Anthony McCann spent 35 years in the classrooms of Shenendehowa High School teaching his students about what has been written about the oppressed people of the world.
On Wednesday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom, 688 Clifton Park Center Road, he’ll be discussing the development of his course, Literature of the Oppressed, as part of a Holocaust Remembrance Day service. The program is open to the public.
“A number of years ago in Israel, they deemed that one day on the Jewish calendar should be set aside throughout the world as a remembrance of the horror, for those people who perished at the hands of the Nazi barbarians during the second World War,” said Rabbi Chanan Markowitz of Beth Shalom.
While it is not a holy day, Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorates the lives and heroism of the 6 million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945. It was established by the Israeli Knesset in 1951, and is recognized every year the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan by Jews around the world.
Rabbi Markowitz is looking forward to having McCann talk with his congregation and said of McCann, a non-Jew, “It says a great deal about our synagogue that we can share this from an emotional perspective. I’ve met students and parents who rave about him and his commitment.”
McCann, 70, is a native of Ireland. He may be retired but he is still as passionate about his work as he was in the 1970s when he developed the course. He was deeply influenced by writings about the Holocaust such as “The Last of the Just” by Andre Schwarz-Bart and “Night” by Eli Wiesel. These writings, along with attending lectures by Wiesel and experiences McCann had in Ireland formed much of what McCann taught. Wiesel is a Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist and Holocaust survivor.
“It was a profoundly moving experience, listening to him,” said McCann of Wiesel’s lectures.
McCann hails from Belturbet, Ireland, which is about 80 miles northwest of Dublin, not far from the border of Belfast where he grew up “immersed in Irish nationalism.”
“My father was a refugee from Northern Ireland in the sense that his family was from Northern Ireland, they were Catholic. There was tremendous discrimination and persecution,” he said.
McCann added that his family was well aware of Irish history and were of the mindset of looking to the past and dwelling on it, as was the culture. He moved to the U.S. with his brother Kevin when he was 15 to live with relatives on Long Island, which happened to be in the middle of a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. This was a stark contrast to where he grew up and from that he gained an understanding of how those of Jewish faith look ahead to the future, remembering what their ancestors went through but looking to see how it can be avoided in the future.
The brothers were two of five McCann siblings. Their sisters, Mary and Josephine and an older brother, Brendan remained in Ireland under the care of an aunt while they attended a convent school. Bendan is now retired from teaching at Loreto College where he also served as principal where the sisters were students in the 50s.
The McCanns were separated after their parents died and were fortunate to have relatives in Ireland and the states to look after them.
Kevin McCann taught English at East Greenbush Central Schools at Columbia High School and is also now retired. Being well liked and charismatic in the classroom is no doubt in the McCann blood, as remembered by many long since graduated students of the East Greenbush McCann as well as the Shen McCann.
After leaving Long Island, McCann earned a bachelor’s degree in history from SUNY Stony Brook and amaster’s degree in English Literature from SUNY Albany.
McCann and Shenendehowa English department Chairman Herb Safran both developed the Literature of the Holocaust programming when there was the opportunity to do so within curriculums. Literature of the Oppressed is still taught today and is a popular elective among Shen students.
A large part of what McCann brought to his students was the comparison of the Holocaust with the troubles in Ireland. He had also taken a course at Union College devoted to The Holocaust taught by Stephen Berk, who is known for his expertise in the area.
Many of the students that McCann taught over the years at Shen are members of Beth Shalom. He’s also well known in the area and actually had a previous Rabbi from Beth Shalom as a guest lecturer in his classes. A member of the congregation contacted McCann to see if he would be interested in being part of the Remembrance Day.
“I was a little taken aback because this is a very sensitive subject. Normally you’d have a survivor speak on these occasions but with the passage of time … I met with the Rabbi and he talked about how many of the survivors had passed away. … A lot of people were curious about how the course evolved,” said McCann.
“How blessed we are this year that we’re able to have a righteous gentile, Tony, a person who grew up in troubles of (his) own with the dichotomy between fellow Christians, the Catholics and Protestants. To be able to come and address a service honoring the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazis,” said Markowitz.
McCann said he is honored to be taking part in Holocaust Remembrance Day and plans on talking about how the Literature of the Oppressed course developed and hopes that the audience will engage in a dialogue with him rather than just listen to him present information.
For further information, contact the Beth Shalom office at 371-0608.
The event is jointly sponsored by Congregations Beth Shalom of Clifton Park and Agudat Achim, Beth Israel and Gates of Heaven of Schenectady. The service will be conducted by Rabbi Markowitz, Rabbi Matthew Cutler, Rabbi Eleanor Pearlman, Rabbi Ted Lichtenfeld, and Rabbi Moshe Mirsky. Additional participation in the service will come from Holocaust survivors and the Beth Shalom Choir led by Jeff Stein.
