Faint Praise,
Outright Condemnation
Reaction to the Vatican's "apology" to Jews is mostly negative.
JULIE EDGAR
News Editor
orally and nationally, Jewish
reaction to a long-awaited
statement by the Vatican on
its role during the Holocaust
ranged from scorn to faint praise.
The 14-page statement, issued Mon-
day by the Vatican Commission on
Religious Relations With The Jews,
addresses the horror of the Holocaust
and calls for repentance by members of
the Church.
What it doesn't do is draw an overt
connection between Nazi persecution of
Jews and anti-Jewish prejudices that had
basis in Church teachings. And it prais-
es Pope Pius XII for saving Jewish lives,
even though he never publicly con-
demned the genocide.
"For the Vatican to throw out its two
"It's a major insult," declared Robert
cents of nothing ... which is only to
Kunst, head of Shalom International, a
manipulate the debate ... it's mind bog-
Miami-based "resistance group"
gling for anyone to accept
whose members call for Jewish Pope Joh n Paul II it," Kunst said.
ownership of the death camps
Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig
attended a concert
of Europe and have staged
of
the Holocaust Memorial
94
with
in 19
protests at neo-Nazi rallies, at
Center in West Bloomfield
Rome 's Chief
the recently erected monument Rabbi .E'
Elio Toaff called the Vatican statement
to President Franklin Delano
"a step in the right direc-
It was the first
tion," and hoped it was not
Roosevelt, and at summit
e
Vatican
time th
meetings of world leaders.
the final word on its culpa-
comme morated
- the Holocaust.
Kunst explained that the
bility. Yet, he added, the
statement wasn't "as clear" as
Vatican served as a conduit for
"Nazi gold," has been silent
those released by bishops of France and
about neo-Nazi activity throughout
Germany, which explicitly condemned
Europe, has allowed the trivialization of the collaboration of Catholics in the
the death camps and refuses to turn
murder of millions of Jews in wartime
over Jewish books and artifacts to the
Europe.
"What is particularly strange is the
Jewish community.
L
Clarification
The newspaper Yediot Acharonot has
accepted the resignation of the
reporter, Moshe Suissa, who wrote
the false story about a Bnei Brak
woman who was supposedly raped
and forced to divorce her husband.
The couple has nine children.
The false story, as reported by the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, appeared
in the March 13 Jewish News.
Yediot Acharonot apologized for
publishing the untrue story. The
paper wrote that a re-investigation
showed no factual basis existed for
the story.
Orthodox Jewish organizations
publicized that the story was fabri-
cated, which prompted the re-inves-
tigation, reports the Arutz Sheva
News Service.
Shul s Return
Moscow : {JTA) — Jews in the
absolving of Pope Pius, making him, in
a sense, a saint for allegedly saving so
many Jews. The record we have in our
archives and my own research [shows]
that in spite of great urging by the
British government, the South. African
government and the American govern-
ment to issue a statement condemning
the atrocities, he refused to do so,"
Rosenzveig said.
The Nazi government had an agree-
ment with the Vatican that it would tol-
erate the Catholic Church in exchange
for the Vatican's condemnation of com-
munism, he pointed out.
"Inwardly, Pope Pius, he may not
have been a Nazi sympathizer, but he .
was a tremendous enemy of the Soviet
Union. At the time, the conception was
that this was a right versus left battle.
They were more concerned with the
destruction of communism than the
destruction of the Jews," said Rosen-
zveig, who survived the Holocaust in
Poland and came to the States in 1946.
Donald Cohen, head of the Anti-
Defamation League, Michigan Regional
Office, was slightly more upbeat about
the Vatican pronouncement, pointing
out that it contains "very positive things
relating to the shared humanity of all ...
and strong condemnation of anti-Semi-
tism.
"We shouldn't lose sight of the
important strides the Pope has made in
that area," Cohen said, alluding to the
southern Russian city of
Krasnodar are charging that anti-
Semitism among local officials lay
behind their refusal to return a
synagogue to the community.
The synagogue, - which was
built in the 1880s, was confiscated
by communist officials in 1936.
Human rights activists have
charged that racist policies have
been openly practiced by local
authorities since the December
1996 election of a new regional
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3/20
1998
31