600 Clerics to Devote Sermon to Holocaust : Education: Priests and ministers across L.A. respond to businessman’s plea to speak from the pulpit once a year about anti-Semitism.

Responding to a plea from a Jewish businessman fearful that the Holocaust could happen again, 600 priests and ministers across Los Angeles have vowed to devote one sermon a year to preaching about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

More than 30 churches in Hollywood will give Holocaust-related sermons on Sunday and will mark Nov. 22 as Holocaust Memorial Day.

The religious leaders have also formed the Committee of Concerned Christians, whose sole purpose is to educate Christians about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism.

“We have gathered here because we want to witness against the injustices against Jewish people in the past and against those who will deny that the Holocaust ever occurred,” the Rev. Ignacio Castuera of Hollywood United Methodist Church said at a news conference Tuesday.

“The Committee of Concerned Christians is dedicated to the proposition that Christians must stop killing Jews in each century because Jesus Christ wants it that way,” Castuera said.

The committee was formed after Ben Friedman, a Burbank businessman, sent 5,000 letters more than a year ago to local priests and ministers asking them to give one sermon a year dealing with the Holocaust.

“People say it won’t happen again,” said Friedman, an active member of the Jewish community who for 20 years has been involved in efforts to stop anti-Semitism and to promote Holocaust awareness. “I thought if Christians say they’d give a sermon once a year, I’d feel better.”

Friedman, who is 68 but insists “I have 30 more years to work for this committee before I retire,” said he initially received 400 responses to his letters. That number has since grown to 600, and churches from Guam, Hawaii and Kansas have become members.

“Christians care about the Holocaust, and they have a right to do something as Christians,” said Friedman, who has been honored by the Beverly Hills Lodge of B’nai B’rith for his humanitarian efforts.

Friedman, who was born and raised in New York, said he has been the victim of anti-Semitism throughout his life and was appalled that the Holocaust could happen.

“I saw 6 million of my people die. I saw that every country killing Jews was a Christian country, and I thought they must do it for their God.”

Friedman spent years studying Christianity in an effort to understand the religion and its doctrines. He came to believe that Christianity did not espouse killing Jews and began looking for ways to enlist Christian help to stop the killing.

“I was thinking Christians don’t care, but they do care in America,” he said.

Friedman is not working in conjunction with any Jewish group, but many Jewish leaders are supportive of activities that educate people about the Holocaust.

“I commend his efforts to educate people about prejudice, racism, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, which is the most extreme expression of anti-Semitism and provides lessons for us all,” said Jerry Shapiro, associate director of the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League. Shapiro said his office has provided Friedman with Holocaust education materials.

Rabbi David Wolpe, a Conservative rabbi and instructor at the University of Judaism, said he was unaware of the committee and Friedman’s activities, but is also supportive of educating people.

“It sounds like a wonderful thing,” he said. “I hope it continues.”

Wolpe said he would like to see Christians educated not just about the Holocaust, however, but about Judaism.

“It’s important to know what we’ve done to each other, but it’s important to know what we believe today. More Jews and Christians should talk about religious history and God than just about our checkered history.”

Many of the priests and ministers who have become members of the committee have also agreed to turn their churches into Holocaust memorials the day they deliver their sermons.

Hope Lutheran Church in Hollywood will honor Holocaust survivor Ebi Gabor on Sunday, hanging a framed collection of some of her photos and mementos in the vestibule of the church.

“We are adopting her as our living link to the Holocaust, and every year hereafter will honor her, as well as those of her family who did not survive the Holocaust,” said Pastor Mark Rasbach of Hope Lutheran. Gabor will speak at the church’s service on Sunday.

Peggy Clark of the Hollywood-Beverly Christian Church said her church plans to conduct Sunday school classes on the Holocaust.

“The fact that the enormous tragedy of 6 million Jews being killed in five years received little attention from the pulpits and Sunday schools of my fellow Christians is a national shame,” she said.

Participants said that November is an appropriate time for a Holocaust memorial service, noting that Nov. 9 was the 54th anniversary of Krystallnacht , the night when Nazis burned Jewish establishments and beat and killed Jews, ushering in the Holocaust.

“This seems to be the best way to bring the message of the Holocaust to the millions of Christians in our country,” Clark said. “In this way we can show our solidarity with the Jewish people and make a living testament to our faith.”