WJC leaders meet Pope, discuss Iran and dialogue with Muslims - Haaretz

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		Pope Benedict XVI receiving a gift from President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald S. Lauder during a private audience at the Vatican on Monday. (AP)

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Last update - 19:26 08/10/2007

WJC leaders meet Pope, discuss Iran and dialogue with Muslims

By The Associated Press

Top officials from the World Jewish Congress met Monday with Pope Benedict XVI to voice concern about Iran but also to encourage pursuing a dialogue with moderate Muslims, participants said.

WJC President Ronald Lauder and the group's new secretary general, Michael Schneider, met with Pope Benedict in a private audience at the Vatican.

Schneider said the delegation thanked the Pope for his work supporting interfaith relations and invited him to meet with senior Jewish leaders during his planned trip to New York next year.

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"We mentioned our extreme anxiety over the Iran situation, not just because of the Jewish angle but because it was a threat to world stability," Schneider told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We were extremely anxious to find some way to be helpful in pushing the Iranians to some kind of sensibility."

He said the delegation also repeated the WJC's proposal to reach out to the moderate Muslim world to establish a dialogue among moderates, and to try to reach some common ground. The WJC has previously proposed expanding the Vatican-Jewish dialogue to include moderate Muslims.

Schneider said Benedict was in favor of such a dialogue, and had voiced frustration over the stalemate with Iran.

Schneider said the delegation also raised the issue of the rise in neo-Nazi groups and anti-Semitic sentiments, particularly in Europe.

Schneider acknowledged at a dinner Sunday attended by several Vatican cardinals that relations with the Vatican had been unfortunately put in abeyance because of a management shake up at the Jewish organization.

But he said the group wanted to continue the long relationship between us and the Roman Catholic Church, now that a new leadership was in place.

The congress, one of the most prominent Jewish organizations, has been beset by a series of problems that culminated in May with the unexpected resignation of then-President Edgar M. Bronfman Sr.

Bronfman had fired his longtime deputy, Rabbi Israel Singer, after a 2006 report by the New York attorney general concluded that Singer improperly used WJC funds for personal use. No criminal charges were filed.

Lauder, the son of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder and a former U.S. ambassador to Austria, was named president in June. Schneider was appointed to his post two weeks ago.

Founded in 1936, the World Jewish Congress is known for its campaign to win restitution from Swiss banks holding the assets of Holocaust victims, fighting anti-Semitism and lobbying to allow the Jews of the Soviet Union to emigrate.

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1.	wjc/church of eusa	15:33	\|	yanatan ben yehudah	08/10/07

2.	Exactly!	17:21	\|	Paul	08/10/07

3.	Meeting with the Antichrist	18:27	\|	Brod	08/10/07

4.	moderate moslims	19:10	\|	zac	08/10/07

5.	#3, Brod. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, ..........	19:11	\|	zmogus	08/10/07

6.	Fame of WJC	19:21	\|	zmogus	08/10/07

7.	Maybe they discussed the "tridentine" mass?	21:01	\|	Polybios	08/10/07

8.	WHAT DO WE EXPECT THAT WILL COME	21:05	\|	Robert	08/10/07

9.	Dialogue	01:19	\|	Dov Ber	09/10/07

10.	Avro Manhattan`s book a Must Read	14:15	\|	Brod	09/10/07

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