The Pope's Israel Trip Was a Success
The world desperately needs Benedict's model of reconciliation.

By YECHIEL ECKSTEIN

Jerusalem

Most Israelis seem to agree that the pope's just concluded trip to Israel wasn't a raving success. Far from healing wounds, his address at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum garnered harsh criticism for failing to adequately address the horrors memorialized there.

I see the visit in a much more positive light.

Jewish-Christian relations have always been of a wary sort, laced with mutual suspicions that have deep theological roots, and with painful memories of persecution and anti-Semitism. But in the past half-century, the church's attitude toward Jews has undergone a fundamental shift.

The Nostra Aetate -- the Declaration on the Relations of the Church with Non-Christian Religions, issued by the Second Vatican Council and published in 1965 -- was the harbinger of the change in Catholic attitude toward the Jews and their faith. Later, Pope John Paul II further advanced the process of reconciliation.

Karol Wojtyla had been a fighter in the Underground against the Nazi regime and had many close Jewish childhood friends. Deeply aware of the horrors that befell the Jews during World War II, Pope John Paul's personal sympathy for and close acquaintance with the Jewish people led to an era of fruitful dialogue and rapprochement between Jews and Catholics.

This healing was made possible mainly because the pope, together with Jewish leaders, focused on shared values, biblical traditions and moral principles common to both faith communities.

Pope Benedict XVI does not yet enjoy the goodwill his predecessor generated. Aspects of his past and statements he has made are arguably controversial and have generated criticism -- some valid -- from Jews.

But this week, he arrived in Israel for the first papal visit in nine years. I was part of a delegation that greeted him in a special ceremony at the airport. Sadly, a number of Israeli political and religious leaders refused to participate.

Had they attended, they would have heard the head of the church speak of the terrible suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, their biblical rights to the land of Israel, and the deep bonds between the Christian and Jewish faiths. Had they joined him on his journey, they would have heard him lash out against Holocaust denial, condemn anti-Semitism -- past and present -- and seen him pray at the Western Wall.

They would have witnessed him meeting with rabbis, political leaders and even the parents of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held hostage in Gaza. These are just a few of the acts of solidarity and gestures of reconciliation the critics would have witnessed during the pope's pilgrimage.

Of course, the pope is not above reproach. But there is no question that this pope deeply respects Judaism and stands solidly for the security of the state of Israel.

As someone who has dedicated the past 35 years to fostering respect between Jews and Christians, I was deeply encouraged by the pope's visit and believe that it has contributed significantly toward supplanting the dark and violent history between Jews and the church.

The world desperately needs this model of reconciliation. I pray that it extends to our Muslim cousins too, so that all the children of Abraham might find peace with one another.

Rabbi Eckstein is founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124242965712325495.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Rose,

Thank you. Interesting article. The reference the author makes to harsh criticism on the part of some is reported in this piece, from the Daily Forward:



http://forward.com/articles/105894/

Comments on the piece by readers (seemingly all members of the Jewish faith) were about equally divided between positive and negatve; I was particularly impressed by the reasoned points made by 2 of those who found his speech above reproach.





Many years,

Neil

As a Jew myself, I have found that when it comes to Christians, the motto of many Jews is "Never again, never enough!"; i.e., that while Christians go our of their way to ensure there is never another Holocaust, nothing they say or do will ever satisfy them regarding either Christian complicity or Christian apologies for the murder of the six million.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Jews who think this way also tend to be the most secular and least observant, whose level of intolerance for any form of religious expression extends to their fellow Jews as well. To them, the roots of the Holocaust lie in religion itself, and the only way Jews can protect themselves from another persecution is to suppress all religions equally. That the Holocaust was carried out by a regime explicitly hostile to both Christianity and Judaism alike (after the Jews were gone, Hitler intended to deal with those pesky Christians, but as a majority of Germans thought of themselves as Christians, he had to be a little more circumspect about it) skips their minds. That the persecution of Jews today originates not in Christian communities but in the Muslim and secularist worlds also escapes their notice.

I have relatives who are Orthodox Jews and others who are Reform Jews of various degrees of observance. I have never had any problems about my Christianity from my Orthodox Jewish relatives. I can speak to them openly and frankly about religious matters, and we understand each other because we share a common theocentric worldview. On the other hand, my liberal Jewish relatives treat my conversion with condescension--the same sort of condescension they extend to the Orthodox Jewish side of the family. They are "ethnically" Jewish, but they don't take it--or any other religion--seriously. They're kind of like Unitarians, without the doctrinal rigor. They have replaced the Covenant of Moses with the Holocaust as the object of their worship, but its an entirely negative kind of faith, and one which does not sustain very long.

Dear Stuart,


Now there is a delicious, memorable expression which I look forward to using! In the words of Oscar Wilde, "I wish I'd said that". [Response: you will, Oscar, you will!]

Thanks!

Fr. Serge

Are there Unitarians with doctrinal rigor?

I can't help thinking of the lyrics: "Let there be peace on earth And let it begin with me." (by Jill Jackson Miller)