Members of the Catholic and Jewish communities have come together annually since 1988 for an evening of learning and discussion to enhance knowledge of each other’s faith. Formerly called the Catholic Jewish Colloquium, its name changed recently to Catholic Jewish Bridgebuilders.
This year, the topic was human dignity and antisemitism, illustrated by the story of Marty Glickman, an athlete, sportscaster for the New York Knicks, New York Giants and New York Jets, and an educator who fought antisemitism.
The Maltz Museum in Beachwood hosted the April 15 program. Jeffrey Gurock, a professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University in New York who wrote a book about Glickman, was the presenter.
The Catholic response was from Deacon Mike Hayes, Bishop Edward Malesic’s delegate for interfaith and ecumenical relations.
“I wrote about Glickman and Mike studied under him,” Gurock said, explaining that Deacon Hayes, a New York native, has a master’s degree from Fordham University, where Glickman had been a professor. He described the deacon as Glickman’s protégé.
Gurock outlined Glickman’s talents as an athlete, which earned him a spot on the United States Olympic team in 1936. The games were in Berlin, Germany as Adolph Hitler and the Nazis were gaining power and antisemitism was growing. Glickman and Jewish teammate Sam Stoller were on the favored four-man, 100-meter relay team, which won gold. Inexplicably, they were replaced at the last minute by two Black runners, Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, preventing them from an Olympic appearance.
He discussed how antisemitism and bigotry were growing. Although Owens interceded for Glickman and Stoller – noting he’d already earned multiple gold medals in the games and felt they should run – were ordered to compete.
Later, when Glickman was gaining traction as a sportscaster, he was pressured by network executives – some of whom were Jewish – to change his name to a more generic surname. He refused.
“You can use sports as a metaphor to understand Jewish life,” Gurock said. In his later years, Gurock said Glickman traveled widely talking about his experiences and the atrocities Jews endured during World War II.
Deacon Hayes asked event attendees to visualize said the optics of two Jewish men running at the German Olympics with a backdrop of Nazi flags. “Antisemitism wasn’t hidden, it was in plain sight,” he said. “Marty wasn’t excluded by the Germans, but by his own team (coaches).”
There has been much discussion over the years about whether or not the Catholic Church might have contributed to a culture of antisemitism by not doing more, Deacon Hayes said, but Pope Pius XII (pontiff 1939-1958) was in a difficult position as he tried to protect clergy and Catholics in Europe and beyond during WWII.
“Caution comes with a cost … What happens when human dignity becomes negotiable?” Deacon Hayes asked.
Relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths changed, thanks to Vatican II, Deacon Hayes said. He cited Nostra Aetate (In Our Time, 1965), the Vatican declaration that advocated for interreligious dialogue and condemned antisemitism.
Pope Leo has pushed back strongly in recent weeks when some political leaders have made volatile statements about human dignity, he said.
“The Gospel doesn’t allow us to trade human dignity for convenience … But do we live that way?” asked Deacon Hayes.