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Information
Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
March 24,
2005
COMMUNIQUE REGARDING ANTI-SEMITIC
POSTERS
Upon learning the facts with regard to the anti-Semitic posters
and graffiti that appeared in Belgrade on March 22 of this year,
as well as of earlier, similar and in some cases even more blatant,
inhumane and malicious demonstrations of prejudice and intolerance
toward the Jewish people, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian
Orthodox Church, convened today, March 24, in prayerful memory
of the innocent victims of the bombing by the NATO alliance,
wishes to communicate the following:
1. Once again, as we have done in previous years, we most strongly
condemn every form and every manifestation of anti-Semitism.
This phenomenon is unacceptable theologically, morally, civilizationally
and in every other respect.
2. At the same time, we decisively and unconditionally reject
every attempt, regardless of its origin, to deny, devalue or
minimize the Holocaust against the Jews in World War II. Such
attempts are especially painful and insulting to us now, upon
the commemoration of the 60 year anniversary of the closing of
the death camps in Auschwitz and Jasenovac, where Serbs and Jews
together suffered persecution and died solely because of who
they were. Empathy and compassion towards the suffering and losses
of the Jewish people must be demonstrated exceptionally by us
as Serbs, both as Orthodox Christians and as a people that in
its distant and not so distant past has itself been subjected
to great suffering, and continues to suffer today in Kosovo and
Metohija. If our own wounds pain us, and they pain us, then we
must also be pained by the wounds of all people and all nations,
and especially a nation whose losses to genocide number in the
millions.
3. We also reject and condemn all calumny and false attributions
regarding the supposed criminal psychological makeup of the Jewish
people. Our people and our faithful are very well aware of what
it means to be calumnied, excluded and vilified. The Jewish people
knows this through its own painful experience better than any
other people. Hence the sin of those individuals and groups that
undertake a campaign of calumny against the Jews is all the greater.
4.
We are convinced that the appropriate state authorities will
undertake all measures to prevent such unfortunate incidents.
Peace, freedom, safety and joint life for all people and all
ethnic and religious communities in mutual respect and cooperation
for the common good does not merely represent a modern European
code for public and private behavior or an international responsibility
on the part of all member states of the United Nations; more
than that, for centuries it has represented a moral imperative
that follows from our faith in the God of love and peace, and
from our Christian and Orthodox conscience. This spiritual value
is without doubt shared with us by other Christians, as well
as by the faithful of other religious communities, first of all
the Jews, to whom, according to the words of the Holy Apostle
Paul, “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving
of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the
patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the
Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen. (Rom 9:4-5)
Elsewhere the same Apostle says in his own name and in ours:
“Glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew
first and also the Greek.” (Rom 2:10)
[Serbian
Translation Services]
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