Israeli chief rabbi in historic Armenia visit
24/Nov/2005
European Jewish Press
By David Dahan
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger said the Jewish community recognizes the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as a genocide, during an historic visit to Armenia on Tuesday. {see Israel’s Chief Rabbi Remembers Armenian Genocide Victims }
[...]
Turkish ’shocked’
Deniz Saporta, the press officer for Turkey’s chief rabbi Itzak Haleva, told EJP that Turkey’s Jewish community did not want to interfere on the national debate of the genocide.
"We only heard about it today, and we are a little shocked," Saporta said. "Let the historians do their job and then we will se," she added. No official statement from the rabbinate was released so far.
"It is rather a surprise, In my personal opinion, to see a Jewish religious leader accepting Armenian allegations of genocide," Selcuk Gultasli, Zaman publications Brussels Representative, told EJP.
"The Chief Rabbi should have read one of the most respected Ottoman history scholars, American professor of Jewish origin Bernard Lewis who calls the claims unfounded."
"It is ironical that it was the Ottoman Empire that saved Spanish Jews from another genocide in Spain in the 1492 by shipping them to Turkey," Gultasli concluded.
[...]
Denying genocide
Marc Knobel, a charge d’affaire for the CRIF Jewish umbrella organization in France stressed that there was not a single view on the debate in Israel; some scholars and politicians do not believe it was a genocide, but many in Israel disagreed.
"The declarations of the Israeli Chief rabbi are honorable. It is totally respectuous of the Armenian tragedy to qualify these events as a genocide," he stressed.
[...]
"The CRIF has a moderate and reasonable view on the matter," Knobel added, alluding to the organization engaged dialogue with Armenian groups. "Without comparing and equalizing each genocide, we can say that the mass extermination of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians and Tutsis in Rwanda are genocides," he said. "without omitting the specificity of the Shoah."
"It is just shameful that many people, and among them Jews, deny the Armenian genocide for despicable reasons," Knobel concluded.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
European Jewish Press
By David Dahan
Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yona Metzger said the Jewish community recognizes the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians as a genocide, during an historic visit to Armenia on Tuesday. {see Israel’s Chief Rabbi Remembers Armenian Genocide Victims }
[...]
Turkish ’shocked’
Deniz Saporta, the press officer for Turkey’s chief rabbi Itzak Haleva, told EJP that Turkey’s Jewish community did not want to interfere on the national debate of the genocide.
"We only heard about it today, and we are a little shocked," Saporta said. "Let the historians do their job and then we will se," she added. No official statement from the rabbinate was released so far.
"It is rather a surprise, In my personal opinion, to see a Jewish religious leader accepting Armenian allegations of genocide," Selcuk Gultasli, Zaman publications Brussels Representative, told EJP.
"The Chief Rabbi should have read one of the most respected Ottoman history scholars, American professor of Jewish origin Bernard Lewis who calls the claims unfounded."
"It is ironical that it was the Ottoman Empire that saved Spanish Jews from another genocide in Spain in the 1492 by shipping them to Turkey," Gultasli concluded.
[...]
Denying genocide
Marc Knobel, a charge d’affaire for the CRIF Jewish umbrella organization in France stressed that there was not a single view on the debate in Israel; some scholars and politicians do not believe it was a genocide, but many in Israel disagreed.
"The declarations of the Israeli Chief rabbi are honorable. It is totally respectuous of the Armenian tragedy to qualify these events as a genocide," he stressed.
[...]
"The CRIF has a moderate and reasonable view on the matter," Knobel added, alluding to the organization engaged dialogue with Armenian groups. "Without comparing and equalizing each genocide, we can say that the mass extermination of Armenians, Jews, Cambodians and Tutsis in Rwanda are genocides," he said. "without omitting the specificity of the Shoah."
"It is just shameful that many people, and among them Jews, deny the Armenian genocide for despicable reasons," Knobel concluded.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:09 AM
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