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| 2/8/2010 1:12:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | UCM donor will be missed
Letter to the Editor
Susan L. Pentlin
Mules by nature are stubborn, but they are not meant by nature to be narrow-minded and insensitive. That they learn. Unfortunately, the Board of Governors has recently encouraged the campus to overturn 20 years of efforts to open this campus to other cultures and to the dignity of others.
I taught in Maastricht in 1999 for the university and by chance I had the opportunity to meet Benoit Wesly's wife, Bella. The course what I was teaching was related to the Holocaust and I contacted the Jewish community of Limburg to see the Maastricht synagogue. The synagogue is a beautiful, small building that though damaged survived the war. A lasting impression on me and I think on the students was its location. It was near the downtown, off a main street, but it took us a long time to locate it. Ms. Wesly gave us a tour of the building and explained to us that the synagogue had been built in a small courtyard, behind a wall, where it didn't seem likely there would be a building. That was to give the synagogue and the community some protection from the years of anti-Semitic actions in Holland. Mr. Wesly's family survived the war in hiding, with the exception of his brother, Leon, who was born in 1939. He was betrayed in Holland and perished, most likely at Auschwitz.
Seen from this perspective, one can understand that Mr. Wesly's requests to the Board of Governors were in actuality very modest. He simply wanted us to acknowledge that the remarks made by (Greg) Hassler were not acceptable and to move on. He did not call Mr. Hassler an anti-Semite. He did not assign guilt. He simply explained that the remarks could be interpreted as anti-Semitic, because the religion of the Podolefskys was immediately implied. Instead, the Board of Governors has left us with a loss and a burden that the campus will carry for some time. It is time now to try to right this wrong and to call for an appropriate response. Mr. Hassler and the Board both owe Mr. Wesly an acknowledgment of what occurred, their regrets and a plan of action for the campus in the future. Even Mules can set aside their egos and show consideration for others.
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