NEWS BRIEFS

Mormon president cuts back duties

SALT LAKE CITY — Mormon President Thomas Monson is no longer coming to meetings at church offices regularly because of limitations related to his age, church officials said Tuesday.

Monson, 89, communicates with fellow leaders on matters as needed, according to a statement from Eric Hawkins, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Monson was hospitalized in early April after he reported that he was feeling unwell and released a few days later after receiving treatment with fluids.

Monson, considered by followers to be the religion’s prophet, has been the church’s leader since 2008. Church presidents serve until they die.

Per church tradition, the next longest-tenured member of the church’s governing Quorum of the Twelve Apostles becomes the next president. Right now, that is Russell Nelson, 92.

Hawkins said in the statement that Monson is grateful for thoughts and prayers from church members and appreciated that his two top counselors in what is known as the First Presidency and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are making sure church business is handled.

Monson himself wrote about the aging process in a 2013 article reflecting on his first five years in the post.

“Age eventually takes its toll on all of us,” Monson said. “Despite any health challenges that may come to us, despite any weakness in body or mind, we serve to the best of our ability. I assure you that the Church is in good hands.”

School honors girls expelled by Nazis

WARSAW, Poland — A school in Poland unveiled a plaque Tuesday that commemorates 87 Jewish girls who were expelled in 1939 during the Nazi occupation of the country.

The event in Krakow is one in a growing number of efforts by teachers and children to commemorate the Jews who lived in Poland before the Holocaust, which was perpetrated by Nazi Germany largely in occupied Poland.

The event was held to mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of the No. 2 middle school in Krakow, which before World War II was an all-girls school.

Lital Beer, director of Yad Vashem’s Reference and Information Services, said her researchers worked for nearly two years at the school’s request to determine the fate of the 87 girls. She said 21 were killed in the Holocaust and 24 survived, but the fate of the others could not be determined.

The task of tracking down girls was made especially difficult due to the fact that many of them changed their names more than once, first taking on Hebrew names if they settled in Israel, and then changing surnames again upon marriage. It was not clear if any of the girls are still alive.

The research project began nearly two years ago when principal Gabriela Olszowska contacted Yad Vashem after finding a trove of records that included a list of the 87 Jewish girls expelled on Dec. 9, 1939, following orders from the German Nazi authorities.

Beer said Yad Vashem gets a lot of requests to do private research for individuals, and is usually not able to accommodate most of them, but gave special attention to this case.

Zvia Fried, who conducted much of the research for Yad Vashem, took part in the ceremony, saying that it was “very moving” and included prayers led by a rabbi and a Roman Catholic priest.

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