Mount Zion Award for the CPAM

The award was founded in 1986 by Father Wilhelm Salberg from Essen in Germany, who died in 1996. The award has been presented each two years since 1987 to individuals or institutions who have made an outstanding contribution to dialogue between religions and cultures in the Holy Land and to mutual understanding among Jews, Christians and Muslims. The presentation takes place in the second half of October because on October 28, 1965, Nostra aetate was published. In 1991, the award was presented to Elisheva Hemker from the Haifa kehilla.

This year the award was presented to the CPAM for its work with migrants in Israel. At the ceremony, Abbot Gregory Collins OSB, the Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at the Dormition Abbey, welcomed the many guests who included Latin Bishops William Shomali and Boulos Marcuzzo, Mgr. Matteo de Mori from the Apostolic Delegation, other dignitaries, former recipients of the prize and many others, among them a group of migrant adults and children and members of the CPAM. These words of welcome were followed by a short address given by Professor Verena Lenzen from the University of Luzern in Switzerland. Hana Bendcowsky, from the Jerusalem Center for Jewish Christian Relations and a close collaborator of the CPAM, then addressed the assembly explaining who the migrants are in Israel, their needs and how the CPAM tries to meet the needs.

The award was then presented to Father David Neuhaus, Latin Patriarchal Vicar, responsible or the CPAM since its inception in 2011, and to Daniele, an assistant to Claudia Graziano in the Jerusalem day care and children’s program. In his words of thanks, Father David explained that the migrants were also involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue on many different levels of daily life. When he ended his words of thanks, he invited the many collaborators to come to the front and the large group of adults and children received a standing ovation.

Music brought the ceremony to an end. First, Benny, seminarian and catechist with migrant children, sang Psalm 136, a psalm thanking God for all He has done in the history of salvation. This was followed by the choir of the German students in Dormition Abbey.

View the clip of Psalm 136 here