1. Including a sculpture of a famous Holocaust Survivor and Jew in Washington Cathedral is Very Problematic, and I shall explain why in a thread that will probably unfold slowly. So, if you're inclined, stay tuned, I guess. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/04/28/elie-wiesel-engrave-washington-national-cathedral-human-rights/

2. Also I just noticed that this was reported on April 28, so obviously I'm behind. Anyway. If you want some background reading about the habit of appropriating and encompassing Judaism in the architecture of churches, you can read this from 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/02/01/the-apocalyptic-vision-behind-mike-pences-holocaust-comments/

3. According to the article, "The decision was made by Hollerith and other Cathedral leaders around 2019...The church is part of the Protestant denomination the Episcopal Church but 'aims to be a house of prayer for all people where all can see something of themselves.'"

4. This is precisely the language of a universalizing Christianity that refuses to acknowledge it does not represent all, but which rather appropriates and assimilates others in its image.

5. This gesture has the support of Wiesel's son, as well as the director of the Holocaust Museum. That's fine because for me, what's at issue here isn't a matter of offense, but rather a matter of the larger ethos it promotes. Namely:

6. An ethos that pays lip service to inclusion but only if inclusion means homogenizing difference.

For example: “The cathedral is a 20C cathedral, w lots of room left on purpose so we can keep lifting up those who we think live into the highest ideals of what we think it means to be a Christian, or a person of great morality and ethics,” said the Rev. Randy Hollerith.

8. Implicit in the above quote is the subsumption of moralIty and ethics under a Christian ideal of those things.

9. I mean: "The Human Rights Porch engravings, along with hundreds of other carvings and stained-glass and other art through the English Gothic-style building, are part of the cathedral’s effort to be a multifaith, ecumenical institution."

But maybe don't try that?

And again, "'We wanted to be thoughtful that we not do anything inappropriate or offensive...We didn’t want to pretend he wasn’t Jewish, because he was. It was what made him who he was. But look at what he stood for; it crosses all religious traditions.” This is called erasure.

11. Gonna put this quote here, go shower, & then return later w a continuation of the thread that gets into the history of including images of Jews in medieval cathedrals. It's not a nice story!

"Cathedral stonemason Sean Callahan used medieval techniques to create the carving."

12. According to those in charge of the project to include a sculpture of Jew & Holocaust survivor Wiesel in Washington Nat'l Cathedral, "medieval techniques" were used. But it seems the history of including representations of Jews & Judaism in the Middle Ages was not considered.

13. In medieval northern Europe 2 kinds of representations of Jews/Judaism were included in church architecture, and they emerged from supersessionist theology, the belief that Christians replaced Jews as God's people & that, consequently, Jews live in a state of dissent.

14. First kind of sculpture on medieval churches = Old Testament figures bc they were seen as predicting & prefiguring Christ. So, they're valued only for their relation to the history of Christianity "superseding" Judaism.

15. Second kind of sculpture on medieval churches representing Judaism is the female figure of Synagoga (synagogue). Synagoga is a personification of Judiasm, and she is always paired with Ecclesia (church), the female personification of Christianity.

16. Here is a typical example of that pairing, from Strasbourg Cathedral, c.1230s. Ecclesia is a triumphant queen, standing proud, crowned, gazing clear-eyed ahead. Synagoga, who resembles her in physiognomy, is blindfolded, spear broken, & she holds the tablets of the law down.

17. Essential to the pairing of Synagoga & Ecclesia is the representation of Synagaga as *both* resembling Ecclesia in physical form *&* appearing docile and defeated: almost as if to say, the potential for Jews' conversion is there--they *could* be Christian--but they refuse.

18. And here's where we get back to including Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in the National Cathedral of Washington. There is a history of Christian sculpture that celebrates the representation of Jews as perpetual victims. And what are Jews perpetual victims of? Their Judaism.

19. It is largely through suffering & persecution that white Jews are celebrated as valuable by Christian America. That is comprehensible within that religious cosmos.

20. So many other Jews could have been celebrated. What about a Jew who hasn't suffered persecution? What about a Jew who's championed the human rights of Palestinans? But that does not fit within the religious *or* political program (remember, this is the National Cath in DC).

21. As this thread has made clear, I think that voraciously co-opting and appropriating people of other faiths into Christian religious architecture is a bad idea bc of the larger program it supports. But the decision to incl this particular Jewish person has additional meaning.

22. A coda to this thread: https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1391427428749295618?s=20

23. A commenter asks, "How, then, should the Natl Cathedral honor Wiesman?"

My answer is, Why do they have to? Why should they get to claim all advocates of human rights, regardless of their faith (Wiesel is in their "Human Rights Porch"), under the umbrella of Episcopalianism?

24. Sometimes true inclusion means ceding your platform to, supporting space for, and directing attention to those who do not fit into your mold, rather than molding them to your own ideals and institution.