Israelis are affectionately remembering Pope John Paul II as a true friend who helped heal a bitter history of Jewish-Catholic relations. Holocaust survivor Idit Tzirer recalls how she was saved by a young Polish seminarian in 1945 who later became the Pope. Just liberated from a Nazi labor camp at age 13, she was freezing and starving. “He appeared like an angel from heaven,” Tzirer told Israel Radio. "He brought me a cup of hot tea and two huge slices of bread and cheese,” and then carried her on his back three miles (five km.) to safety! (We’ll have an in-depth report on Pope John Paul’s relations with Israel and the Jewish people in next month’s edition of “israel today” magazine).