ITS TIME FOR TEARS NOT HATE

Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.

Librescu, who was 76 when he died, found work in Romania at a government aerospace company. But his career was stymied in the 1970s because he refused to swear allegiance to the Communist regime, his son said.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home outside Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

I write these words in anger. I do not want to offend anyone except the person who belittled a hero last night because he was a Jew. Liviu Librescu was a holocaust survivor, is that a crime? I heard the person say "What is the big deal?" "Why are they talking to Rabbis in Israel about him?" I'll be honest with you, my readers; I just can't understand the hate. Last night and this morning as I watch the news I see the stories of other heroes and the victims. No one is holding Professor Librescu above the others in what he did while he lived or what he did as he died. Yes, there were many heroes that day. One happened to be a Jew that survived the Nazis. I ask again, is that a crime?