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BERLIN (JTA) — Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the country's reunification, the attack on a Dusseldorf synagogue earlier this week is raising questions about whether German Jews should rebuild Jewish life there.

"The message is clear: Jews don't belong to German society," Frankfurt Jewish leader Salomon Korn was quoted as saying.

Although no one was injured and damage was minimal from Monday night's incident at the shul, Michel Friedman, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said, "The Nazis and their violence in both East and West are also united."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visited the synagogue that was firebombed and vowed to use "all available means" to protect Germany's estimated 90,000 Jews.

Also Monday night, vandals painted swastikas on the bell tower at the site of the former Buchenwald concentration camp.

Vatican text prompts papal public relations

ROME (JTA) — Pope John Paul II is trying to patch up strained relations with other religious leaders after a controversial Vatican document rejected the idea that other religions could be equal to Roman Catholicism.

Concerned that criticism of last month's document could take a heavy toll on the course of inter-religious dialogue, the pope devoted much of his weekly Sunday message to the faithful to damage control.

John Paul reaffirmed his support of the Sept. 5 document, but said there had been "many wrong interpretations" of it.

The document repeated Roman Catholic Church teachings that non-Christians are in a "gravely deficient situation" regarding salvation and other Christian churches have "defects," but the pope said it is wrong to interpret that to mean non-Christians are denied salvation.

Protest over its contents was one reason why Rome Jewish leaders pulled out of a Catholic-Jewish dialogue that had been scheduled for this past Tuesday.

But the document provoked an outcry from Protestant leaders, as well as from Jews. Other Christian leaders were especially bitter, as the document seemed to imply that Roman Catholicism is the only true form of Christianity.