Jews ask Pope to 'prevent cataastrophe for all humanity'
Austrian and other European Jews want Pope Benedict XVI to use his moral authority to stop Iran from developing the ability to produce nuclear weapons.
They have asked him to do all he can to prevent a “catastrophe for all of humanity,” a Jewish leader said today.
The plea was included in a letter the Pope received during a recent three-day visit to the Alpine republic, which began with a highly symbolic stop at Vienna’s Judenplatz, or Jewish Square.
Copies of the letter were provided to reporters today at a news conference organised by Ariel Muzicant, the head of Vienna’s Jewish Community.
Muzicant said the letter, which he co-signed with Vienna’s chief rabbi, Paul Chaim Eisenberg, was written in consultation with various other Jewish communities in Europe.
Israel sees Iran, whose president has repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction, as an existential threat.
“It fills us with great concern that 62 years after the Shoah (Holocaust) a UN member – (Iran) – is officially threatening the state of Israel with ’destruction and obliteration,”’ the letter said.
