Czech Government to Establish Guidelines for Teaching Religion

In the wake of a teacher’s anti-Semitic lecture, Czech state schools will be receiving new guidelines on teaching religion.

Earlier this month, 25 seniors at Prague’s Na Prazacce High School sent a letter to Czech Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon asserting that their teacher, Vera Vesecka, said Jewish suffering, including the Holocaust, was a “just result of the role Jews played in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.”

The students charged that Vesecka, 70, who was lecturing on Christian ethics, said the only way Jews can have a “fully meaningful existence” is to convert to Christianity.

Tomas Kraus, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, said one “can hear similar sentiments expressed during mass at churches in towns outside Prague.”

But Kraus said he was “surprised a person with these views was permitted to teach. It is not the fault of the teacher, but of the [education] system.”

Vesecka, a Seventh-Day Adventist who has been giving lectures in Prague schools on religion since 1990, called the students’ letter “a lie.”

“I love Jews,” she said. “I do not want to harm anyone.”

She said that in her 45-minute lecture she named Jesus as the only example of a perfect person and read a description of Jesus’ trial to the class.

The passage has “the multitude” crying for Jesus to be crucified, but Vesecka said that does not mean Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death.

She was quoted in a Czech newspaper, however, as saying that “if Jews want to be saved, they must accept that [Jesus] is the messiah.”

The Czech chief rabbi described Vesecka’s comments as “a typical example of medieval anti-Semitism.”

After a Nov. 13 meeting between Sidon and Education Minister Jiri Grusa, the ministry announced that it would develop a “decree redefining conditions of religious lessons at state schools.”