Sixty American Catholic and Protestant church leaders from 21 states have called on the United Nations General Assembly to repudiate the resolution designating Zionism as a from of racism. “This equating of Zionism with racism is wholly unacceptable.” they said in a letter to UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim.” It is a slander against Jews everywhere, since it is a revival of the all too familiar anti-Semitism which has plagued humankind through the centuries.”
Their letter was drafted and signed during the Second National Christian-Jewish Relations Workshop held last week in Memphis, Tenn. and released here through the Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations, The statement said, “The signatories acted in their individual capacities not as representatives of their organizations and congregations.”
The UN committee’s resolution is “shameful” and “risks placing the United Nations in jeopardy,” the letter said, “We are conscious of the complexity of the tragic and dangerous situation in the Middle East today,” and “we sympathize with all those who suffer from it on either side of the conflict, Our sympathies, however, do not allow us to close our eyes to the malice expressed in the draft resolution,”
Among those signing were Catholic Bishops Carroll T. Dozier of Memphis and James D, Niedergeses of Nashville, The workshop was co-sponsored by the Secretariats for Catholic-Jewish Relations, the Office of Christian-Jewish Relations of the National Council of Churches, the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, and the Memphis Jewish Community Relations Council in cooperation with the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
In a separate statement issued in New York, Dr, Claire Randall, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, said the Assembly’s approval of the resolution would ” undermine the struggle against racism, and has the potential of reviving an old form of racism, anti-Semitism, in many places in the world.” She urged the UN General Assembly not to approve the anti-Zionist resolution.
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