Friday, October 31, 1980 8 5 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Church Leader Warns of Christian Attitude Toward Israel CLEVELAND (JTA) — Stating that "no serious Jewish-Christian discus- sion today can avoid touch- ing centrally on Israel," the Rev. Allan Brockway of the World Council of Churches (WCC) reviewed a range of Christian attitudes regard- ing Israel, and explored the question of "why it is that the question of Israel's very existence_ remains unre- solved in the minds of Christians." The WCC official ad- dressed the National Inter- religious Affairs Commis- sion meeting in connection , the American . Jewish Coi.tnittee's four-day Na- tional Executive Council meeting. Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, the AJCommittee's inter- religious affairs director, reported on a recent meet- ing between Jewish groups and the WCC, and urged that "Jewish groups inten- sify their relationship with the World Council which is constantly subjected to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel pressures from the PLO and the Arab world." Brockway, who is associate director for Christian-Jewish Rela- tions of the WCC in Geneva, Switzerland, noted that "there is a great perplexity in the Christian mind as to what Israel is and what it re- presents, a perplexity that arises out of the abysmal ignorance of Christians about the Jewish people, and about their national identify that has persisted through persecutions, the like of which obliter- ated other peoples and nations." Among the reasons for ambivalent or negative attitudes about Israel among Christians, Brock- way noted the following: Since Israel was brought into being by people who were persecuted in Europe — although "the extent of that persecution has been largely blurred and forgot- ten . . ." — some Chris- tians "have been taught that Jews took over a land that did not belong to them, displacing the indigenous population, the Palestinian Arbas." Identifying the Palesti- nians as "the poor and op- pressed," they will choose the Palestinians over Israel in the international policies they encourage. While this is "an or Aing principle for mu , Christian bodies," Brockway said, its falacy lies in the "absence of his- torical memory and in a misreading of the com- plexities of contempor- ary political reality. When this fallacy is coupled with an under- standing of Judaism that allows Christians to separate Judaism as a `world religion' from the lived life of the Jewish people, a formidable ideological foundation is laid for an insidious form of anti-Semitism, dis- guised as anti-Zionism." Another source of nega- tive attitudes toward Israel, Brockway stated, comes from representatives of Third World churches who tend to view Israel as a Western nation and link it with the United States and Western Europe as a "colo- nial" power, the dominance of which must be rejected and overcome. "In the context of current international political rhetoric, it is all but im- possible for Third -World church representatives to comprehend Israel as a na- tion of refugees from all three worlds," Brockway said. The situation is compli- cated by the fact that these Third World churches are influenced by the Christian theology of 19th and 20th Century missionaries, he added, "so-that a theological anti-Semitism lurks even further beneath the con- scious surface than is the case in Europe and North America." Brockway noted that the WCC's Consultation on the Church and the Jewish People was cur- rently drafting a set of "Guidelines for Jewish- Christian Dialogue," which focuses attention on the "indissoluble bond between the Jewish people and the land of Is- rael," and that the sig- nificance of these words from the proposed "guidelines" indicated growing attention to Jewish sensibilities which may become "a base for widening the constructive dialogue be- tween the churches and the Jewish people . . ." Contrasting this ap- proach of a 1948 state- ment of the WCC that was essentially missionary in its approach to the Jewish people, Brockway stated that "a vast amount of new thinking, new education, new preaching is required to remove the sting from almost 2,000 years of Chris- tian hatred toward Jews." Emphasizing that he was speaking for himself, Brockway concluded: "I am deeply concerned that Christians support Is- rael and the Jewish people, not so much because I be- lieve such support will enhance Judaism but be- cause I believe that the vit- ality and validity of Chris- tianity is at stake. "The real test for Chris- tianity lies, not in its specific answers to the question, 'what do you say Israel is?'—though that question will con- tinue to be addressed — as it does in whether it is willing and able to tran- scend that essential ques- tion to struggle faithfully with the existential ques- tion, 'How may we sup- port Israel — people, land and state — in assuming its God-given role in the lives of people and na- tions?' That is a goal in which Christians and Jews may join, though perhaps for different reasons." Other speakers at the AJCommittee sessions in Cleveland included: • Anita Miller, project specialist for the Ford Foundation, who said stabilization and revitaliza- tion of neighborhoods in the U.S. may create a Jewish renaissance in areas where Jews originally lived; • Maynard I. Wishner, president of the AJCommit- tee, who said that "disturb- ing developments" in the UN might make it neces- sary for the U.S. to reassess its role in that body; • U.S. Middle East Am- bassador Sol Linowitz, said even though "there is still a distance to go" there are good prospects for peace based on the Camp David agreements; • Prof. Michael Brocke, a Roman Catholic Scholar at the University of Duisberg, West Germany, said a sys- tematic program of publica- tion of religious and secular textbooks on the Holocasut will be started soon for all West German schoolchil- dren; • Rev. Jimmy Allen, former president of the Southern Baptist Conven- at the meeting that a "Shabbat \ Haggadah" has been published by the AJCommittee as a new approach to family and group education. tion, said that a "religious political bloc vote" may endanger the "healthy pluralism" in American society. He warned that this effort was marked by "a total capitulation of a seg- ment of the evangelical Christian movement to right-wing politics and sword-rattling jingoism;" • Hebrew University Prof. Peter Y. Medding said Diaspora. Jews must deal with Israel as "a reality, rather than a miracle." He said current attitudes will affect Diaspora Jewry's per- sonal and philanthropic in- volvement in Israel's fu- ture. It was also announced The book is authored by Michael Strassfeld, who also authored the AJCom- mittee's "Passover Hag- gadah." The AJCommittee's Na- tional Executive Council also adopted a resolution stressing that bilingual education programs can aid newcomers to America as long as they are based on the emphasizing of the na- tion's common language, English. Holocaust Memorial Council Urges Public Outcry Against Anti-Semitism . NEW YORK (JTA) — The U.S. Holocaust Memo- rial Council, at an emer- gency session last week, called on political, religious and industrial leaders as well as all citizens of the United States to speak out against the resurgence of anti-Semitism and Nazism in the wake of the bombing of a Paris synagogue Oct. 3. Noting that the 1930s and 1940s demonstrated that the "distance between words and deeds are very small," the writer Elie Wiesel, chairman of the Memorial Council, said he would send a delegation from the Council to Europe to- meet with French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and other Euro- pean leaders to discuss the situation. He said there are also plans to hold an interna- tional conference against the anti-Semitism either in the U.S. or Europe. President Carter sent a telegraph to the meeting in which he said the ses- sion "is an indication that the memorial, which we conceived and planned together, must serve not only as an ever-present reminder of the Holocaust, but as a chal- lenge to people everywhere to meet the continuing threat to human decency." The council was estab- lished by Carter to recom- mend a suitable memorial to_ the Holocaust. Rep. Bill Green (R-N.Y.), a member of the Holocaust Memorial Council, said the Paris bombing is not an iso- late& case and "we must or- ganize" to combat the rise of anti-Semitism and racism. A resolution considered by the council blamed the rise of anti-Semitism on the United Nations General Assembly's "Zionism is ra- cism" resolution "which has given permission for the anti-Semite to speak and act with impunity"; on the Soviet Union which, it said, was "the most virulent source of. anti-Semitism in the world" and which is "a full-time exporter of racial hatred," and on "unsettled world-conditions which al- ways breed the extremist carrying simplistic and false solutions to social problems." In its call for persons to condemn the resurgence of anti-Semitism, the council noted that "not to speak at this moment is not only the sin of silence, but may result in a catas- trophe engulfing all of mankind. We ask that community leaders ad- dress the issue head on publicly. We ask that sermons be preached condemning hatred. "We ask that com- munities organize rallies, meetings and other appro- priate forums to express condemnation and indigna- tion at the rise of anti- Semitism and other forms of racism not only all over the world, but particularly in our own beloved democ- racy." In London, Marc Fred- ricksen, the French neo- Nazi leader, denied that Nazi Germany had deliber- ately planned to kill Jews and said that far fewer than six million had died during the war. Those who had died had simply been victims of wartime food shortages and concentration camp dis- eases, he said on BBC-TV "Panorama Program." However, Fredriksen, whose group is suspected of complicity in anti-Jewish outrages in France, also ac- cused the Jews of being an elitist people who wanted "to dominate the world," and said that Hitler's atti- tude towards them had been "totally normal." Fredricksen was inter- viewed in a hospital and showed the scars and bruises he had suffered two weeks ago when he was at- tacked by a group of Jewish youths. Two Jewish activists also appeared in the pro- gram and according to the interviewer one of them had carried a re- volver. Both men ap- peared anonymously and with their faces con- cealed. One of them warned that Fredricksen had lost the use of a hand after raising his hand against Jews, and warned that "next time he will lose his tongue." The Jewish activist added: "We are not terrorists and do not want to kill anybody. But if the Nazis want to go one stage higher, we too will go one stage higher." In the program, which also investigated the neo- Nazi revival in other Euro- pean countries, Jean Pierre-Bloch, a French Jewish member of Parlia- ment who supports President Valery Giscard d'Estaing's government, said that the government had taken no precautions to protect Jewish properties because it had not believed that actions like last August's fascist bombing of Italy's Bologna railway sta- tion could occur in Paris. The BBC asked Jose De- ltorn, chairman of the Trench police trade union, about his allegations that 30 French policemen were - named on a list of 150 dangerous anti-Semites. Deltorn denied that his re- velation of the list was politically motivated, say- ing: "My only interest is to clean up the police." Rabbi Michael Williams, the English- born spirtual leader of the Rue Copernic Temple which was bombed Oct. 3, said that since taking up his French post four years ago he had become aware of the depth of French anti-Semitism and the "very poisonous distinction" between Jews and Christian Frenchmen. "I am frightened to show my Jewish identity while traveling in public," he said. Meanwhile, in a state- ment on the terrorist bomb- ing of a synagogue in Paris, the general secretary of the United States Catholic Con- ference said "The Catholic community cannot be in- different when a wave of anti-Semitic violence strikes at the Jewish people." "It is a time to stand be- side them in their anguish," . said Bishop Thomas C. Kelly, 0.P., "and to reaf- firm, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, our absolute opposition to all 'hatred, persectutions or displays of anti-Semitism directed against Jews at any time and by anyone." In Jerusalem, it was learned that Premier Menahem Begin will not go to Paris next month, the prime minister's office an- nounced Tuesday. In reaction to press. re- ports about a scheduled- -visit to Paris, the prime minister's office said Begin did not intend — neither does he intend at the pre- sent — to visit France in the' foreseeable future. The statement said Begin would not do so, despite two invitations to visit that country, the reason being "the unfriendly attitude of France toward Israel." If an Israeli minister will go to France to attend the Israel Appeal convention, it will be Foreign Minister Yit- zhak Shamir. , AAJE Grants Total $40,500 NEW YORK — The American Association for Jewish Education has authorized fellowship and scholarship grants totaling $40,500 to 11 Jewish - educators this year through its Fellowships in Jewish Education Leadership (FIJEL) program. Dr. Harry Passow of Teachers College, Columbia University, chairman of the FIJEL advisory committee, said that two new intern fel- lowships have been awarded and that three others, originally granted in 1979, have been renewed. In addition, Dr. Passow said that two supervisors and teachers in Jewish schools have been chosen to receive scholarship grants for graduate studies in var- ious educational and ad- ministrative disciplines, and that four other mid- career educators who had been presented such grants in 1979 have had them ex- tended for the current aca- demic year.