‘deicide’ Charge Evokes Anti-jewish Feelings, A.d.l. Reports

A significant number of American Catholics expressed anti-Jewish prejudice stemming from their interpretation of the crucifixion story, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith said today in a preliminary report on a survey of Catholic attitude. Dore Schary, ADL chairman, in releasing the initial findings of the study, also criticized the clause in a revised Ecumenical Council draft on Catholic-Jewish relations which cites the Church’s traditional desire to convert Jews. He called the clause "extremely unfortunate."

The study showed that 61 percent of Catholics named Jews as "most responsible for crucifying Christ" and 22 percent blamed the Remans. Those blaming the Jews tended to "attribute evil motives to the Jews for rejecting Christ as the Messiah." Forty-two percent said Jews "were deceived by the wicked priests who feared Christ."

Mr. Schary said that data also indicated that "such liberal denominations as the Congregational and Episcopal were less likely to hold negative religious images of Jews. Moderate bodies, such as Lutherans, closely paralleled Catholics. Fundamentalist groups, such as the Southern Baptists were more likely than Catholics to be hostile toward Jews."

The survey also showed there was a strong link between acceptance of secular stereotypes of the Jews and belief that ancient and modern Jews are to blame for the crucifixion. The survey is being conducted at the Survey Research Center at the University of California. Completion of the study will take another year.

HESCHEL DENOUNCES NEW COUNCIL DRAFT, SEES ‘SPIRITUAL FRATRICIDE’

In a related development, a leading Jewish theologian denounced the new Ecumenical Council draft as "not only ineffective but also profoundly injurious" and one that could lead to "spiritual fratricide." Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, professor of ethics and Jewish mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary, declared that any message which regards Jews as candidates for conversion "proclaims that the destiny of Judaism is to disappear." He said this would be "abhorred by Jews all over the world," stating it was "bound to foster reciprocal distrust as well as bitterness and resentment."

Saying he had repeatedly told "leading personalities of the Vatican" that he was "ready to go to Auschwitz any time if faced with the alternatives of conversion or death," he declared that Jews everywhere would be "dismayed by a call from the Vatican to abandon their faith in a generation which witnessed the massacre of 6,000,000 Jews and the destruction of thousands of synagogues in Christian Europe."

Dr. Heschel expressed the "profound hope" that the draft would again be revised so that the "overwhelming majority of the Council fathers, who have courageously expressed their desire to eradicate sources of tension between Catholics and Jews, will have an opportunity to vote on a statement which will express this sacred aspiration." The next session of the Ecumenical Council convenes September 14.