Two groups involved say the letter's appearance, as a paid advertisement in the daily Právo Nov. 4, was too hasty, and are calling the media firestorm it has created unfortunate.

"It's a complicated issue," said František Fendrych, director of the Jewish Liberal Union.

The letter demands that Interior Minister Ivan Langer provide proof that Jews were the target of a terrorist threat the government reported Sept. 23 that resulted in days of heightened street surveillance and patrols of Jewish sites and synagogues.

The ministry has provided no details about the threat or Czech media reports of a plot by Muslim extremists to take Prague Jews hostage. The letter suggests the threat was concocted to divert attention from a wiretapping scandal that Langer was embroiled in at the time.

"To entangle Jews in top politics and to abuse them this way is an utter outrage," reads the letter, signed by Rostislav Yichak Rod of the Anti-Defamation League, Petr Pechan of the Masorti conservative organization, and Fendrych.

What ended up in print, said Fendrych, "was just the concept of the letter, which was to be used in further discussion. Mr. Rod released the letter and had it published without consulting the signatories."

Fendrych said the points the letter makes are valid.

Masorti representatives deny even that. "Our general feeling is that of gratitude to the police," said Rabbi Ron Hoffberg. "Nobody in Masorti agreed with the letter."

The Anti-Defamation League, based in the United States, could not be reached for comment.

The Interior Ministry denied the letter's allegations, saying the September terrorist threat was based on credible intelligence.

Meanwhile, the Prague Jewish Community is also trying to distance itself from the letter, saying that the government was acting in the community's best interest.

"We assume that security forces know what they're doing," said František Banyai, head of the Prague Jewish Community.