Staff Writer

A Virginia legislator under fire for comments regarding slavery and Jews said this week that "the New Testament does say the Jewish people crucified Christ."

But Del. Frank Hargrove (R) assured a reporter that "I don't fault you for it" or blame any Jews of today.

Hargrove made his comments Monday in a phone interview in which he was asked to explain why, in a discussion involving whether Virginia's legislature should apologize for slavery, he had said, "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"

The lawmaker said that his remarks in a Charlottesville Daily Progress interview on Martin Luther King Day about his opposition to a proposed Virginia apology for slavery had been misinterpreted. He said he was merely trying to demonstrate his opposition to "apologizing for things you have nothing to do with" by using "somewhat absurd" examples.

His statement about the Jews and Jesus was one of a handful of those rhetorical questions, he said, including asking whether the Catholics should apologize for the Crusades.

"I don't know who killed Christ I wasn't there," said Glen Allen's Hargrove, 79, adding that all he knows is what the Christian Bible says. Asked later what the Bible does say, the delegate said that "the New Testament does say the Jewish people crucified Christ."

Hargrove attends a United Methodist Church in his suburban Richmond hometown. John Schol, bishop of the UMC Washington Episcopal Area Baltimore-Washington Conference, said that while the church doesn't have an official teaching on the death of Jesus, "most Methodists understand that the death of Jesus came about in large part because of the very challenging stances that Jesus took in his day that created conflict for people of his day and religious leaders of his day."

He added that "it is most unfortunate when people try to associate the death of Jesus with any type of religious group or people or race because there is a deeper understanding. So what they are sharing is a misunderstanding of the life of Jesus and what Jesus was all about."

Jewish leaders, meanwhile, say they are not satisfied with Hargrove's response that his comment was just rhetorical and his remarks taken out of context.

"That is a sad explanation for an outrageous public statement," said Anti-Defamation League Washington regional director David Friedman, who last week sent a letter to Hargrove taking issue with his comments, but has not heard back from the legislator.

He said Hargrove's reaction when fellow Del. David Englin (D) of Richmond objected to his remarks on Tuesday of last week in the legislature he called Englin "thin-skinned" make it "very difficult to look at this" as a case of others misinterpreting his remarks or taking them out of context.

He doesn't seem to understand what the statement he made "has meant throughout the years" and how it has "been the trigger" for the persecution of Jews throughout history, said Sophie Hoffman, co-chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington's Northern Virginia Government Relations Commission.

"Maybe he needs to take a trip through the Holocaust museum," she suggested.

Hoffman said that the JCRC was working with other Jewish communities throughout the state, as well as with other ethnic and religious groups, on formulating a more formal response to Hargrove's statements.

Melanie Maron, the American Jewish Committee's Washington-area director, also said that she was "not persuaded ... that [Hargrove] fully understands the impact his words had."

"It's shocking that an elected representative could insult both the African American and Jewish communities on Martin Luther King Day," she said, adding that the statements indicate that perhaps Hargrove needs a "refresher course on the teachings" of King.

Even the Republican Jewish Coalition, an organization that has been reluctant to criticize members of his own party for making statements that have been seen as offensive to Jews, condemned the legislator's remarks.

"We hope that Delegate Hargrove will consider the impact that his words have on the Jewish community and the terrible historical suffering they evoke," said RJC executive director Matt Brooks in a statement in the RJC's weekly e-newsletter.

Gabe Ross, WJW intern, contributed to this article.