Jerusalem — The chairman of Israel’s Yad Vashem Council said the pope’s address at the Holocaust memorial museum did not go far enough.
“A few points were missing in the pope’s address,” Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a former chief rabbi of Israel, told Israel’s Channel 1 Monday shortly after Pope Benedict XVI visited the Hall of Remembrance. “There was no mention of the Germans, or Nazis, who carried out the massacre. There was not a word of sharing the grief or of compassion or pain for the 6 million victims.”
Lau, a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, also pointed out that Benedict used the word “killed” instead of “murdered” to describe how the Nazis’ victims died. And, he added, the pope never said that 6 million were killed, saying only “millions.”
Lau also lamented that while Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in his address at Yad Vashem nine years ago offered a moving personal expression of grief, the current pope did not go that far, instead offering the Catholic Church’s “deep compassion” for those murdered in the Shoah.
“I personally missed hearing a tone of sharing the grief,” Lau said. “I missed hearing ‘I’m sorry, I apologize.’ “
Benedict’s visit to Yad Vashem has been controversial since it was first announced because of his participation in Hitler Youth and the fact that he would not enter the actual museum due to an unflattering portrayal of Pope Pius XII, who is said to have been silent in the face of Nazi atrocities against the Jews during World War II. The Vatican says Pius worked behind the scenes to rescue Jews in Europe.
What do these rabbis want Pope Benedict to do? Their conduct is a terrible Chilul Hashem. This decent man condemns anti-Semitism and it's still not good enough. The traditional Catholic bloggers, like St Louis Catholic & Steve Ray, will be having a field day in the weeks ahead pointing out the obvious lack of hakatoret hatov from our people. Time was we had real leaders in Klal Yisrael. I can't imagine Rav Ben Zion Uziel z'l behaving like Rabbi Lau. As a Torah Jew I humbly apologize for the neanderthal behaviour of my co-religionists towards Herr Ratzinger.
sufficient reach shall be relevantly attained when gentilic organizations such as the vatican repeal their religious fallacies, and replace and enhance theirs with the correct religion, judaism.
As a Jew, I am certainly all for good Catholic-Jewish relations. But these relations have to come from mutual effort by members of both faiths. It cannot be a one-sided process, with the pope and other Catholics showing respect for Jewish sensibilities and an understanding of Jewish perspectives while Jews make no effort on their part to understand Catholics. The Vatican should not have to agree with everything that Yad Vashem, or Rabbi Lau, or the Israeli government says, or even with everything that most of the world's Jews believe, in order for relations between the two faiths to be considered good.
It is very clear that Rabbi Lau had a prejudiced attitude toward Benedict XVI from the very beginning, and was simply looking for things to criticize him for. Many books and speeches about the Holocaust, including many by Jews, have used the word "killed" instead of murdered. If I say that O.J. Simpson killed his wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman, instead of saying he murdered them, does that mean that I'm not sufficiently sensitive to their deaths? It's complete nonsense. And as for Rabbi Lau's criticism of the pope for saying "millions" of Jews were killed instead of "6 million," the pope was actually being more true to the facts than Lau was. Current estimates of the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust range from 5.1 million to 7 million. 6 million is the most well known estimate, but it is still only an estimate, it's not set in stone. Given the range of figures that have been proposed for the death toll, the pope's reference to "millions" was entirely appropriate.
Given that Joseph Ratzinger had been in the HJ, and he is the first German pope since WWII, it's scarcely surprising that his actions as pope regarding the Jewish People are viewed more critically. It is a surprise that the Pope Benedict XVI seems to be caught unawares by the extra responsibility laid on his shoulders by history.
John Paul II had left his successor a surplus of goodwill from the Jewish people. The decline in Jewish-Catholic relations began with Benedict's reinstatement of the Tridentine Mass with the Good Friday Prayer for [the conversion of] the Jews. A year later, it arises that Benedict supports the canonization of Pius XII, the pope of WWII whose record during the Holocaust is, at best, questionable.
January 2009, Benedict lifted the excommunication of four bishops associated with Society of Saint Pius X. The views of the Society are troubling enough for Jewish-Catholic relations, but one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, _is_ a Holocaust denier. Williamson's excommunication was the result of his consecration as bishop outside Canon Law, not his membership in in the SSPX, not his denial of the Holocaust, so technically, I suppose his re-admittance conforms to Canon Law. Nevertheless, to the world at large, Jew, gentile, Catholic _and_ German, the message is that the Catholic Church will tolerate anti-Semitism. Angela Merkel, who is chancellor of Germany certainly understands the delicacy of the situation, and has expressed her concern.
It is entirely up to Benedict how he wants to direct the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. But to expect the Jews —or any other community outside the Catholic Church— to remain silent when they are addressed by those beliefs and practices, is to deny their autonomy and humanity.
Sephardiman's rhetorical question "What do these rabbis want Pope Benedict to do?" is a poor substitute for a rational argument. The next sentence is a condemnation of the rabbis' action as 'terrible". The question's answer is self-evident from the text above: these rabbis want an expression of personal grief from the Pope, especially considering he took part by being a member of the Hitler Youth.
Sephardiman choice to call the rabbis' response "Neanderthal" rather than the Nazis' behavior leaves me wondering what sort of training he is getting as a "Torah Jew".
For my part, I found Jack's response to be educated and educational. I certainly do not find the Pope's behavior "Neanderthal", but the call for more sensitivity seems warranted by the facts Jack cites.
Sephardiman - I would have found you more persuasive had you cited more facts and made more explicit arguments, rather than indulging in rhetoric.
Burt,
"...especially considering he took part by being a member of the Hitler Youth."
Being a member of the Hitler Youth doesn't mean Benedict XVI took part in the Holocaust. There is no evidence whatsoever that he did. How many 14 or 16 year olds in Nazi Germany would have said, "Sorry, I'm not going to join the Hitler Youth. I don't care if it's a requirement, I'm not going to be any part of an evil, genocidal regime"? No one should criticize the pope for what he did during WWII unless they are confident they wouldn't have done the same thing.
Very nice site!
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