Nation of Islam's affiliation with group upsets mainstream Jews

Monday, February 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) -- A day after Louis Farrakhan called for reconciliation among American Muslims, the Nation of Islam drove a further wedge between itself and mainstream Jews by aligning itself with a fringe Jewish group that opposes the state of Israel.

Nation of Islam leaders held a news conference Monday with leaders of the Neturei Karta International, a tiny Orthodox Jewish group that says the Holocaust was punishment for Zionist Jews who called for the establishment of an Israeli state.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a leader of the group, also made brief remarks Sunday to the crowd of 20,000 who came to hear
Farrakhan's annual Saviours' Day speech.

At the speech, Farrakhan reaffirmed his pledge to reconcile his breakaway movement with orthodox U.S. Muslims.

Farrakhan -- criticized for previously calling Judaism a "gutter religion," among other things -- said little about the religion
during the speech. But in his remarks, Weiss offered an apology "for the chutzpah, the nerve of the Zionist leaders ... who attack
the honorable Minister Farrakhan."

Weiss reiterated the remark on Monday and said that most people who claim to be Jews are not Jews.

"It's Zionism, not Judaism," said Weiss, who first met with Farrakhan in Chicago in November. "They are something which is an
abomination to God. It is a heresy to God."

Neturei Karta considers Israel a heresy because it believes a Jewish state can arise only with the arrival of the Messiah. The
movement is made up of several dozen orthodox Jewish clans in Israel as well as backers in the United States and Britain.

Farrakhan did not attend Monday's news conference. But his chief of staff, Leonard Muhammad, said he was grateful that the Neturei Karta sought out the Nation of Islam last year. "We would hope other Jews might choose to do the same thing," he said.

But many Jewish leaders and groups said they considered the Nation of Islam's affiliation with the Neturei Karta a slap in the face.

Rabbi Ira Youdovin, executive director of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, marveled at Farrakhan's decision to invite a group that he
said is "about as far off the screen in Jewish life as they can possibly be."

"He hasn't mended any fences with 99.99 percent of the Jewish community," Youdovin said of Farrakhan. "But it looks good on
television, doesn't it?"

Harlan Loeb, Midwest civil rights director for the Anti-Defamation League, called the Neturei Karta "a profound embarrassment on the mosaic of the Jewish community."

He also called Farrakhan insincere.

"What good is it for Farrakhan to say, 'We're aligned with Jews, but the Jews we're aligned with are those who share our disdain for Zionism?"' Loeb asked.

Many Jewish leaders, including Youdovin, said it would be up to the Nation of Islam to make the first move -- namely by repudiating
past comments. If that happened, Youdovin said he would still be willing to work with the Nation of Islam.

"I might lose my job for saying so," Youdovin said. "But the Nation of Islam does a lot of good work in the black community, too.

"It's a frustration not being able to participate with them."

Youdovin said he also hoped that leaders in the orthodox Muslim community whom Farrakhan has been wooing -- namely W. Deen Mohammed -- might help bring the Nation of Islam and Jewish leaders together.

Mohety and the son of late Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, made short remarks at Sunday's speech but did not address the Neturei Karta's stance. He also did not return a message left Monday.