Does Past Anti-Semitism Still Need a Reckoning?
Re “A Reckoning for Harm to Jews,” Commentary, Nov. 18: I believe that Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s anti-Catholic statements regarding alleged transgressions against Jews are false and damaging to Jewish relations with all Christians. I was educated in Catholic schools for 12 years and was never indoctrinated with any anti-Jewish teachings, nor was I taught that Jews killed Jesus.
Most of us have heard that 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust, but unfortunately little is heard about the millions of others who were murdered as well. Why don’t we hear about the other half of the awful tragedy? Is it because they were less important: homosexuals, Gypsies and, yes, Christians and not “God’s chosen people”? Isn’t it time for all to heal these old wounds and for all people to be treated with the same level of respect and dignity?
Gerard DiNome
Los Angeles
*
Goldhagen says “The [Roman Catholic] church must stop being a political institution embodied in the Vatican state because that is antithetical to being a moral institution.” As a Protestant who agrees with that, I wonder when Israel is going to become a moral institution.
Ken Savage
Palm Desert
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
