Kehilla, Church and Jewish People

“Kehilla, Church and Jewish people”

by David Neuhaus (1) 

1. What is the “kehilla”?

Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel come together in the kehilla (meaning “community”, established formally within the local Catholic Church in 1955 as “the Association of St. James”)(2). Membership in the kehilla is characterized by the following characteristics:

a.) Catholic Christians of both Jewish and Gentile origin,

b.) who are Israelis or residents in Israel and live in the Jewish milieu,

c.) praying and giving expression to their faith in Hebrew,

d.) with a profound appreciation of the Jewish roots of their faith and practice,

e.) and seeking to understand the relationship between contemporary Judaism (in all its diversity) and Christian faith today.

The kehilla is neither a mission station nor a Jewish-Christian dialogue center but rather a community of believers that comes together in prayer and love like any community of believers anywhere else in the world. The kehilla does not have a theological, philosophical or ideological set of principles upon which all members are agreed other than belief in God who sent his son, Jesus, following his teachings and belonging to the Catholic Church. As there is no one system of thought that is at the basis of coming together, there is a great diversity of views on all subjects.

There is, however, something that distinguishes the kehilla from other communities, and that is the unique context in which it lives its faith, a context that places the kehilla at a crossroads between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people. Prayer and community life in Hebrew in a Jewish milieu as Catholic Christians and work and relations within Jewish Israeli society define the perimeters of life and reflection. Creating, nurturing and sustaining a prayer community within the Jewish milieu as Christian believers from Jewish and Gentile origins is a distinguishing mark of the kehilla. Some members are Jewish by origin, history, culture and identity. Some of these believers live their faith openly and publicly; others live discreetly and privately. Some, who are not Jewish, have become Israeli citizens or permanent residents, opting for life here, connected to Jewish and Hebrew culture, history and tradition. It is thus clear that the kehilla sees itself as intricately connected to the life of the Jewish people in Israel. While no distinction is made between Jew and Gentile in the life of the kehilla, particular attention is paid to the Jewish milieu in which the kehilla lives, breathes and has its being (3).

Yet, in addition to being implanted in Jewish Israeli society and maintaining manifold connections to the Jewish people, the kehilla is also part of the Universal Catholic Church, united in faith with Catholics throughout the world. This belonging to a traditional church is a conscious choice for many in the kehilla, who thus choose to associate themselves with the long history of Christian believers through the ages. Within this history there is much joy and light but also much pain and darkness, especially in relation to attitudes and behavior towards the Jewish people. It is this belonging that places the kehilla in a privileged position to work for healing and reconciliation. Within the Israeli context, the kehilla is part of the local, indigenous Catholic Church, which is predominantly Arab in culture and language. These axes of belonging are the bases for reflection on the place and role of the kehilla in the relationship between the Church and the Jewish people.

2. The grace and joy of present times

The kehilla is living a period of grace and joy. Since the middle of the 1960s the Roman Catholic Church has clearly and explicitly embraced the links between Christianity and Judaism and encouraged dialogue with Jews and Judaism (4). In these days, the kehilla has seen an increasing openness with regard to issues that touch the Jewish people on the part of the Church in general and Pope John Paul II in particular. Especially significant for the kehilla was the warm welcome extended to the Pope on his Jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The kehilla was overjoyed to witness the Pope stand in silent prayer before the Western Wall and in sorrowful repentance at Yad VaShem.

When the kehilla was founded in 1955, few were the Catholics engaged in studying the Jewish identity of Jesus, the Jewish background to the New Testament and the primitive Christian communities. Few too were the Hebrew speaking Catholics inserted into the life of the Jewish people in Israel. The Hebrew-speaking Catholic community and its founders were among the pioneers in this field. Today the kehilla notes with pride that the Jewish identity of Jesus, the Jewish roots of Christian faith and of Catholic tradition are celebrated throughout the Catholic Church. Interest in Judaism, dialogue with the Jewish people and awareness of Christianity’s Jewish roots no longer uniquely characterizes the kehilla in the margins of the (universal) Catholic Church, but characterizes the very center of the Church. This was summed up in the most recent document of the Vatican’s Biblical Commission, which said:

Dialogue (with the Jewish people) is possible because Jews and Christians possess a rich common heritage, which unites them. Dialogue is also most desirable in order to eliminate progressively, on both sides, prejudices and misunderstandings, to favor a better knowledge of the common heritage and to strengthen mutual ties. (5)

The past four decades have seen a significant theological reappraisal of Catholic thinking about non-Christian religions. The Church has moved from a position of seeing herself as unique depository of truth (all other religions being condemned as false), to a position of valuing the truths found in other religious traditions and seeking dialogue with them. The Catholic Church conceives of the possibility of salvation outside the confines of the visible Church, which has no monopoly on the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for the salvation of all humankind. If this attitude of respect characterizes relationship with other religions in general, how much more so is this true for Judaism, which is so intimately related to Christianity (through shared Scriptures and traditions as well as Jesus’ own identity and that of his disciples and the first community). Within the kehilla, the use of Hebrew as a liturgical language and a language of community life and Christian religious expression naturally underlines the common heritage shared by Church and Jewish people.

Theological reflection within the Church takes place within a particular historical context. The present context of Catholic-Jewish dialogue has been underlined by Pope John Paul II in his focus on the theme of repentance. The Catholic Church is engaged in an ongoing reflection on the part Catholics have played in historical manifestations of intolerance, contempt and violence. If this is true in relationship with non-Catholics in general, how much more so is this true in relationship with the Jewish people. Catholics are currently engaged in a multi-dimensional review of the many forms of the “teaching of contempt” for Jews and Judaism within Catholicism which sometimes led to persecution and even genocide. Within the kehilla, some have direct links to the Shoah and all are sensitive to the issue of anti-Semitism within Jewish society, which creates a particularly awareness of the need for repentance and healing.

It is also significant within the local context that the local Catholic Church, which is primarily Arab in hierarchy and composition, has recognized the particular vocation of the kehilla. In the recent Synod of the Catholic Churches in the Holy Land, this recognition was expressed in the following terms:

"There is a group within the Jewish people who have come to know Christ as (…) Savior. They are part of our local Church and they live in their own special conditions. They too have a right to develop their own relationship with Jews and Judaism from the vantage point of their reality and situation, at the same time as remaining connected to the reality of the local Church and being open to it. We must preserve open bridges of communication between our Churches and this community in order to exchange experiences so that we can learn from one another and so that this community can develop according to its own particularity and as part of the community of faithful in our countries." (6)

Communion and communication between the kehilla and the rest of the Church is a fundamental part of the vocation of the kehilla. On the local level, some members of the kehilla have been and continue to be engaged in teaching within the local Arabic-speaking Church and promoting better relations between Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims too.

The kehilla realizes that there is still much to be done. The way to reconciliation between Jews and Catholics is a long and arduous one after centuries of estrangement, hostility and persecution. Even now, the kehilla must pray intensely for this new and relatively fragile relationship, as the way is fraught with suspicions and pain. Nonetheless, the way has been paved for increasing trust and ever more honest dialogue. Many of the motivating dreams of the founding mothers and fathers of the kehilla have been realized. For this the kehilla is joyful and thankful.

3. A discreet presence

As much as the kehilla might rejoice in the establishment of increasing trust and dialogue between the Church and the Jewish people, so too many kehilla members are aware that the kehilla itself is called to be a discreet presence. The kehilla is privileged to be at a crossroads where Church and Jewish people are meeting in a new relationship of trust and friendship. However, the historical complexity of relations between Church and Jews calls the kehilla to ever greater sensitivity and love for both sides.

The very fact that there are Jews who have recognized a call to enter relationship with Jesus within the Catholic Church is a very sensitive issue in the relations between the Church and the Jewish people. In recent times, some prominent Jewish figures that have entered the Catholic Church have been at the center of painful controversy. The Catholic Church has sought to celebrate the presence of such Jews in the center of the Church. Thus, for example, Pope John Paul II has repeatedly celebrated the Jewish identity of Edith Stein, the German Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism in the 1930s, entered the Carmelite order and died as a Jew in Auschwitz in 1942. Edith Stein has been recognized by the Church as an exemplary figure of belief in the modern world, a philosopher turned mystic and has been formally recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church and made one of the patrons of Europe (7). Many Jews find this celebration of a figure they consider an apostate problematic in the dialogue between Jews and Catholics. Some Jews have asked: “Is the Church suggesting that the best Jew is a converted Jew?”

There is recognition in the kehilla of the pain that Edith Stein represents for the Jewish people and thus many insist on a discreet presence for a community at the core of which are Jews who have entered the Catholic Church. Within the move to firmly establish a new relationship of trust between Catholics and Jews, many in the kehilla see their role within the Church rather than in the direct and official dialogue between Catholic and Jewish representatives. This role is one of constantly spreading awareness within the Church of the significance of the relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people. Within the Catholic Church, believers of both Jewish and Gentile origin have made a great contribution to the sensitization of the Church to both the Jewish roots of the Church and to contemporary Judaism and the Jewish people. Some of these prominent figures have been members of the kehilla or linked to it (8).

Perhaps it is not yet time for Catholics from among the Jewish people to be prominent in the dialogue between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church. Perhaps rather this is a time for the kehilla to engage in a vigilant and constant prayer for the success of this dialogue and the realization of true reconciliation between the Church and the Jewish people after so many centuries of pain. This discreet presence clearly includes the weaving of friendship with neighbors in Israel. Members of the kehilla feel called to bear witness to the possibility of deep and respectful friendship with the Jewish people within the context of daily life. They bear discreet and yet profound witness to the deep desire for friendship with the Jewish people and the fundamental changes in Church attitudes. These relationships will eventually register a different history of Jews and Christians, relegating to the distant past the centuries of suspicion and mistrust.

4. Living and bearing witness to “good news”

The kehilla is not engaged in any kind of traditional missionary activity whatsoever. Missionary activity in its traditional sense (explicitly preaching or distributing Christian matter) is no longer seen as appropriate in relationship to the Jewish people and the kehilla is in harmony with the Universal Church on this score. Summing up the new attitude, Cardinal Kasper, head of the Vatican commission for relations with the Jewish people, stated, in Jerusalem: “Now we are aware of God’s unrevoked covenant with His people and of the permanent and actual salvific significance of the Jewish religion for its believers” (9). The kehilla is profoundly sensitive to the Jewish world in which it lives. The fact that some Jews are drawn to faith in Jesus Christ and among them some do become members of the Catholic Church, is a painful reality for most Jews. Many members of the kehilla live this pain as an integral part of their identities and recognize the historical reasons for widespread negative Jewish reactions to the phenomenon. However, reactions are not always negative and sometimes deepen dialogue and relationship.

When it comes to mission (“being sent”) though, the kehilla does sense a mission to the Universal Church. It is sent, first and foremost, to remind the Universal Church of its claim to catholicity. The kehilla sees itself as part of a movement towards the reconstitution of a community of Catholic believers within the Jewish milieu. Even before the liturgical reforms, which allowed mass to be celebrated in the vernacular languages (spoken languages rather than Latin), the kehilla received authorization to celebrate the mass in Hebrew. Thus, Hebrew was restored to its rightful place as one of the venerable languages of Christian tradition and liturgy. This mission to the Church is to awaken the slumbering Jewish roots of Christian faith and Catholic practice and tradition. Moreover, the kehilla is called to bear constant witness to the fundamental unity of the Old Testament with the New, the rootedness of Jesus and the first Christian community within the Jewish people and God’s fidelity to His people.

Within the Catholic Church today the word “mission” is often replaced by the words: “evangelization” or “witness”. Recent Catholic thinking has stressed that each individual must be respected in their particularity. Thus, Catholics today tend to speak more of “witness to the faith” than active missionary activity through argumentation and disputation. By “witness” is meant the attempt to live Christian lives as clearly and radiantly as possible. Words have been so long contradicted by acts in the history of Christian communities that they seem to ring out meaninglessly. Believers have often spoken too much and acted too little. It is acts rather than words that can bear witness to the message of love and respect upon which the lives of believers are based. Particularly within the kehilla, the word “mission” conjures up a concept and a strategy that are no longer acceptable within the Israeli and Jewish contexts. “Mission” has too often been understood as “proselytism”, in which respect for personal freedom and cultural, historical and social particularity has been overridden in the name of the supposed salvation of souls. The Jewish people are deeply wounded by centuries of offensive missionary activity that sought to bring them “to the light” even in spite of their resistance. Within the Church today, this aggressive and offensive missionary activity, strongly linked to a teaching of contempt for Judaism, has given way to an appreciation of the internal dynamics of the Jewish tradition.

Many in the kehilla believe that believers in Jesus should be measured and humble in their faith when face to face with the Jewish people. This humility is the necessary prerequisite for the much needed healing. Only when a relationship of trust is restored can Jews and Christians look confidently at one another once again and re-evaluate the place of Jesus Christ in the history of salvation. This means that the attitude towards others should be governed by a profound respect for their freedom, a sincere humility regarding the history of the Church and a burning desire to live faith simply and clearly, more in acts than in words. When questioned explicitly by Jews (or anyone else) about faith, the words of Peter might best capture the attitude generally adopted in the kehilla: “Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts and always have your answer ready for people who ask the reason for the hope that you all have, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1P 3:15).

The kehilla does seek to make Jesus of Nazareth known as a son of this Land and of the Jewish people. This holds for his disciples and the primitive Church too. Here, the kehilla finds itself side by side with Jewish scholars, exegetes and historians, in the renewed interest for Judaism in the late Second Temple period where Jesus and his followers have their place. The New Testament should be restored to its place within the Jewish literature of the period. Jesus of Nazareth is a son of his people and a participant in their history.

5. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

It is clear that the primary vocation of the kehilla is to be a community of prayer and life in the midst of Jewish Israeli society. Within this community, prayers for the wellbeing of the people, the country and for peace and justice in the region have a very special place. Living within Israeli society, prayers in the kehilla are all the more the prayers of and for this society. Common life with the Jewish people makes the kehilla particularly sensitive to the need for healing and reconciliation. Yet, the other dimension of this Land is never far from the prayers of the kehilla too. The proclamation of faith in the Prince of Peace places the kehilla at the center of the painful reality being lived in this Land – the continued violence and bloodshed. Common faith with the other Christians of the Land makes the kehilla particularly sensitive to the need for peace and justice. Instead of widespread discouragement, though, the kehilla seeks to live hope at the center of society in Israel.

There has been much progress in the relations between Jews and Christians. Part of this progress is undoubtedly related to the establishment of the State of Israel and the development of a Jewish majority within Israeli society. The context of the State of Israel holds out two dimensions of specific promise and eschatological hope for the kehilla:

1. In the midst of Israel, the kehilla might restore an important, even essential, element to the catholicity (universality) of the Universal Church. A “church” out of the midst of the Jewish environment, particularly sensitive to the inner life of the Jewish people, recalls the most primitive “church”, the church of the first disciples of Jesus. This earliest kehilla (the primitive Church in Jerusalem within the Jewish milieu) was greatly weakened after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD and it eventually disappeared from view, swallowed up into the Gentile Church. Today, in the midst of the historical, traditional Church, a Church from the Jewish milieu alongside a Church from the Gentile milieu restores a missing dimension to the universality of the Body of Christ, promising renewed vigor to the catholic (universal) community of believers.

2. On the other hand, a local Israeli Catholic community of believers in Jesus, living integrated in Jewish Israeli society, can serve as a bridgehead for profound healing and reconciliation in this beloved land. Within the kehilla, the Jew who has met Jesus within his Church remains firmly rooted in Israel. The less the Jewish people feels threatened in its survival, the more the Jewish people can afford to open itself. Might there come a day when Jews can freely express their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and remain fully integrated within the Jewish people.

Meanwhile, the kehilla seeks to be fully integrated in Israeli society as well as in the Catholic Church. From this unique vantage-point, the kehilla, in communion with both the Universal Church and with the Jewish people, incessantly prays for a full reconciliation between Jews and Christians and among all believers in this Land and in the world. The kehilla is aware that it is called to be a community of hope: hope that Jews and Christians will be fully reconciled, hope that Israelis and Palestinians will find peace and security in this Land. Pope John Paul II expressed this in his meeting with the two chief rabbis of Israel in Jerusalem in 2000: “We must work together to build a future in which there will be no more anti-Judaism amongst Christians or anti-Christian sentiment among Jews. We have much in common. There is much that we can do together for peace, for justice, for a more human and fraternal world. May the Lord of heaven and earth lead us to a new and fruitful era of mutual respect and cooperation for the benefit of all” (10).

NOTES

1. The writer is a member of the Jerusalem kehilla. The article has been written in close collaboration with other members of the Jerusalem kehilla and special thanks are due Yohanan Elihai, Jean-Baptiste Gourion, Hanna Kleinberger and Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

2. Although we will speak here of “kehilla” in the singular, there are four established communities in the four major cities of Israel, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Haifa and Beer Sheba.

3. The kehilla is, of course, not alone in this vocation. It is aware of other communities of believers living a similar vocation, especially Messianic Jews. Members of the kehilla do maintain longstanding friendly relations with members of the Messianic assemblies. These friendly relations lead to exchanged visits and shared prayer, conversation and sharing, as well as increasing mutual understanding and respect.

4. See in this issue, the article of P. HOCKEN, “Catholic Statements on the Church, the Jewish people and Mission to the Jews (1975-2000)”.

5. PONTIFICIA COMMISSIO BIBLICA, Il popolo ebraico e le sue Sacre Scritture nella Bibbia cristiana (The Jewish people, and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible), Rome, 2001, 207.

6. ASSEMBLY OF THE CATHOLIC ORDINARIES IN THE HOLY LAND (Diocesan Synod of the Catholic Churches), The General Pastoral Plan, 2001, 156.

7. See the special edition of the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano of 12-13.10.1998, at the time of the canonisation of Edith Stein (Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross).

8. Among those members and friends of the kehilla who taught and wrote prolifically about the need for increased awareness of the Jewish roots of Christian faith and Catholic tradition we mention here two prominent figures who have gone to their heavenly reward: Bruno Hussar and Rina Geftman. Both Israeli Jews, Bruno was founder of the peace village Newe Shalom and Rina was a prolific teacher on the Jewish roots of the Church.

9. See W. KASPER, “The Jewish-Christian Dialogue: Foundations, Progress, Difficulties and Perspectives,” conference at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 21.11.2001.

10. Speech of John Paul II at the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Jerusalem, The Holy Land welcomes His Holiness Pope John Paul II, 20-26 March, 2000, Jerusalem, 2001.