Jews

Re "Catholics Called Wrong Not to Evangelize Jews," Sept. 7: This Jew would like to take the opportunity to say something to those windbag Neanderthal evangelicals: Leave us alone! At least the Catholic Church, which persecuted us viciously for centuries, sort of "gets it," however halfheartedly. We Jews would appreciate it if you would stop making us the target of your obsessions. It's like we're a lover who left you and you keep stalking us, hoping we'll come back to you. Every time you make statements about us "going to hell" for not accepting Jesus Christ as our savior, you show your extreme ignorance and hatred.

My colleague, John Roth, has carried to unprecedented lengths the doctrine that the arch-criminal is the victim himself. In "When a Faith Exalts Itself Over Others, Hatred Is Born" (Op-Ed Page, Aug. 25), he writes: Possibly no idea has changed human history more than the belief that one's community has a special, favored relationship to God (or gods). Christians . . . inherited the conviction from their Jewish forebears, who understood themselves to be God's "chosen" people.

On March 13, 1938, the Nazis occupied my native Austria. Within 24 hours, I fled to Paris. My family, less lucky, stayed and died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. In Paris at the age of 23, I saw scenes I shall never forget--lines of Jews outside each country's embassies in need of entry visas. No entry! Not United States, not Canada, not Australia. Empty continents turned them down, leaving them to die later when the Nazis took Paris. It was then I realized this must never happen again.

The head of Germany's main Jewish organization has criticized writer Gunter Grass for waiting decades to reveal that he had served during World War II in the Waffen SS, the Nazis' dreaded military force. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews, said Tuesday that the admission negated Grass' longtime criticisms of German politics and society for not adequately dealing with the Nazi past.

In his most direct anti-Semitic statements yet, Russian ultranationalist Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky on Wednesday blamed Jews for starting World War II and provoking the Holocaust. "The essence of the conflict around the Jewish people is that when their number grows too much in some country, war breaks out there," said Zhirinovsky, who leads the third-largest faction in the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. "That happened in Germany . . .

Israeli Jews generally have positive attitudes toward Christians but have little knowledge of Christianity, including which day most Christians celebrate Christmas, according to a new poll. Released as a flood of Christian pilgrims arrives in Israel to mark the new millennium, the poll also found that most Israeli Jews have a positive opinion of the scheduled visit to the Holy Land by Pope John Paul II, and they consider American Christians generally supportive of Israel.

A top Vatican cardinal has reaffirmed that the Roman Catholic Church remains committed to continued improvement in relations with Jews. In a speech marking the anniversary of a major Second Vatican Council document on Catholic-Jewish relations, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of relations with Jews, told a conference of prelates and rabbis that after 2,000 years of antagonism, Catholics and Jews may still disagree -- but that they do so as brothers.

Germany and the country's fast-growing Jewish community signed an agreement giving the nation's main Jewish organization the same legal status as the country's main churches. The accord came on the 58th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Germany's Jewish population has grown from 15,000 after World War II to 100,000, boosted by immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The accord triples the Central Council of Jews' annual government funding to $3.

BELGIUM * Belgian banks signed an agreement to pay about $54 million in compensation to the country's Jews for property lost during the Nazi occupation. The agreement was signed at the Finance Ministry after long negotiations between the Belgian Bank Assn. and Jewish representatives. It follows a similar commitment by the government and insurance companies to pay $57 million to compensate for property plundered or abandoned during the 1940-45 occupation.