This article appeared in the November 22, 2013 Jewish Advocate.

Dedham WWII veteran sees fruition of his efforts:
Personal hero who saved Jewish lives recognized by the ADL

By Susie Davidson
Special to the Advocate


“Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

This Talmudic saying, which appears in the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:9, is spoken by accountant Itzhak Stern to Oskar Schindler near the end of Steven Spielberg's famed film, as he conveys to his boss that he has indeed, saved humanity by making a difference.

Of course, other righteous humanitarians saved Jewish lives during World War II, and organizations such as Yad Vashem are still recognizing them. However, Julian Bussgang of Dedham always felt that one man had been left out, and when he learned that the ADL had established the “Jan Karski Courage to Care Award,” named for the Polish resistance fighter, he decided to take action.

“In 1941, when the Germans invaded Soviet Union, Andrei Sheptytsky, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lwow (from 1901 until his death in 1944), decided to shelter some Jews, and urged his priests and Ukrainians in villages to help Jews,” Bussgang told the Advocate, following a conversation at the Cafe Europa Holocaust community event held at Temple Reyim in Newton that day. “He saved many Jews, including many children, two rabbis, and families of rabbis. His brother Clement Sheptytsky, who headed the Studite Order, helped him.”

Bussgang, a Holocaust refugee who went on to serve in the Free Polish Army that fought in Italy , has two personal friends who were saved by Sheptytsky, sons of the rabbi of the Progressive Synagogue in Lwow (now Lviv) to which his family belonged. The synagogue was destroyed during he war, but Bussgang returned in 2008 to celebrate his second bar mitzvah at a nearby building. That same year, Bussgang wrote a paper about Andrei Sheptytsky entitled “Metropolitan Sheptytsky: A Reassessment,” that appeared in Vol. 21 of the book POLIN, published by Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.

“During the German occupation of the eastern half of Poland (June 1941–July 1944), Sheptytsky exercised his authority as regional head of the church to shelter and save Jews in the monasteries and convents under his supervision,” Bussgangwrote in the paper. “As a direct result of his instructions, members of the clergy reporting to him hid and protected between 150 and 200 Jews, mostly children.” He goes on to describe how the arthritic, wheelchair-bound Sheptytsky directed his younger brother Clement to make the hiding arrangements, and for that role, the brother was recognized by Yad Vashem in Israel as ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ and was beatified by John Paul II during his papal visit to Ukraine in June 2001.

“[But] To the distress of many of those whom he saved, and in spite of their repeated requests, Metropolitan Sheptytsky himself has not yet been designated by Yad Vashem,” wrote Bussgang, who dedicated the remainder of the article to depicting Sheptytsky and his efforts and making the case for his recognition. Still, nothing was forthcoming.

“When I learned that ADL had developed its own program to recognize those who had the courage to save Jews, I decided to suggest to them that they consider Sheptytsky to be named posthumously for their award,” he said this week. On October 31, he realized his aspirations when the ADL honored Sheptytsky with its Jan Karski award during its 100th anniversary ceremony in New York. Survivors were invited, as well as representatives of the Greek Catholic Church, and guests included Rabbi Dov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, who came from Kiev, along with Jewish leaders from Canada. The ADL had asked Bussgang to locate a family member who could receive the award on behalf of the family. The designated person was Prof. Jerzy Weyman, a grandnephew of the Metropolitan who was a professor of mathematics at Boston University, but had recently moved to the University of Connecticut. On behalf of the Sheptytsky family, Weyman graciously accepted the award, which was established in 1987 to honor rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust.

In presenting the award, ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, himself a Holocaust survivor, said, “Andrei Sheptytsky displayed compassion, even love, for his Jewish neighbors. . . In addition to those he saved directly, who knows how many more he saved indirectly, through his strong moral voice that influenced others to act.”

For Bussgang, it was long overdue for those saved by the Archbishop. “I began my quest because the survivors saved by Sheptytsky felt discouraged and disappointed that Yad Vashem had still failed to recognize one of the great saviors of Polish Jews; probably the highest-ranking official of the Catholic Church, who had the courage and took the risk to act,” said Bussgang.

Andrei Szeptycki, in Polish, or Sheptytsky, in English (1865-1944) was born a Polish nobleman who evolved from Roman Catholicism to becoming a Greek Catholic priest and eventually, an archbishop, or a Metropolitan, whose jurisdiction included Lwow. The Greek Catholics are an eastern rite that report to theVatican, and they are mostly Ukrainians. “Sheptytsky was friendly with Jews before the war,” Bussgang said. “When the Soviets occupied eastern Poland, the Soviets were not friendly toward Greek Catholics, because the Russians were mostly Greek-Orthodox and reported to the Patriarch and not to the Pope. And the Greek Catholic Ukrainians wanted independence for Ukraine.”

“Sheptytsky was...recognized for his courageous efforts to protect Ukrainian Jews from extermination by supplying false identification papers and shelter from the Nazis at a time when such acts were punishable by death,” stated the ADL in its “ADL Posthumously Honors Ukrainian Archbishop for Saving Jews During the Holocaust” press release of Nov. 1. “We are honoring Metropolitan Sheptytsky for his selfless commitment to the goal of preserving human life, and for fighting anti-Semitism under the Nazi regime during a harrowing and dark moment in history,” said Foxman in the release.

“Witnessing the ADL event gave the survivors who had been saved by the Metropolitan, and their descendants, who were frustrated by the position of Yad Vashem, much satisfaction and relief,” said Bussgang. “They felt a debt of gratitude to him and wanted a Jewish organization to pay him tribute.”

Thanks to his efforts, one has.

According to its website, The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through its programs and services that counter hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

To view the ADL news release and a video of the event (right-side column, under “Related,” please visithttp://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/holocaust-nazis/adl-posthumously-honors-ukrainian-archbishop.html