2011-02-16 "Holocaust survivor: Israel=Nazi Germany"
[http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/02/16/Holocaust-survivor-IsraelNazi-Germany/UPI-42431297909503/]
SACRAMENTO, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Jewish community leaders said they're angry that a Holocaust survivor who equates Israel with Nazi Germany has been invited to speak in a Sacramento mosque.
Auschwitz death camp survivor Hajo Meyer, 86, was scheduled to deliver his "Never Again for Anyone" speech at the Sacramento League of Associated Muslims Islamic Center Wednesday evening, the Sacramento Bee reported.
"Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is repugnant, anti-Semitic and defiles the sacred memory of millions who perished during the Holocaust," Rabbi Reuven H. Taff, president of the 13-member Board of Rabbis of Greater Sacramento, wrote to SALAM's Imam Mohamed Abdul Azeez.
The Board of Rabbis asked Azeez either to boycott the event or prevent it from occurring at his center. Otherwise, Taff wrote," all the good work you are doing to foster relations with the interfaith community will be severely undermined."
Azeez refused to cancel the event, noting his center is not one of the 17 organizations sponsoring the event.
Azeez, however, said he agrees with the rabbis that "any attempt to equate the Holocaust with what is happening in Palestine is an atrocity," adding SALAM's management won't permit the speakers to compare Israel to the Nazis.
Meyer's writings and speeches are "most offensive -- the program promotes hate," Rabbi Nancy Wechsler-Azen of Congregation Beth Shalom said.
Meyer has said Zionism is "an ideology based on a well-defined Arab enemy who must be destroyed."