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Printed in the Democrat and Chronicle this morning:
Gandhi comments insults Jews
Bennett J. Loudon
Staff writer
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(January 12, 2008) — The grandson of iconic peace activist Mohandas Gandhi has stirred a national controversy by writing on The Washington Post Web site that Jews "overplay" the Holocaust.
Arun Gandhi, a Brighton resident and founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, based at the University of Rochester, on Monday wrote, "Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the Holocaust experience — a German burden that the Jews have not been able to shed. It is a very good example of (how) a community can overplay a historic experience to the point that it begins to repulse friends."
UR President Joel Seligman, in a written statement released Friday, said he was "surprised and deeply disappointed."
Larry Fine, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Rochester, called Gandhi's statements "reprehensible."
Gandhi is on a panel of scholars, writers and clergy who discuss a new topic each week on The Washington Post's "On Faith" Web page. This week's topic was "We know what 'Jewish identity' has meant in the past. What will it mean in the future? How does a minority religion retain its roots and embrace change?"
Gandhi also wrote: "The Jewish identity in the future appears bleak. Any nation that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead, and especially a nation that believes its survival can only be assured by weapons and bombs.
"We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that 'culture of violence' is eventually going to destroy humanity."
He said Israel's military buildup has created a snake pit "with many deadly snakes in it."
Hundreds of comments have been posted on the Web page. Many have been critical of Gandhi's opinion, but some were supportive.
Gandhi responded Thursday with a comment titled "My Apology for My Poorly Worded Post."
"I do not believe and should not have implied that the policies of the Israeli government are reflective of the views of all Jewish people," he wrote.
"I do believe that when a people hold on to historic grievances too firmly it can lead to bitterness and the loss of support from those who would be friends. But as I have noted in previous writings, the suffering of the Jewish people, particularly in the Holocaust, was historic in its proportions," he wrote.
Gandhi, who is in India, did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The comments have been widely noted on political blogs, but not in the mainstream media. In Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Arun Gandhi's entry already includes a note on the controversy and a link to The Washington Post's "On Faith" page.
Fine said Gandhi's apology and other comments "do nothing to clarify or excuse the language that he used in his initial post."
Fine said he contacted UR officials to let them know he was offended by Gandhi's statement.
"We just noted our concern and told them that we would be watching to see what their response was," said Fine.
Seligman said Gandhi's apology "inadequately explains his stated views, which seem fundamentally inconsistent with the core values of the University of Rochester."
"In particular I vehemently disagree with his singling out of Israel and the Jewish people as to blame for the 'culture of violence' that he believes is eventually going to destroy humanity. This kind of stereotyping is inconsistent with our core values and would be inappropriate when applied to any race, any religion, any nationality, or either gender," Seligman said in the statement.
"Arun Gandhi currently is in India. I will discuss this matter with him in person as soon as he returns to Rochester later this month," Seligman said in his statement.
UR officials refused to answer questions about the relationship between the university and the institute, including how much funding the university provides and what authority, if any, the university has over institute operations and staffing.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, told The Jerusalem Post that Gandhi's statement was anti-Semitic.
"Sometimes people become obsessed with their own agenda to the extent that they think it's the solution to every problem," Zuroff told The Jerusalem Post.
"Even the great Mohandas Gandhi did not have a monopoly on wisdom," which Zuroff said was evident in the fact that Gandhi suggested passive resistance against the Nazis.
"This is an outrageous statement that does no credit to him, his family or his institution," Zuroff said in The Jerusalem Post of Arun Gandhi's comment.
BLOUDON@DemocratandChronicle.com