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Lutherans Oppose
Loan Guarantees

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RICK WALD

102

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1991

(Expires 9/20/91)

489-5862

New York (JTA) — Jewish
groups are condemning a
resolution adopted by the
nation's largest Lutheran
denomination that opposes
further U.S. loan guarantees
for Israel unless it stops
expanding settlements in
the administered territories.
The resolution was
adopted last week by dele-
gates to the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in
America's biennial conven-
tion in Orlando, Fla. Repre-
sentatives of the
5.2-million-member
Lutheran denomination met
there four days last week.
Bishop Harold Jansen of
Washington had warned
convention delegates that
the resolution would have
"an enormous negative im-
pact" on Jews and Christian-
Jewish relations in this
country. But his reasoning
did not prevail.
The Conference of Presi-
dents of Major American
Jewish Organizations
assailed the resolution as
one-sided.
In a statement, it pointed
out that the resolution "did
not ask the United States to
`pressure' the Arab states to
end their state of war
against Israel, to halt their
economic boycott of Israel, to
discontinue their support of
Arab terrorism or to ac-
knowledge the legitimacy of
Israeli statehood.
"The convention's silence
on these issues betrays a
partisan approach to the
Middle East problem that
vitiates whatever influence
• the resolution might have
exercised," the umbrella
group said.
According to Rabbi A.
James Rudin, national di-
rector of interreligious af-
fairs for the American Jew-
ish Committee, the
Lutheran resolution is part
of an "orchestrated,
systematic campaign" by
"anti-Israel forces within
each of the Protestant de-
nominations, forces which
have enormous vested inter-
ests in the Arab cause."
A similar resolution was
passed by ,delegates to the
Episcopal Church conven-
tion in July. While that
resolution did not specifical-
ly address the issue of loan
guarantees, it urged the
United States to levy econ-
omic pressure on Israel to
stop the building of set-
tlements in the territories.
The Lutherans' statement
"is a kind of economic

blackmail being applied" in
advance of the proposed
Middle East peace con-
ference, and it "should be a
serious warning to Ameri-
can Jews that the loan guar-
antees are going to be a very
tough issue" to pass through
Congress and the Bush ad-
ministration, Rabbi Rudin
said.
Resolutions like the one
passed last week are typical-
ly sponsored by anti-Israel
church leaders, he said, who
are not involved in the con-
structive interreligious dia-
logue that takes place bet-
ween Lutherans and Jews on
the local level in places such
as Washington, where
Bishop Hansen has been
very active in the relation-
ship.
Rabbi Rudin pointed out
that the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in
America is part of the
Lutheran World Federation,
which owns facilities in East
Jerusalem, including the
Augusta-Victoria Hospice on
Mount Scopus.

4

-4

VW Refuses
Reparations

Bonn (JTA) — The German
automobile manufacturer
Volkswagen announced last
week that it is refusing to
pay reparations to former
slave laborers who were ex-
ploited in its factories during
the Nazi era.
A spokesman for Europe's
biggest car manufacturer
confirmed that after two
years of negotiations with a
group of trade union ac-
tivists and church represen-
tatives, the two sides had
failed to resolve the issue.
The group negotiating
with VW had proposed the
creation of a $17 million
foundation which would
make compensation
available to former slave
laborers and finance educa-
tional programs dealing
with the ideological heritage
of Nazism.
VW responded that it has
no legal commitment to pay
reparations and is not in a
position to review individual
claims expected to be filed.
It argued, moreover, that
after World War II, the corn-
pany became, to a large ex-
tent, state-owned, and that
the state had already done
its share in paying repara-
tions to victims of Nazi
persecution.

1