each year. This observance has   become a powerful means of educating people about this historical atrocity and sensitizing   them to present and potential violence rooted in racial hatred.  

Whereas, "In the twentieth century there is particular shame in the failure of most   of the Church to challenge the policies of governments that were responsible for the   unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust" (Building New Bridges in Hope, Book of   Resolutions 1996), and  

Whereas, we are currently (May 2000) remembering the 55th anniversary of the end of World   War II,

 

Therefore, be it resolved that the 2000 General Conference calls The United Methodist   Church to contrition and repentance of its complicity in "the long history of   persecution of the Jewish people" and asks the General Commission on Christian Unity   and Interreligious Concerns to give special programmatic emphasis to Holocaust awareness and   to prepare resources for use in local congregations, annual conferences and their Conference   Commissions on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns or equivalent structures to   enable them to become more aware of the Holocaust and its impact, and

 

Therefore, be it further resolved, as a sign of our contrition and our solidarity with   the Jewish community, the General Conference urges the promotion of observance of Yom   HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, each spring in United Methodist local congregations and   urges the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, in cooperation   with other agencies of The United Methodist Church, in a time of increasing anti-Semitism,   to work both with our own denomination"s history with regard to this tragedy and find ways   to support the work against anti-Semitism in the world today and to prepare resources for   local congregations to observe Yom HaShoah.

 

We continue to pray for God"s grace to speak in Jesus" name against bigotry, hatred,   genocide, or other crimes against humanity whenever we encounter them.  

(General Conference 2000, Cleveland, Ohio, May 2-12.)