Overcoming Injustice Through Memory

Having arrived and settled in here at the Center has been a treat. We dove headfirst into museum visits, a tour of Osvienčim, and a class meeting. This first meeting was an orientation, and Sister Mary O’Sullivan helped to give us a background on the work of this center, as well as its mission. In short, that work and mission is the title of our course: Memory and Reconciliation. My name is Luis Ramos, and I am a religious studies major at Iona College. I am also a student of sociology at Iona. While studying the Shoah (Holocaust) involves many, many disciplines, I approach it especially from those two. It is an honor to study alongside Iona students, and also to be led by Iona faculty and new instructors (Sister Mary O’Sullivan and Father Manfred Deselaers) through this experience.

The opportunity to study the Shoah is not meant to have students dwell in the past, but to remember it and use that memory to transform the present moment. That is the work of reconciliation. Reconciliation can be a building of bridges, sharing of knowledge, and the beginning of meaningful dialogue between many people. Overcoming injustices through memory is something that I feel is absolutely needed at this moment in our world’s history.

At home in the United States we see the memory of the struggle for civil rights for black, Latino, and other minorities informing the present movement for equality. As I signed up for this course, I was unsure how to approach it. Using this study as informing my memorial of the Shoah is the approach I am now taking.

For Christians, what would “memory and reconciliation” mean? What sort of injustices could be overcome through memory? Our course meetings at home in the United States have allowed us to understand “the teaching of contempt”. This is a reference to past Christian teachings that have, at times, been a part of promoting anti-Semitic views or doctrines. One example is the false claim that the Jewish people crucified Christ.  Memory and reconciliation, for me, means being a witness to the Shoah through study and this journey. It means overcoming stereotypical, unjust views that used to be present in my religious tradition, and are at times still brought up by some. It means helping contribute, however much, to a new dialogue between Christians, Jews, and anyone else who would like to meet at the table. My hope is for broader dialogue, broader understanding, and deeper reconciliation.