About Jewish-Christian Relations

Yisca Harani, a lecturer on Christianity, writes to us about a new book that has just been published.

We once again recommend this fascinating blog.

In the Israeli English language daily, the Jerusalem Post, Dr. Faydra Schapiro, director of the Center for Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations at the Jezreel Valley College in Afula, writes about relations between Catholics and Jews in the past decades.

“Bat Kol Institute for Jewish Studies” (founded in 1983) is a non-profit, international, ecumenical institution founded in response to Vatican II (Nostra Aetate), and subsequent explanatory documents (Guidelines ‘75; Notes '85) as a Center of Jewish Studies for Christians, in the heart of Jerusalem.

The burning of the door of the Latroun monastery and the anti Christian graffiti sprayed on the walls of the monastery are drawing angry reactions from the heads of the Churches and the general public. However, there is something very interesting about those who sprayed the graffiti! Father David comments:

The word “goy” appears for the first time in Tannaitic literature however a new reading raises the possibility that the Rabbinic Sages were actually inspired by Jesus’ apostle who preached to the nations. This interesting proposition is raised in an article by Adi Ophir and Yishai Rosen-Zvi published in HaAretz newspaper on September 16, 2012, in the Rosh HaShana literature supplement.

We publish here a brief paragraph written by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger (1926-2007), Archbishop of Paris, about his Jewish identity. Born on the eve of Yom Kippur (that year September 17, 1926), he worked all his life for the reconciliation of Jews and Christians.

Don Giuseppe Dossetti (1913-1996), prominent figure in the Catholic Church in Italy, reflected on the Shoah and the presence of Christ crucified in history. A new book examines his thought.

S. from the Haifa community has sent us a link to a television report on the friendship that drew together Pope John Paul II and the Jewish orchestra conductor, Gilbert Levine.

Daniel, a member of the Jerusalem kehilla, sent us a video clip of a Jewish man asking Saint Jose-Maria Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, a question.

Nancy Kalikow Maxwell describes here experience as a Jewish librarian at a Catholic college in the United States of America. The article was published in the Jewish newspaper, Forward, on February 9, 2010.

Rabbi David Rosen, prominent representative of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in dialogue with the Catholic Church, contributed the following article to the open forum blog of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research on Thursday, May 28, 2009.

Roni Mandelbaum, an Israeli tour guide and friend of our communities, sent us his reflections on the relationship that is formed between the Christian pilgrim and the Israeli tour guide.

Rabbi David Rosen is active in many different forums of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and has a unique perspective on this dialogue as an Orthodox Israeli rabbi and as committed to the historic reconciliation between the Church and the Jewish people. We reproduce here an article he published on the recent crisis between the Church and the Jews.

Bradley Burston is a columnist for the Israeli English daily, The Jerusalem Post, and two years ago, on Christmas Day, he published an editorial entitled "Jews aren't supposed to love Christmas".

In the year 2000 (29.12.2000), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, published a reflection on Christmas in the "Osservatore Romano," the official Vatican newspaper. The reflection focuses on the important role of the Jewish people in the history of salvation and we publish it here before Christmas to help us prepare for the feast.

The Israeli press has been full of articles about Pope Pius XII this week. Many of these articles have expressed pain, anger and even hatred. For those of us who live as Catholics in Israel, speaking Hebrew and finding our place within Israeli Jewish society this has not been an easy week. Undoubtedly, for those of us who are members of the Jewish people and Catholics in faith, we feel terribly torn.

On September 30, 2008, in a news brief, ZENIT, a Vatican news agency quoted a brief commentary by Father David Neuhaus SJ, Secretary-General of the Hebrew speaking Catholic Vicariate in Israel, on the Pope's words to the Jewish leaders he met in Paris. This commentary had been published on the site of the Vicariate (Read full commentary).

Since 2003, a delegation of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and a delegation for relations with the Catholic Church of the State of Israel's Chief Rabbinate have been meeting yearly and discussing various themes of common interest.

In his apostolic exhortation “Joy of the Gospel”, Pope Francis also writes about the relationship with the Jewish people.