Westminster's Response to Hedy Epstein's Visit

By Andries Coetzee

In response to the The Daily Record article entitled, "Local Jewish leaders critical of Epstein event", that was published on Friday March 9, Westminster issued the following Press Release.   "Westminster Presbyterian Church of Wooster seeks to be a voice for justice and compassion for people locally, nationally and internationally who are denied justice and whose suffering is ignored.  In this spirit of compassion, Westminster Presbyterian Church, an intentionally inclusive church, invited Hedy Epstein to share her vision of justice, security and compassion for the Christians, Jews and Muslims of Israel-Palestine.

In a gathering of church and community members, Hedy Epstein, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, spoke about her family's and personal experience of the atrocities committed by the Nazis of Germany during WWII.  From these experiences of the Holocaust, Hedy became convinced of the need to speak out whenever there is injustice.  Also from her personal experience during five trips to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories since 2003, she spoke of the harsh present day injustice experienced by Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.  Epstein believes that the solution to the suffering of the Jews of Europe is not an exclusive militarized Jewish state but rather a state that grants the same privileges and rights to all its people, irrespective of ethnicity or religion."