Honoring Those Who Remember

Joyful, somber, contentious: The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s National Tribute Dinner at the Century Plaza was a bit of all three.

Yitzhak Shamir, prime minister of Israel, gave the keynote speech after the evening’s host, “Entertainment Tonight” personality Mary Hart, presented 14 distinguished service awards for Holocaust remembrance in the performing arts to actors, writers, producers and directors who had worked on films and teleplays.

Before the banquet, Secret Service and police personnel dotted the reception area outside the ballroom, sending guests through metal detectors and checking through purses, briefcases and camera equipment. Outside, cars bearing black-tie guests rolled past a line of candle-bearing protesters decrying Shamir’s visit with chants of “Palestine, yes; occupation, no.”

Later, actor James Woods, accepting an award for his work in the 1978 miniseries “Holocaust,” referred to the protesters as “Nazis.” The remark drew loud cheers from the capacity crowd of more than 1,000.

Wiesenthal, whom Mary Hart called “the attorney general for 6 million of his brothers and sisters,” came from Vienna for the occasion. He sat on an extended dais with Shamir, the honorees and others, including Wiesenthal Center officials Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the center, and Samuel Belzberg, chairman of the board of trustees. Also on the dais: Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, Arnold Schwarzenegger, actress Leslie Ann Warren, and one of the dinner chairmen, MCA president Sidney Sheinberg.

Samuel Belzberg spoke of the center’s accomplishments since its founding in 1977, including its condemnation of events as diverse as the Carmelite nuns’ establishment at Auschwitz, anti-Semitic lyrics in rock music and the election of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to the Louisiana state legislature.

The other dinner chairman, publishing baron Robert Maxwell, was in England due to ill health, but his daughter Christine delivered a passionate speech--written by her father--which was one of the evening’s best received. (Robert Maxwell’s parents and four siblings died in the gas chamber at Auschwitz.)

Dinner co-chairman William Belzberg presented the evening’s awards with Mary Hart. The honorees included Mary Steenburgen (“The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank”); Martin Starger (“Escape From Sobibor” and “Sophie’s Choice”); Arthur Cohn (“The Garden of the Finzi Continis”); Joseph Bottoms, Tovah Feldshuh, and Woods (“Holocaust”); Stanley Kramer (“Judgment at Nuremberg”); Dan Curtis and Jane Seymour (“War and Remembrance”), and Robert Cooper, Craig T. Nelson and Ben Kingsley (“Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story”).

Each honoree was escorted to the stage by people who had personal experience with the Holocaust--internees, liberators and sympathizers. The crowd seemed especially moved by Ann Gilbert, who had been taken into the gas chamber but somehow managed to survive.

Through the evening, speakers referred to the Wiesenthal Center’s new $34-million facility, Beit Hashoah-- the Museum of Tolerance, here in Los Angeles. Scheduled to open by this time next year, the museum will include exhibits, educational facilities, a theater and archives to educate visitors about the Holocaust.

The evening concluded with dinner Co-Chairman Alan I. Casden’s introduction of Shamir. In prepared remarks, the prime minister saluted the movie industry for its role in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, and said: “As you know, our state does not happen to be located in the most friendly neighborhood. When Moses led us there he probably did not foresee the fanaticism, hatred and war that are endemic to the region. Perhaps I should have a word with Charlton Heston about that.”