And with all that cutting and pasting, the Jews still refuse to add the Patron Saint of Genocide Stepinac’s name to their memorial in Jerusalem. Hmmmm.
You wrote:
“And with all that cutting and pasting, the Jews still refuse to add the Patron Saint of Genocide Stepinac’s name to their memorial in Jerusalem. Hmmmm.”
I’m not surprised that Israelis are reluctant to honor a man who saved Jews. This has happened before. Jews during and after World War II honored Pius XII for saving Jews. Now the Israelis and Jews elsewhere often refuse to do so. Even John Paul II, a man known for his kindness for, and respect of Jews, was at times given a rough welcome in Israel for things he never did. Rabbis called for curses on his head. For what? A man who was a friend to Jews and served the resistance in occupied Poland? If this is how many of the Jews of Israel treat a pope known for his love of Jews it doesn’t surprise me that Israel would snub a man who saved Jewish lives.
As can easily be found online:
Louis Breier, an American Jew, wrote: “This great man was tried as a collaborator of Nazism. We protest against this slander. He has always been a sincere friend of Jews, and was not hiding this even in times of cruel persecutions under the regime of Hitler and his followers. Alongside with Pope Pius XII, Archbishop Stepinac was the greatest protector of persecuted Jews in Europe.”
In an unpublished letter sent to editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post in July 29, 1995, reacting on the statement of Reuven Dafni, vicepresident of Yad Vashem, that “Stepinac did not do anything to save the Zagreb synagogue” (Jerusalem Post, July 26, 1995), Dr Amiel Shomrony wrote the following ([Stefan], p. 55-56):
Sir
please allow me through your column to inform your readers truthfully about “Croatia’s past stalks relations with Jews”, written by Mr. Jan Immanuel. In doing so I hope there is no need to stress that I have no personal interest whatsoever above stating what really happened during W.W.II in Croatia.
As former secretary of the Chief Rabbi of Zagreb Dr. Shalom Freiberger and his personal contact with Cardinal Stepinac I am in the position to point out various misinterpretations if not untruths in the above mentioned article of July 26th.
...The allegation that Archbishop Stepinac welcomed the Nazis is absolutely false; on the contrary, he publicly condemned the Nazis’ racial theories as antireligious even before the state of Croatia became “independent” in 1941.
...There are in Israel and the U.S. people who were hidden in 1941 by Stepinac in monasteries during the war. More than 50 elderly Jews were allowed to hide and live until the end of the war on his estate when they were brutally evicted from the old people’s home Lavoslav Schwarz. Also the Jewish community received money as well as sacs of flour on a monthly basis from the Archbishop for the inmates of the concentration camp Jasenovac.
...it is a fact that he condemned all laws against Jews, Pravoslavs, Moslems and Gypsis in his Sunday sermons in the cathedral house, “all of them are children of God”. Also in his sermons he specifically denounced the destruction of our Synagogue as “being a house of God”; “the perpetrators will be dully punished by almighty God”...
As to the danger to his life - we submitted relevant proofs to Yad Vashem, but the matters being sub judice, I shall refrain from mentioning them here...
Allow me only one more pertinent point: I am today one of the very few survivors from the Jewish community of Zagreb of W.W.II and being honorary member of “The cultural society Dr. Shalom Freiberger” I surely am a more reliable witness than people who base their opinions and “facts” one hearsay. http://www.croatianhistory.net/etf/jews.html
Does it surprise me that Israeli Jews snub a man who saved some of their own people? No, not at all.