The president of the New Zealand Jewish Council isn't backing down over his reaction to holocaust comments made by a Taranaki language lecturer.
A Radio New Zealand National Waitangi weekend panel discussion guest, Keri Opai, used the word holocaust to describe what happened to his Taranaki ancestors by the 1880s colonial government.
Mr Opai says he didn't mention anything about the Jewish holocaust, which was fabricated in the Taranaki Daily News story.
Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman says he doesn't believe Maori suffered the same kind of treatment that Jewish people did during the Nazi regime in eastern Europe during World War II.
He says he understands what Mr Opai was trying to say, but he still finds the holocaust reference offensive.
Mr Goodman says he doesn't believe there was a state-sponsored organised system of deliberately targeting ethnic people in New Zealand, and there is very little comparison.
Mr Goodman says the real concern the Jewish community has in New Zealand is the ignorance and lack of understanding by all people of the Jewish holocaust.
