SAINTS SHOULD NOT TELL LIES
Many Jewish groups were outraged at the plan to beatify Pope Pius XII who remained silent about the Holocaust and could have saved at least one million Jews during W.W.II. Father Gumpel of the Vatican said 'I would not be surprised if it (the criticism) led to a rise of anti-Semitic feeling as many Catholics feel insulted by these attacks.' Is this statement not an incitement to anti-Semitism by the Church??
In a document issued in March 1998, the Pope apologised for the failure of many Catholics to protect Jews but defended the policy of Pius XII who, he said helped some thousands of Jewish lives (!) and remained silent only out of fear that more Jews would be killed if he publicly criticised the Nazis.
More Jews would have been killed?! More than how many? It is a known fact that the Nazis killed the maximum they could per day. I am confused. Please, Scribe, help me to understand!
Albert Khabbaza, MD
Great Neck, NY
Scribe: In 1939, Pius XII made a concordat with Hitler that gave him a free hand concerning the Jews, on condition that he did not attack the Catholic Church. Pius XII saved 800 Jewish children merely as a camouflage.
Recently I came across your Journal over friends house. It was very exciting and interesting to read about familiar names of people of my background. I was born in Baghdad. My father's surname is Ishayek. My mother's surname is Nissan. I came to the United States in 1960 from Israel.
Carmela Bagelle
Philadelphia, US
Sir, You report in your issue No: 70 that a Reform Rabbi has recommended the combining of Yom Hashoah and Tisha B'Av. Your readers will be relieved to know that the official view of this movement, as articulated by its Chief Executive Rabbi Tony Bayfield, is that the unique and evil consequences of the Shoah must continue to be marked independently of our other tragedies. The Sternberg Centre for Judaism houses a Shoah memorial in its grounds where services of commemoration take place each year and will continue so to do.
Anyone who wishes to visit it at any time is welcome to call on us.
World history post 1945 tells us that no nation has a monopoly on bestiality, but the systematic slaughter-house tactics of Nazism remain as an unparalleled assault on one section of society on a world-wide basis. The victims of that monstrous crime deserve their own moment of remembrance.
Barry Hyman
London
I was delighted to read my article (the late Jacob Mahlab) published in the Scribe of October, 1998.
All the pictures I sent were printed but I was shocked to read something I never wrote, referring to the picture representing group of students of the 'Ecole Normale Israelite Orientale' in Versailles - France, holding gas masks. I wrote the names of three Iraqi girls: Flora Hay, the late Naima Nahum and myself Rachel Mahlab, and wrote the other girls are not Iraqi, but I never stated that some of them must have perished in Auchwitz. In fact all of the remaining girls, except one, are alive. Three of them are living in Israel, and the others live abroad, all of them are from Oriental origin.
I hope you will correct this error, so that your readers will know the facts.
While on this subject, I would like to add that the late Naima Nahum, after coming to Israel, became Cultural Affairs Officer in the Israeli Embassy in Rome and later on in Hague.
Rachel Goren (Mahlab)
Tel-Aviv, Israel
I have accidentally decided to check the website that was reported under construction in The Scribe issue of October, 1998 and was delighted to see the wonderful photographs of the late Hakham Ezra Dangoor and others that came crystal clear in my home in Locust Valley, NY. I will do my best to popularise this site among members of our community. Regards and thanks for your efforts on behalf of our dispersed community.
Maurice M. Sawdayee
NY, USA
e-mail: m.sawdayee@worldnet.att.net
This note is to inform you that your site has been listed on the update page to the printed book entitled The Jewish Guide to the Intenet written by Diane Romm and published by Jason Aronson. Your site is noted on the update page located at http://usc/.org/metny/bellmob/inet2.htm in the section entitled Electronic Journals. I would greatly appreciate it if you would consider listing my URL on your site.
Diane Romm
e-mail: dromm@ix.netcom.com
I appreciate being able to read The Scribe on the World Wide Web. I had occasionally seen paper copies, which were given to me by my good friend, Stanley Somekh. My late father, Emile Marmorstein was the headmaster of the Shamash School for Boys in Baghdad from 1936-1939. I sometimes have the pleasure of meeting former students of his, but always welcome the sharing of memories by some of his many students and admirers.
Rabbi Abraham Marmorstein
New York City
e-mail : Mehadrin@aol.com
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