Rabbi says Holocaust victims were reincarnations of sinners

Controversy raged in Israel today after an eminent rabbi who is also the leader of Israel's biggest ultra-Orthodox political party, said the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust died because they were reincarnations of sinners in previous generations.

Controversy raged in Israel today after an eminent rabbi who is also the leader of Israel's biggest ultra-Orthodox political party, said the six million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust died because they were reincarnations of sinners in previous generations.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who heads the Shas party, also declared that Prime Minister Ehud Barak has "no sense" because he is trying to make peace with the Palestinians who are "snakes."

Yosef was speaking in his weekly Saturday night sermon which is broadcast over the party's radio stations and is even beamed overseas by satellite.

He called the Nazis "evil" and the victims "poor people," but he concluded that the six million "were reincarnations of the souls of sinners, people who transgressed and did all sorts of things which should not be done. They had been reincarnated in order to atone."

Prime Minister Ehud Barak told the cabinet Sunday the statement is unworthy of a rabbi of Yosef's status. "His words could harm the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and could hurt the feelings of their families and the feelings of the entire nation," Barak said, according to a communique from his office.

Legislator Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, who heads the secularist Shinui party said Rabbi Yosef is "an old fool" who has done a service to those who are trying to rehabilitate Hitler's reputation. "In the world it will be said that a distinguished rabbi in Israel is in effect confirming what Hitler sad, that the Jews are sinners," said Lapid, who is himself a Holocaust survivor.

The two main radio stations were inundated with phone calls and fax messages, most of them criticising Yosef's statement. Yehoshua Mashav, a listener, told Israel radio, that in plain language Yosef was saying Hitler was innocent and that "he was simply the messenger of God sent to give the Jewish people their just deserts."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Nazi-hunting group, said the rabbi absolved the perpetrators of the Holocaust of their responsibility. "If those Jews deserved to die for past sins, why blame those who carried out the death sentence," said Ephraim Zuroff, director of the group's Jerusalem office.

Shas chairman Eli Ishai said criticism of the rabbi by the media and secular politicians is unjustified. "Rabbi Ovadia weeps for every Jew who is killed ... but nobody, not even a saint, has not sinned. Everyone dies in a state of sin. Nobody can be perfect all his life."

Yosef, who ordered Shas to quit Barak's coalition as the prime minister was leaving for the Camp David summit, described the Arabs as "snakes" interested mainly in murdering Jews. He said Barak who is trying to achieve a permanent peace with the Palestinians, has "no sense."

"What kind of peace is this?" Yosef said. "Will you put them beside us? You are bringing snakes beside us. ... Will we make peace with a snake?"

Shas was opposed to the concessions which Barak offered at Camp David, particularly on the future of Jerusalem.

Barak, who is trying to bring Shas back into his coalition, did not react to the rabbi's criticism, only to his comments on the Holocaust.

However Col. Jebril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service in the West Bank, said Yosef's statement about Arabs was racist. A religious leader should be trying to promote toleration between Jews, Muslims and Christians, Rajoub told Israel radio.