Jewish Leader in Spain Pleads on Television for Friendship to Jews

Max Mazin, president of the Jewish Community of Madrid, Spain, appeared on the Spanish television network and expressed the hope that the Spanish hierarchy would endorse the recently adopted action by the Ecumenical Council in the Vatican, repudiating the charge that the Jewish people were collectively guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus, the New York Herald Tribune reported here today in a dispatch from Madrid.

This was believed to be the first instance when an official Jewish spokesman had appeared on television in Spain. Mr. Mazin is not only head of the officially-recognized Madrid Jewish community. He is also co-president of the Jewish-Christian Friendship Committee of Spain.

In his address, Mr. Mazin asked the Spanish hierarchy to endorse the Ecumenical Council’s declaration on Catholic Church relations with the Jews, which has been attacked by some journals in Spain. He also requested that textbooks in some Spanish schools be cleansed of anti-Semitism, citing some books that continue to accuse Jews of killing Christian children.

Mr. Mazin also attacked the existence in Spain of a group of Lithuanians which he described as “consciously anti-Semitic, premeditated and militant, and mixed with racism and Nazi ideology.” This group, which Mr. Mazin said was now “happily reduced,” pretends that it is Christian but “in reality denies the most sacred Christian principles, which are respect and love for one’s neighbor.”