Dear Editors of New York Times,

The New York Times,
Foreign Desk-NY Times

I am a seventy eight year old Holocaust survivors from Lithuania who as a boy suffered four years of horrors in ghetto Kaunas and the notorious concentration camp of Dachau.

I read an article in NYTimes.com which compelled me to write the article bellow. It seem to me incredible that two full pages were written on the recent find of the 'Gospels of Judas' with touching the significance of the find. For me as a Holocaust survivor it is of incredible importance and I would like to explain to you why in the article bellow. It seems that Jesus was not betrayed by Judas, but the contrary seems to be true, the father's of the church not only betrayed Judas,
but what is worse, they defamed his name for eternity. We the Holocaust survivors were obviously effected by that betrayal.
I would like to have your comments on the subject.

Sincerely yours,

Solly Ganor

The Gospel of Judas,
Or the defamation and betrayel of Jehuda Yish Krayot by the church.
By Solly Ganor

I read with amazement an articleInside NYTimes.com

by Barry Meier and John Noble Wilford 'How the Gospel of Judas Emerged'. Two pages full of speculations of how the document was found, the various dealers that had a hand in shady deals of trying to make profit from the find, of how it wandered from country to country, each dealer trying to make a profit from the document.

Quote: "The emerging details are raising concerns among some archaeologists and other scholars at a time of growing scrutiny of the dealers who sell antiquities and of the museums and collectors who buy them. The information also calls into question the completeness of National Geographic's depiction of some individuals like Ms. Tchacos Nussberger and its disclosure of all the financial relationships involved." Unquote.

Under an avalanche of words irrelevant to the amazing find there is a short passage that should be the topic of this article:

"No one questions the authenticity of the Judas gospel, which depicts Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus but as his favored disciple."

Not a word about the terrible injustice done to the Jewish people throughout the centuries who were identified with Judas and to Judas himself.

The authors of this article don't seem to comprehend what the above sentence means to the survivors of the Holocaust and the Jewish people in general.

For endless centuries the Jews were identified by the Christian world with Judas. Judas the betrayer, Judas the greedy Jew who would sell the son of God for thirty pieces of silver. Judas who was the cause of Jesus Christ crucification. The next step was easy to make, Judas are the Jewish people and the Jewish people are Judas. Even the names seem identical.

For endless centuries the churches of all denominations preached to the Christian masses in Europe that message.

The preachers didn't tell the masses whom to kill, but they sure taught them whom to hate.

Who in the Christian world doesn't use Judas as an example of the ultimate betrayer, the usurer, the man of evil and greed?

It is used by people who never went to church or believe in G-d.

It is a standard curse for evil.

And today, we read that a new gospel was found not only clearing Judas of the betrayal of Jesus, but actually telling us that Judas was his favorite disciple.

This is a 1700 year old Gospel that the world of science declares as authentic.

Isn't it time that the church apologize to the Jews for two thousand years of suffering?

Why should the highly anti-Semitic Gospels, especially that of St. John who is considered the founder of anti-Semitism, not be replaced by the newly found AUTHENTIC 'Gospel of Judas"?

Before World War Two, as a boy in Lithuania, I was often subjected to abuse and beatings by Christian boys who would call me a "Christ Killer" and the son of the devil. Invariably it would take place after a lesson given in the teachings of the New Testament and the Gospels, especially that of St.John.

Why should the church accept the Jew hating gospels and not the newly found 'Gospel of Judas'? Are the anti-Semitic gospels more authentic than the 'Gospel of Judas'? The dates when they were written are identical. The 'Gospel of Judas', even predates the other gospels.

It is time that the fathers of the churches deal with that problem: A problem that will always be as an unbridgeable chasm between the Jewish people and the Christians world.

There were many good Christians who realized that wrong, and I name three of them:

The first from his holiness Pope John's 'Prayer of Repentance', of which I will mention only two passages:

" We admit that the sign of Cain is upon our forehead. For centuries Abel was lying in blood and tears while we had forgotten Thy love. Forgive us, O Lord, the curse we unjustly spoke out over the people of Israel."

The second written by David Rhys Williams, Minister Emeritus First Unitarian church of Rochester, New York:

" In decade after decade, the spiritual leaders of the Christian Church of all branches, have by vengeful words and deeds fanned the flames of anti-Semitism. The fanning of these flames still continues.

The rectification of this immemorial wrong called by Pope John XXIII has yet to be adequately implemented.

Over a hundred inflammatory anti-Semitic passages in the New Testament must yet be eliminated from the teachings of the Christian Church if fanatical Hitler's and Torquemadas are to be prevented from arising in the future."

The third statement is by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 1988, at the 50 commemoration day of the "Kristallnacht" in Germany, when Jews were murdered in the streets and synagogues were burned down and, he wrote:

"If it weren't for the anti-Semitism of the churches, the Holocaust would never have taken place."

To me as a Holocaust survivor the above sentence by the Archibishop of Canterbury tells me, that six million Jews including most of my family and friends would never have been murdered if it weren't for the anti-Semitism of the churches, not to mention the persecutions of Jews throughout the centuries, such as the inquisition in Spain, pogroms, rape and murder.

Solly Ganor

April 29, 2006

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