"We don't want to derail this conference, but these
issues could derail it and make it harder for us to
participate unless they're dealt with," he told a
Senate committee recently.
That concern could lead to misunderstandings
about what Jewish groups really want, Jewish
activists say.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-
Defamation League, said the Jewish community has
to communicate its concerns clearly and directly to
African-American leaders.
"We didn't put the Israel issue on the agenda," he
said. "Now that its there, we have a right and a
responsibility to express our concerns." But that
shouldn't pit Jews against the black community,
whose focus on the conference is different, he said.
Push For Faith
This week, President George W. Bush launched an
11th-hour drive to save his controversial plan to help
faith-based charities.
Administration lobbyists were working with GOP
congressional leader s to modify legislation that is
stalled in the House and all but dead in the
Democratic-controlled Senate.
But the president's resuscitation efforts are
unlikely to appease liberal critics, who say the plan
will lead to the improper use of government funds
for things like proselytization. Growing number of
critics on the religious right oppose it for other
reasons.
In a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in
Detroit on Monday, Bush addressed in general terms
some of the big concerns of church-state separation
groups, including the fear that clients at federally
funded social service agencies would be forced to
participate in religious activities as the price of
admission.
Bush told the mayors the administration recognizes
"that the funds will be spent on social services, not
worship services. And we recognize there must be sec-
ular alternatives for those who wish to use the services.
"We respect the separation of church and state,
and the constitutional rights of religious people."
He said that community-based activists who pro-
T
Jerusalem
he front-page photos in
the Hebrew dailies
couldn't have told the
story more graphically.
There was Abed al-Aziz Tzalha,
grinning in triumph, raising his
bloody hands to the lynch mob
in Ramallah, and there he was
again, raising his handcuffed
hands on command for the cam-
era, expressionless, now in the
custody of the Shin Bet.
Until now, nobody knew
Tzalha's name, but most of the
world knew his face — and his
hands. He became famous from
that Oct. 12 photo, a symbol of
the savagery to which the then-
two-week-old intifada
(Palestinian uprising) had
descended.
Two Israeli reserve soldiers,
Vadim Norzhich and Yosef
Avrahami, took a wrong turn into
Ramallah and were stopped by
Palestinian police, who brought
them to the Ramallah police sta-
tion. A mob learned of the arrest,
stormed the station, attacked
Norzhich and Avrahami, then
threw them out the window. The
REMEMBRANCE
John Paul II cites Jewish
suffering in visit to Babi Yar.
RUTH E. GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I
Rome
n his first visit to a Jewish site since a contro-
versial appearance in Syria in May, Pope John
WASHINGTON WATCH on page 29
Paul paid tribute this week to thousands of
Ukrainian Jews killed by the Nazis in one of
the bloodiest slaughters of the Holocaust.
The 81-year-old pope bowed his head and prayed
in silence for five minutes Monday beside the ravine
at Babi Yar, where the Nazis gunned down nearly
34,000 Jews during three days in September 1941.
As many as 150,000 Jews and 50,000 others were
killed there over the course of two years.
surpassed even the Gulf War leg-
crowd below fell on the two with
Jews had looked to the Babi Yar visit with particu-
whatever weapons they could
end of Palestinians 'dancing on
lar anticipation as it was the pope's first major partic-
the rooftops" as Iraqi Scud mis-
find.
ipation in such a ceremony since his trip to Syria in
siles flew overhead on their way
By the time Norihich and
early May. During that visit, the pope stood silently
toward Tel Aviv.
Avrahami were dead, their bodies
as Syrian President Bashar Assad said Jews had
The photo of Tzalha, and the
mutilated, the crowd had grown
betrayed Jesus and had tried to
footage of the lynching, also fea-
to 2,000. Some danced on the
betray and kill the Prophet
Above:
tured prominently in Israel's prop- Mohammed.
Israelis' blood.
Pope John Paul II
aganda campaign against the
People clapped their hands,
Throughout his papacy, John
prays on June 24, in
Intifada. They were Israel's answer Paul has frequently paid homage
chanted, held their babies aloft. It
the forest near Kiev
to the searing.images of 12-year
was like carnavizl in Rio.
to Holocaust victims and con- - where up to 200,000
old Palestinian Mohammed al-
Tzalha, 20, admitted to his cap-
demned anti-Semitism. But
Ukrainians were killed
Dura crouching in terror behind
tors that he ran with the mob
Jewish groups felt the pope —
in Soviet jails in Kiev
into the police station, then began his father, both of them caught in who has tried to atone for cen-
in 1929-1941.
a cross-fire between Palestinian
choking one of the soldiers while
turies of Christian persecution
gunmen and Israeli soldiers,
the victim was being beaten.
of Jews based on the Church's
before an Israeli bullet killed the
When Tzalha saw that his hands
historic Christ-killer charge —
were red with the soldier's blood,
boy.
made a major error by failing to confront the Syrian
Arrested along with Tzalha was
he raised them out the window to
dictator.
the excited crowd below.
Mohammed Nuara, 18, who
The chief rabbi of Ukraine, Ya'akov Bleich, accom-
The scene was filmed by an
admitted stabbing one of the two panied the pope to Babi Yar. He urged the pope to
soldiers in Ramallah. Both were
Italian TV crew. The throwing of
open Vatican archives so that children who were
captured in Palestinian villages
the soldiers out the window, the
born Jewish but were saved and raised by Catholics
mob's attack on them, and the cel- that are under Palestinian
during World War II could learn about their origins.
Authority civilian rule, but sub-
ebration that followed the lynch-
During the ceremony, Rabbi Bleich handed the
ject to Israeli security control.
ing was broadcast over and over
pope a statement saying, "Babi Yar is a name that
In all, Israel has arrested 15
on Cable News Network (CNN).
still inspires awe and disgust as one of the prime
Palestinians involved in the lynch- symbols of evil and cruelty."
ing, mainly Palestinian policemen.
Rabbi Bleich said, "It is here that Hider and his
Transforming Moment
Israeli security authorities have
henchmen successfully created a Kiev that was
vowed to capture all the perpetra- Judenrein," the German term for "cleansed of Jews."
The incident had a transforming
tors. Depending, though, on one's
effect on Israelis, extinguishing
The rabbi praised the pope's role in improving
definition of the word "perpetra-
nearly all of the sympathy for the
Catholic-Jewish relations. "Thanks to the efforts of
tor," that could make for a very
Palestinians that had existed. As a
John Paul-II, we can hope that there will never be
long "wanted" list. O
destroyer of dovish sentiments, it
more Babi Yars," he said. El
Caught Red-Handed
LARRY DERFNER
Israel Correspondent
PAPAL
'
6/29
2001
25