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18 DECEMBER 2021| REPORTER NEWSPAPERS
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BH
clesia and Syn-
agoga” that
adorned Me
dieval Euro
pean church
es and affected
attitudes into
modern times.
Shown tra
ditionally as a
pair of graceful
young women,
Ecclesia, rep
resenting the
Church, was
crowned, se
rene and victorious, while Synagoga, rep
resenting the Jewish people, was blind
folded, sad and defeated.
The rest of the sculpture’s title comes
from the Nostra Aetate (In Our Time), a
declaration signed in 1965 at Vatican II,
stating that the Church “rejects nothing
that is true and holy” in other religions
and specifically rejects the common teach
ing that the Jews were guilty of deicide.
Marist’s acquisition of the sculpture
began in the fall of 2015, when Murphy
read that Pope Francis had come to St. Jo
seph’s University in Philadelphia to bless
a new bronze sculpture that reinterprets
the ancient symbols of Ecclesia and Syn
agoga. He called the sculptor, Joshua Koff-
man, and asked if he would consider cre
ating a second one for Marist. He said he
would.
“I marched right into Father Roland’s
office and pitched the statue,” said Mur
phy. “I gave a 20-minute presentation on
these two female figures, how the new de
piction is so powerful. The new work takes
a terrible past and reimagines a better fu
ture. He was sold right away.”
It took a full six years for the school
to raise the funds and Koffman to create
the final work he calls a “monument.” At
a ceremony involving leaders from both
the Catholic and Jewish communities of
metro Atlanta, the sculpture “Synagoga
and Ecclesia in Our Time” was unveiled
on Oct. 13. The school website says its pur
pose is to “inspire current and future gen
erations of students to live a life of friend
ship with the Jewish people.”
The sculpture shows two equally se
rene and beautiful young women, Syna
goga on the left and Ecclesia on the right,
facing each other, holding their sacred
texts. The effect on a viewer is so profound
it defies words, yet the meaning is clear in
a way only art can convey.
The paradox of the Holocaust is “the
more you study it, the less you understand
it,” said Murphy. “The thing that gives us
forward motion is art.”
Like all great art, the sculpture will
leave a different impression on all who see
it. I must agree with Brendan Murphy that
its ultimate message is of hope for a better
world of understanding, peace and love.
To see a video about the sculpture, go
to https://vimeo.com/maristschool/re-
view/631298742/f6b2f8bce6.
“Bearing Witness,” which includes an an
nual student trip to key Holocaust sites in
Europe, a December memorial event dur
ing which students plant daffodils as part
of the global Daffodil Project and an eve
ning version of the class for adults.
I contacted three students to find out
why they took the class and what they’ve
gotten from it.
“It’s very important to know why the
Holocaust happened so it will never hap
pen again,” said Lake Degitz.
“My biggest takeaway from this class
is that anti-Semitism existed many years
before the Holocaust started,” said Layne
Sherman.
“Before the class, I hadn’t understood
why the Catholic Church had stood to
the side during the Holocaust,” said Lyr
ic Hoff.
Given that Marist is a Catholic school,
the class analyzes in depth the role of
the Church in the persistent antisemi
tism of the past 2,000 years, as well as the
Church’s efforts to make amends.
Unexpectedly, this topic led to anoth
er expansion of “Bearing Witness” - the
acquisition of a significant work of art, a
large cast-bronze sculpture recently in
stalled on campus to symbolize these ef
forts.
Called “Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our
Time,” the sculpture is an enlightened re
interpretation of the statues called “Ec-
SEWELL
Notre Dame
University, Murphy began teaching his
tory at Marist in 1994. He soon found his
world history class left “about 12 minutes”
to teach one of the most significant events
of the 20th Century, the Holocaust, during
which the Nazis murdered approximate
ly 6 million Jews - two-thirds of the entire
Jewish population of Europe.
“I felt the history of the Holocaust de
manded further study and proposed an
elective on the topic. It went on the cur
riculum at the start of my third year,” he
said.
The first time the class was offered,
only 12 to 15 students signed up. Now, it’s so
popular it forms the bulk of his work. He
has also added meaningful action called
WORTH
KNOWING
BY CAROL NIEMI
One of the
most popular
electives at the
Marist School
in Brookhav-
en is Brendan
Murphy’s “His
tory and the
Holocaust,” a
class he’s been
teaching for al
most 30 years.
A graduate
of St. Pius High
School and
COMMENTARY
Beloved Marist class leads to significant artwork