Peres' Romania comment criticized by Jewish center

The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized Israeli President Shimon Peres on Friday for thanking Romania for saving Jews, saying he should have condemned the Romanian state for the tens of thousands of Jews who were killed there during World War II.

On Friday, Efraim Zuroff, the Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, issued a statement saying Peres should have mentioned the deaths of 280,000 Jews under the regime of pro-Nazi Marshal Ion Antonescu. "His failure to condemn the horrific crimes of the Antonescu regime against the Jewish people are likely to have very dire consequences, especially in Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe," said Zuroff, who also is a Holocaust historian.