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Cardinal Blase Cupich and Rabbi Samuel Gordon will participate in the conversation moderated by Washington Post Columnist, E.J. Dionne, Jr., following the film screening, on Monday, August 27
Chicago, IL (August 24, 2018) – The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, 9603 Woods Drive in Skokie, will host a screening of the feature film “Denial” on Monday, August 27, 2018 at 6 p.m. Following the film screening, The Washington Post Columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr., will moderate a conversation with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, and Rabbi Samuel Gordon of the Sukkat Shalom Temple about the film and its themes. Registration at the event is now closed due to immediate and overwhelming demand.
“It is always crucial to remember the claim that truth has upon us all, even more so now, when we hear so much about ‘my truth’ and ‘your truth’,” said Cupich. “Having the courage to seek, speak and defend the truth in all situations, however small they may seem, will help promote a culture of truthfulness so essential to a just society.”
Based on the acclaimed book “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier,” the 2016 film “Denial” centers on Emory University Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt’s legal battle for historical truth against David Irving, an English writer and World War II historian, who sued her in an English court for libel for calling him a Holocaust denier. In cases of libel in the English legal system, the burden of proof is on the defendant, therefore it was up to Lipstadt and her legal team to prove the Holocaust occurred.
“While the Nazis attempted to annihilate a people, they also hoped to destroy the memory of a vibrant history, culture, and civilization,” said Gordon. “Their plan failed, but there are important lessons for us to learn. Today, there are some who continue to deny the reality of that terrible crime. Even more significantly, some people question the very nature of truth in our present world. It is vital that we continue to defend and protect the pursuit of truth and apply the lessons of our past to the dangers that confront us today.”
Following the film screening, Cupich and Gordon will offer reflections about the film and its lessons for our time, examining how to discern the truth from opinion and discussing whether truth is optional, negotiable or subject to alternative versions. Additional conversation topics may include: why it’s important we preserve the truth; how to have respectful conversations in a toxic atmosphere; the consequences of divisive rhetoric; and to how to retain hope in the face of overt intolerance.
About the Archdiocese of Chicago
The Archdiocese of Chicago, the third largest in the United States, serves more than 2.2 million Catholics in 344 parishes in Cook and Lake Counties, a geographic area of 1,411 square miles. The Archdiocese, pastored by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, has more than 15,000 employees in its systems and ministries, including Catholic Charities, the region’s largest nonprofit social service agency. The Archdiocese also has one of the country’s largest seminaries. The Archdiocese’s 209 elementary and secondary schools comprise one of the largest U.S. private school systems and have garnered more U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Awards than any system of any type.
