Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 January 2003 — Page 7

Americans find Mystery Person is religion in books Charles Krauthammer

Continued from prev. page tration officials defend as necessary in light of the need to combat security threats abroad and at home. Under the President's plan, 57education programs would be cut or eliminated, as well as $3U0 million cut from the program that helps low-income families pay heating and air conditioning bills. This funding cut could force more than 500,000 families to be dropped from the program. These proposals and the Administration's insistence that we must accept such measures as necessary so that we do not "make the mistakes of trying to have guns and butter," make indefensible a tax cut plan that favors the wealthy and would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. From the Torah's commandment that we shall "open our hands to the poor and the needy among us" (Deuteronomy 15:7), Judaism has developed a rich tradition of communal social services. The United States' community is in need, and the federal government has the responsibility to open its hands to the needy among us. The President's plan, which does not do enough to stimulate the economy or address the needs of low and middle-income workers, is not the answer. Rabbi Saperstein in director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Washington office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), whose over 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), whose membership includes over 1,800 Reform rabbis. Juror feared terrorists NEW YORK — A New York Times report on the jurors in a 2001 trial of Al-Qaida terrorists said a Jewish juror was especially fearful of retaliation. The juror, a 53-year-old editor, said the testimony about how the group targets Jew's frightened him. He was among those who voted against the death penalty for two of the four defendants. They w'ere found guilty of conspiring to plan the 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa.

According to a recent survey from the Gallup Poll, 24 percent of respondents asked about their reading habits said they are "very likely" to read books on religion and theology, nearly as many as said they are very likely to read thrillers (25 percent) and not far behind the leading genre, biographies (30 percent). In addition, the poll reveals that women, who are typically found to score higher on religiosity measures than men, are only slightly more likely to say they read theological books (26 percent vs. 21 percent, respectively). When asked about their motivation for reading, just 14 percent of respondents who said they are very likely to read religious books said they read mostly for "enter-

ROME — The Vatican is about to open up secret archives that document its relations w'ith Nazi Germany before World War II, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Association. The report says it may still be years before the full scope of the Vatican's role in the Holocaust is known. The Vatican says it will release on Feb. 15 diplomatic documents from the tenure of the previous pope, Pius XI, who reigned from 1922 to

PRAGUE — Czech Jewish leaders have welcomed a fi-nal-hour decision by Prague officials to cancel a march by extreme right-wing supporters through the city's Jewish Quarter. City authorities had come under heavy pressure from Jewish groups for originally agreeing to allow a procession organized by rightwing figures who said they wanted to commemorate "Palestinian Holocaust victims" in Israel.

tainment," while 68 percent said they mostly read "to learn something." This compares to 32 percent of all readers who do so mainly for entertainment and 47 percent who do so mainly to learn. People who seldom or never attend services aren't as likely to read religious books (8 percent) as people who attend services nearly weekly (17 percent) or weekly (44 percent). People who say their ideology is conservative are more likely to choose books on religion (32 percent) than are ideological moderates (18 percent) or liberals (17 percent). Education is only weakly related to likelihood to read religious books, as 19 percent of college graduates are very likely to select religious books, as are 25 percent of those with a high school education or less.

1939. During those years, the future Pope Pius XII served as Vatican ambassador in Berlin and Vatican secretary of state. David Kertzer, author of the recent book "The Popes Against the Jews," welcomed the release of the material but said it will only provide part of the picture. Critics have long accused Pius XII of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust and allowing Jews to die because of his silence.

Prague's Jewish leaders intensively lobbied Czech politicians and Prague officials in the 24 hours before the march after having been told by police that there was nothing they could do to stop the procession because it had been cleared by city officials. Czech President Vaclav Havel welcomed the decision to stop the march A spokesman for Havel called the planned march "a visible attack on Jews in the Czech Republic."

The P-O Mystery Person for the past five issues was Washington Post syndicated columnist and Time magazine essayist Charles Krauthammer. No reader guessed his identity after five clues. We didn't make it easy, with the deceptive first clue being that he is a physician. Krauthammer received his medical degree from Harvard in 1975. The second clue, that the Mystery Person was born in New York, helped readers little, of course. The third clue, that the Mystery Person is a psychiatrist, alluded to the fact that he practiced medicine for three years as a resident and then chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. The fourth clue, that the views of the Mystery Person have been widely disseminated, alluded to his columns, as did the fifth clue, when we

No shy guy

WASHINGTON - It's a bit early to begin congratulating Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who announced on Monday that he will seek the presidency, as had long been expected. He had pledged that he would not run against A1 Gore, but now that Gore has withdrawn, it is considered likely that Lieberman will announce his candidacy.

came clean, saying that the Mystery Person is best known for writing, not for medicine. Krauthammer ceased practicing medicine in 1978, when he went to Washington to direct planning in psychiatric research for the Carter Administration and began contributing articles to The New Republic. During the presidential campaign of 1980, he served as a speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale. He joined The New Republic as a writer and editor in 1981. He writes regular essays for Time and contributes to several others, including The Weekh/ Standard, The New Republic, and The National Interest. His columns run regularly in more than 100 newspapers. Among his columns were warnings, unfortunately correct, over an eight-year period that the Oslo peace accords were a fraud and a deception, doomed to fail.

The report quoted a senior Lieberman adviser to the effect that "he has not been shy in saying he's most likely going to do this. But it's not 100 percent sure; it's not a done deal." As for the Jewish aspect, analysts and advisers state that they have seen no evidence that his faith would hinder his campaign.

Vatican to open WW II archives

Czechs block haters’ protest