Obama backer made anti-Semitic remarks
American Jewish Congress has criticized U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for accepting support from a former professional basketball player who said the Jews killed Jesus.
New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer reported that ex-New York Knicks guard Allan Houston is hosting a fund-raiser Saturday, May 19 at his home for Obama, the Illinois senator who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Houston drew fire from Jewish groups in 2001 when he said in a pre-game Bible study session that Jews had Jesus’ “blood on their hands” and were “stubborn.” Houston apologized at the time, saying his remarks were taken out of context, but the AJ Congress said Obama’s association with Houston was still inappropriate.
“I don’t think Barack Obama would make comments like that about Jews,” David Twersky, the group’s communications director, told the Intelligencer. But “if someone made those kinds of remarks against African Americans, he would eschew their support. It would be a different standard.” — jta
Bush nominates RJC leader as envoy
President Bush nominated a leader of the Republican Jewish Coalition as ambassador to the Bahamas. Ned Siegel, who heads the RJC’s Florida chapter and is on its national board of directors, was on a list of appointees and nominees sent last week by the White House.
Siegel, a regional president for the Jewish National Fund, is a major Bush fund-raiser. He already serves the administration as a member of the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corp., which guides U.S. investment overseas. Last month Bush named Sam Fox, the RJC’s national chairman, as ambassador to Belgium as a recess appointment. — jta
B’nai B’rith opposes sainthood for war pope
B’nai B’rith International urged Catholic authorities to halt the canonization process for Pope Pius XII until his response to the Holocaust is clarified.
B’nai B’rith has written letters to Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and its Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews. It urged that the process toward declaring the World War II-era pope a saint be suspended until the Holy See’s secret archives from the period are opened and scholars are able to settle the ongoing debate over whether he responded adequately to the Holocaust.
We “would not, as representatives of the Jewish community, normally express opinions regarding religious and symbolic steps taken internally by the Church,” the group said. But it added that “to proactively elevate Pius XII as a saint before scholars are allowed to carry out an appropriate accounting of actions during an era when 6 million European Jews were murdered” would “represent a real injustice.”
Pius XII was placed on the path to sainthood last week when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted to approve his beatification. The current pope, Benedict XVI, must approve, and two miracles must be attributed to the wartime pope.
The Vatican says it has evidence that Pius quietly intervened on behalf of Jews, but still blocks access to Vatican archives from that period. — jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California