Between Jerusalem and Rome
\nReflections on 50 Years of Nostra Aetate
\nPreamble
\nIn the biblical account of creation, God fashions a single human being as the progenitor of all humanity. Thus, the Bible\u2019s unmistakable message is that all human beings are members of a single family. And after the deluge of Noah, this message is reinforced when the new phase of history is once again inaugurated by a single family. In the beginning, God\u2019s providence is exercised over a universal, undifferentiated humanity.
\nAs God chose Avraham, and subsequently Yitzchak and Yaakov, He entrusted them with a dual mission: to found the nation of Israel that would inherit, settle and establish a model society in the holy, promised land of Israel, all while serving as a source of light for all mankind.
\nEver since, particularly in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. by the Romans, we Jews encountered persecution after exile after persecution. And yet, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie,1 and His eternal covenant with the nation of Israel manifested itself time and again: despite the greatest adversities, our nation has endured.2 After the darkest hour since the destruction of our holy Temple in Jerusalem, when six million of our brethren were viciously murdered and the embers of their bones were smoldering in the shadows of the Nazi crematoria, God\u2019s eternal covenant was once again manifest, as the remnants of Israel gathered their strength and enacted a miraculous reawakening of Jewish consciousness. Communities were reestablished throughout the Diaspora, and many Jews responded to the clarion call to return to Eretz Yisrael, where a sovereign Jewish state arose.
\nThe Jewish people\u2019s dual obligations \u2013 to be a light unto the nations3 and to secure its own future despite the world\u2019s hatred and violence \u2013 have been overwhelmingly difficult to fulfill. Despite innumerable obstacles, the Jewish nation has bequeathed many blessings upon mankind, both in the realms of the sciences, culture, philosophy, literature, technology and commerce, and in the realms of faith, spirituality, ethics and morality. These, too, are a manifestation of God\u2019s eternal covenant with the Jewish people.
\nUndoubtedly, the Shoah constitutes the historical nadir of the relations between Jews and our non-Jewish neighbors in Europe. Out of the continent nurtured by Christianity for over a millennium, a bitter and evil shoot sprouted forth, murdering six million of our brethren with industrial precision, including one and a half million children. Many of those who participated in this most heinous crime, exterminating entire families and communities, had been nurtured in Christian families and communities.4
\nAt the same time, throughout that millennium, even in very dark times, heroic individuals arose \u2013 sons and daughters of the Catholic Church, both laymen and leaders \u2013 who fought against the persecution of Jews, helping them in the darkest of times.5
\nWith the close of World War II, a new era of peaceful coexistence and acceptance began to emerge in Western European countries, and an era of bridge-building and tolerance took hold in many Christian denominations. Faith communities reevaluated their historical rejections of others, and decades of fruitful interaction and cooperation began. Moreover, though we Jews had achieved political emancipation a century or two before, we were not yet truly accepted as equal, full-fledged members of the nations in which we lived. Following the Shoah, Jewish emancipation in the Diaspora, as well as the right of the Jewish people to live as a sovereign nation in our own land, finally became obvious and natural.
\nDuring the ensuing seven decades, Jewish communities and spiritual leaders gradually reassessed Judaism\u2019s relationship with the members and leaders of other faith communities.
\nTurnaround \u2013 Nostra Aetate
\nFifty years ago, twenty years after the Shoah, with its declaration Nostra Aetate (No. 4),6 the Catholic Church began a process of introspection that increasingly led to any hostility toward Jews being expurgated from Church doctrine, enabling trust and confidence to grow between our respective faith communities.
\nIn this regard, Pope John XXIII was a transformative figure in Jewish-Catholic relations no less than in the history of the Church itself. He played a courageous role in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust, and it was his recognition of the need to revise \u201cthe teaching of contempt\u201d that helped overcome resistance to change and ultimately facilitated the adoption of Nostra Aetate (no. 4).
\nIn its most focused, concrete, and, for the Church, most dramatic7 assertion, Nostra Aetate recognized that any Jew who was not directly and personally involved in the Crucifixion did not bear any responsibility for it.8 Pope Benedict XVI\u2019s elaborations and explications of this theme are particularly noteworthy.9
\nIn addition, basing itself on Christian Scriptures, Nostra Aetate asserted that the Divine election of Israel, which it calls \u201cthe gift of God,\u201d will not be revoked, stating, \u201cGod \u2026 does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.\u201d It issued the injunction that \u201cthe Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God.\u201d Later, in 2013, Pope Francis elaborated upon this theme in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium: \u201cGod continues to work among the people of the Old Covenant and to bring forth treasures of wisdom which flow from their encounter with His word.\u201d10
\nNostra Aetate also paved the way for the Vatican\u2019s 1993 establishment of full diplomatic relations with the State of Israel. Through the establishment of this relationship, the Catholic Church showed how it had truly repudiated its portrayal of the Jewish people as a nation condemned to wander until the final advent. This historic moment facilitated Pope John Paul II\u2019s pilgrimage to Israel in 2000, which served as another powerful demonstration of a new era in Catholic-Jewish relations. Since then, the last two popes have also made similar state visits.
\nNostra Aetate strongly \u201cdecries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone\u201d as a matter of religious duty. Accordingly, Pope John Paul II repeatedly affirmed that anti-Semitism is \u201ca sin against God and humanity.\u201d At the Western Wall in Jerusalem, he recited the following prayer: \u201cGod of our fathers, You chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the Nations. We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.\u201d
\nPope Francis recently recognized a new, pervasive and even fashionable form of anti-Semitism, when he told a World Jewish Congress delegation: \u201cTo attack Jews is anti-Semitism, but an outright attack on the State of Israel is also anti-Semitism. There may be political disagreements between governments and on political issues, but the State of Israel has every right to exist in safety and prosperity.\u201d11
\nFinally, Nostra Aetate called for fostering \u201cmutual understanding and respect,\u201d and for conducting \u201cfraternal dialogues.\u201d In 1974, Pope Paul VI heeded this call by creating the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews; the Jewish community, in response to this call, has met regularly with Church representatives.
\nWe applaud the work of popes, church leaders, and scholars who passionately contributed to these developments, including the strong-willed proponents of Catholic-Jewish dialogue at the end of World War II, whose collective work was a leading impetus for Nostra Aetate. The most important milestones were the Second Vatican Council, the establishment of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, the recognition of Judaism as a living religion with an eternal covenant, the appreciation of the significance of the Shoah and its antecedents, and the establishment of diplomatic relations with the State of Israel. The theological writings of the heads of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews have contributed much to the Church documents which followed Nostra Aetate, as have the writings of numerous other theologians.
\nIn its recent reflections on Nostra Aetate, \u201cThe Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable,\u201d the Pontifical Commission unambiguously endorsed the notion that Jews are participants in God\u2019s salvation, calling this idea \u201can unfathomable divine mystery.\u201d12 It further proclaimed that \u201cthe Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews.\u201d13 Though the Catholic Church has not disavowed witnessing to Jews, it has nonetheless shown understanding and sensitivity towards deeply held Jewish sensibilities, and distanced itself from active mission to Jews.
\nThe transformation of the attitude of the Church toward the Jewish community is strikingly exemplified by the recent visit of Pope Francis to a synagogue, which renders him the third Pope to make this highly significant gesture. We echo his comment, \u201cFrom enemies and strangers we have become friends and brothers. It is my hope that closeness, mutual understanding and respect between our two communities continue to grow.\u201d
\nThese welcoming attitudes and actions stand in stark contrast with centuries of teachings of contempt and of pervasive hostility, and herald a most encouraging chapter in an epic process of societal transformation.
\nEvaluation and Reevaluation
\nInitially, many Jewish leaders14 were skeptical of the sincerity of the Church\u2019s overtures to the Jewish community, due to the long history of Christian anti-Judaism. Over time, it has become clear that the transformations in the Church\u2019s attitudes and teachings are not only sincere but also increasingly profound, and that we are entering an era of growing tolerance, mutual respect, and solidarity between members of our respective faiths.
\nOrthodox Judaism \u2013 through the American Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America \u2013 had already been a part of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) set up in the late sixties, as the official Jewish representative for relations with the Vatican. A new page in the relations of Orthodox Judaism with the Catholic Church was turned with the establishment of the bilateral committee of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel with the Vatican, commencing in 2002 under the chairmanship of \u05c1\u05c1the chief rabbi of Haifa Rabbi She\u2019ar Yashuv Cohen. The published declarations from the thirteen meetings of this bilateral commission (alternating annually between Rome and Jerusalem) carefully avoid matters pertaining to fundamentals of faith, but rather address a broad spectrum of contemporary social and scientific challenges, highlighting shared values while respecting the differences between the two faith traditions.
\nWe acknowledge that this fraternity cannot sweep away our doctrinal differences; it does, rather, reinforce genuine mutual positive dispositions towards fundamental values that we share, including but not limited to reverence for the Hebrew Bible.15
\nThe theological differences between Judaism and Christianity are profound. The core beliefs of Christianity that center on the person of \u201cJesus as the Messiah\u201c and the embodiment of the \u201csecond person of a triune God\u201d create an irreconcilable separation from Judaism. The history of Jewish martyrdom in Christian Europe serves as tragic testimony to the devotion and tenacity with which Jews resisted beliefs incompatible with their ancient and eternal faith, which requires absolute fidelity to both the Written and Oral Torah. Despite those profound differences, some of Judaism\u2019s highest authorities have asserted that Christians maintain a special status because they worship the Creator of Heaven and Earth Who liberated the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage and Who exercises providence over all creation.16
\nThe doctrinal differences are essential and cannot be debated or negotiated; their meaning and importance belong to the internal deliberations of the respective faith communities. Judaism, drawing its particularity from its received Tradition, going back to the days of its glorious prophets and particularly to the Revelation at Sinai, will forever remain loyal to its principles, laws and eternal teachings. Furthermore, our interfaith discussions are informed by the profound insights of such great Jewish thinkers as Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik,17 Rabbi Lord Immanuel Jakobovits,18 and many others, who eloquently argued that the religious experience is a private one which can often only be truly understood within the framework of its own faith community.
\nHowever, doctrinal differences do not and may not stand in the way of our peaceful collaboration for the betterment of our shared world and the lives of the children of Noah. To further this end, it is crucial that our faith communities continue to encounter and grow acquainted with one another, and earn each other\u2019s trust.
\nThe Road Forward
\nDespite the irreconcilable theological differences, we Jews view Catholics as our partners, close allies, friends and brothers in our mutual quest for a better world blessed with peace, social justice and security.19
\nWe understand our mission to be a light unto the nations, which obliges us to contribute to humanity\u2019s appreciation for holiness, morality and piety. As the Western world grows more and more secular, it abandons many of the moral values shared by Jews and Christians. Religious freedom is thus increasingly threatened by the forces of both secularism and religious extremism. We therefore seek the partnership of the Catholic community in particular, and other faith communities in general, to assure the future of religious freedom, to foster the moral principles of our faiths, particularly the sanctity of life and the significance of the traditional family, and \u201cto cultivate the moral and religious conscience of society.\u201d20
\nOne of the lessons of the Shoah is the obligations, for Jews as well as gentiles, to combat antisemitism in particular, especially in light of once again growing antisemiitism. These lessons have to be expressed both in the educational and in the legal spheres of all nations, without compromise.
\nFurthermore, as a people who suffered from persecution and genocide throughout our history, we are all too aware of the very real danger facing many Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere as they are persecuted and menaced by violence and death at the hands of those who invoke God\u2019s Name in vain through violence and terror.
\nWe condemn hereby any and all violence against any person on account of his beliefs or his religion. We similarly condemn all acts of vandalism, wanton destruction and \/ or desecration of the hallowed places of all religions.
\nWe call upon the Church to join us in deepening our combat against our generation\u2019s new barbarism, namely the radical offshoots of Islam, which endanger our global society and do not spare the very numerous moderate Muslims. They threaten world peace in general and the Christian and Jewish communities in particular. We call on all people of good will to join forces to fight this evil.
\nDespite profound theological differences, Catholics and Jews share common beliefs in the Divine origin of the Torah and in the idea of an ultimate redemption, and now, also, in the affirmation that religions must use moral behavior and religious education \u2014 not war, coercion, or social pressure \u2014 to influence and inspire.
\nWe ordinarily refrain from expressing expectations regarding other faith communities\u2019 doctrines. However, certain kinds of doctrines cause real suffering; those Christian doctrines, rituals and teachings that express negative attitudes toward Jews and Judaism do inspire and nurture anti-Semitism. Therefore, to extend the amicable relations and common causes cultivated between Catholics and Jews as a result of Nostra Aetate, we call upon all Christian denominations that have not yet done so to follow the example of the Catholic Church and excise anti-Semitism from their liturgy and doctrines, to end the active mission to Jews, and to work towards a better world hand-in-hand with us, the Jewish people.
\nWe seek to deepen our dialogue and partnership with the Church in order to foster our mutual understanding and to advance the goals outlined above. We seek to find additional ways that will enable us, together, to improve the world: to go in God\u2019s ways, feed the hungry and dress the naked, give joy to widows and orphans, provide refuge to the persecuted and the oppressed, and thus merit His blessings.
\nRosh Chodesh Adar I, 5776
\nSigned Signed
\nFor the CER Chief Rabbi Ratzon Arusi For the RCA
\nChairman, Commission of the
\nChief Rabbinate of Israel for
\nInterreligious Affairs
\nAbout the CER:
\nThe Conference of European Rabbis (CER) is the primary rabbinical alliance in Europe. It unites more than 700 religious leaders of the mainstream synagogue communities in Europe. The conference is designed to maintain and defend the religious rights of Jews in Europe and has become the voice of Judaism for the European continent.
\nAbout the Chief Rabbinate of Israel:
\nThe Chief Rabbinate of Israel is recognized by Israeli law as the head of religious law and spiritual authority for the Jewish people in Israel. A Chief Rabbinate Council assists the two chief rabbis, who alternate in its presidency. It has legal and administrative authority to organize religious arrangements for Israel\u2019s Jews. It also responds to halakhic questions submitted by Jewish public bodies in the Diaspora. By law, the chief rabbinate has jurisdiction over marriage and divorce, burials of Jews, conversion to Judaism, establishing Jewish identity, supervision of the rabbinical courts system, kosher certification and supervision of holy sites.
\nAbout the RCA:
\nThe Rabbinical Council of America, with national headquarters in New York City, is a professional organization serving more than 1000 Orthodox Rabbis in the United States of America, Canada, Israel, and around the world. Membership is comprised of duly ordained Orthodox Rabbis who serve in positions of the congregational rabbinate, Jewish education, chaplaincies, and other allied fields of Jewish communal work.
\n1I Samuel 15:29
\n2Cf. Genesis 17:7 & 17:19, Leviticus 26:42-45, Deuteronomy 20:3-5, etc.
\n3Isaiah 49:6
\n4Pope John Paul II wrote: \u201cIt is appropriate that, as the Second Millennium of Christianity draws to a close, the Church should become more fully conscious of the sinfulness of her children \u2026\u201d (Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 10 November 1994, 33: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 87 (1995), 25.)
\nThe Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews wrote: \u201cThe fact that the Shoah took place in Europe, that is, in countries of long-standing Christian civilization, raises the question of the relation between the Nazi persecution and the attitudes down the centuries of Christians towards the Jews.\u201d (We Remember: Reflections on the Shoah, 16 March 1998)
\n5Two examples among the many such heroes of history are the abbot Bernard of Clairvaux during the Crusades and Jules-G\u00e9raud Cardinal Sali\u00e8ge of Toulouse during World War II. When, during the Crusades, a fellow Cistercian monk began exhorting Germans to destroy the Jews before waging war on the Muslims, Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux went personally to put a stop to it. As Rabbi Efraim of Bonn wrote:
\nOne decent priest by the name of Bernard, a great figure and master of all the priests, who knew and understood their religion, said to them: \u2026 \u201cMy disciple who preached that the Jews should be destroyed spoke improperly, for it is written of them in the Book of Psalms, \u2018Do not kill them lest my people forget.\u2019\u201d All the people regarded this priest as one of their saints, and our investigation did not indicate that he took bribes for speaking well of Israel. When they heard this, many of them stopped their efforts to bring about our deaths\u05e5 (Sefer Zekhirah, ed. by A. M. Haberman, p. 18).
\nJules-G\u00e9raud Sali\u00e8ge (February 24, 1870\u2014November 5, 1956) was the Catholic Archbishop of Toulouse from 1928 until his death, and was a significant figure in Catholic resistance to the pro-Nazis regime in France. He was made cardinal in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. Yad Vashem recognized him as a Righteous among the Nations for his efforts to protect Jews during the Shoah.
\n6The main subject of this section is Nostra Aetate\u2018s fourth section, which deals particularly with the Catholic Church\u2019s relationship to the Jews. So as to read less tediously, henceforth reference will be made to just Nostra Aetate, however, throughout our document, it is particularly section 4 that we refer to.
\n7Nostra Aetate\u2018s assertion is rooted in earlier church teachings, such as the Catechism of the Council of Trent, from 1566. Article 4 of that document\u2019s section entitled The Creed, relativizes the Jews\u2019 imputed guilt by proclaiming that the sinfulness of Christians contributed even more to the crucifixion. Nonetheless, accusations of deicide towards Jews continued for several more centuries. If the accusations became dulled over time, it was more likely on account of the Enlightenment, during which Jew-hatred lost some of its religious character in Europe. Nostra Aetate, on the other hand, coming on the heels of a Western desire to disavow the kinds of intense Jew-hatred that contributed to the Shoah, was nothing less than revolutionary in bringing about meaningful change in the Catholic Church in this regard.
\n8The degree to which even first-century Jews played a role in the crucifixion of Jesus is itself a matter of scholarly controversy, but in terms of internal Christian doctrine, we recognize that absolving all other Jews from any responsibility for the crucifixion is an extremely significant step for the Church.
\n9In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, 2011
\n10Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, Vatican 2013, \u00a7247, \u00a7249
\n11http:\/\/www.worldjewishcongress.org\/en\/news\/pope-francis-to-make-first-official-visit-to-rome and http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2015\/10\/28\/world\/pope-jews\/.
\n12The Gifts and Calling of God are Irrevocable, Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, 2015 , \u00a736-\u00a739.
\n13Ibid. \u00a740
\n14See for example Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, Responsa Iggerot Moshhe, Yoreh De\u2019ah Vol. 3, \u00a743, as well as French Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan in his remarks cited in Droit et libert\u00e9, December 1964, and in Hamodia, 16th of September 1965. Each identified areas where skepticism was warranted.
\n15Commentary to Song of Songs (attributed to Nahmanides), in Kitve ha-Ramban, ed. Chavel, vol. II, pgs. 502-503; Ralbag, Milhamot, ed. Leipzig, pg. 356 and Commentary to the Torah, ed. Venice, pg. 2.
\n16Tosafot Sanhedrin 63b, s.v. Asur; Rabbenu Yeruham ben Meshullam, Toledot Adam ve-Havvah17:5; R. Moses Isserles to Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim 156:2; R. Moses Rivkes, Be\u2019er ha-Golah to Shulhan Arukh Hoshen Mishpat 226:1 & 425:5; R. Samson Raphael Hirsch, Principles of Education, \u201cTalmudic Judaism and Society,\u201d pgs. 225-227.
\n17Most notably in his essay \u201cConfrontation,\u201d Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought. 6.2 (1964).
\n18See, for example, his \u201cThe Timely and the Timeless,\u201d London 1977, pgs. 119-121.
\n19The press statement issued at the fourth bilateral meeting between the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See, in Grottaferrata (Rome, October 17-19, 2004) is particularly notable in this regard . It stated: \u201cConscious of the fact that there is not wide enough awareness in our respective communities of the momentous change that has taken place in the relationship between Catholics and Jews; and in light of our own committee\u2019s work and our current discussions on a shared vision for a just and ethical society; we declare: We are not enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of human society.\u201d
\n20As formulated in Jacobovitz, ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Between Jerusalem and Rome Reflections on 50 Years of Nostra Aetate Preamble In the biblical account of creation, God fashions a single human being as the progenitor of all humanity. Thus, the Bible\u2019s unmistakable message is that all human beings are members of a single family. And after the deluge of Noah, this message is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dialogo-teologico.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}