News in Christian-Jewish Relations:  February 2001

 

This month:

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French rabbinate discloses 1968 outline of a Jewish theological statement on Christianity

In an article in the February 12, 2001 issue of Le Monde, Xavier Ternisien reported on the upcoming publication of a 1968 preparatory outline of a French Jewish statement on Christianity. The Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, René Gutman, announced at a news conference that the document was the result of a request made by the Catholic bishops of France in 1968 to then Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan for a description of Jewish opinions on Christianity. Relevant rabbinic commentaries over the centuries were assembled by a committee composed of the celebrated philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, Eastern Studies specialist Georges Vajda, and Charles Touati, president of the French rabbinate's doctrinal commission.

The committee was instructed that the project was to be an official statement conveying the views of only the French rabbinate and that they should draw upon only the works of universally recognized authoritative Jewish sages. The committee later stated that they selected texts that represented the best spirit of Judaism. They rejected polemical texts, noting that one could find similarly hostile texts about Judaism in the Christian tradition. Those texts that judged Christianity as idolatrous tended to come from pre-1000 C.E. materials. Later in the Middle Ages more positive assessments of Christianity began appearing among Jewish thinkers. 

The committee produced an outline making six assertions supported by the rabbinic commentaries they collected.  Their conclusions applied equally to Christianity and Islam. These claims were:

1. Earlier negative judgments of Christianity by Jewish scholars were not unavoidable.

2. Christians in the time of Jesus were not idolaters: they adored God who created the world and held a number of beliefs in common with Jews.

3. Christians have access to eternal salvation.

4. Israel must take as a starting point the ethical teachings of Christians and Moslems.

5. Christianity and Islam have contributed to the improvement of humanity.

6. Christianity and Islam prepare the way for the Messiah.

The outline is interesting because it reflects French Jewish thinking three years after the issuance by the Second Vatican Council of Nostra Aetate in 1965. It also can be compared with the American Jewish statement Dabru Emet published in 2000. 

The outline was not formally debated by the French rabbinical assembly until 1978, five years after the French Catholic bishops had released their own pastoral letter on Catholic-Jewish relations. A significant minority of the assembled rabbis had grave reservations about the proposed statement, and seeing that consensus would be impossible, Chief Rabbi Kaplan withdrew the proposal from consideration. 

Touati, the only surviving member of the drafting committee, seeing the historical value of the outline, suggested its release to the general public at this time. It is to be published in its entirety this year in the Revue des Études Juives. "According to the French rabbis," Gutman was quoted as saying, "Christianity is also necessary to the redemption of a world devoted to violence. Undoubtedly, Christianity is not necessary to the Judaism, but the Judaism knows that it is necessary to the world."  The chief rabbi of Paris, David Messas emphasized that the 1968 text should not be understood as expressing the current views of the French rabbinate and did not rule out the possibility of the rabbinical assembly taking up the subject again. Similarly, René-Samuel Sirat, the former chief rabbi of France, observed that other ideas could be drawn upon were the topic to be taken up again today. 

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Booklet Provides Guidelines on Holocaust Education in Catholic School Settings

WASHINGTON--A booklet providing guidance and resources for holocaust education as a resource for use on all levels of Catholic education has been issued by the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interrreligious Affairs (BCEIA) of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

It is entitled "Catholic Teaching on the Shoah: Implementing the Holy See's We Remember." The reflections contained in the booklet are intended to help Catholic schools at all levels, including seminaries and universities, to implement the mandate of the Holy See's 1998 statement We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah. The Shoah (the Hebrew word for the Holocaust) was Nazi Germany's systematic attempt to murder every Jewish woman, man and child in Europe. By 1945, two out of every three Jews had been killed--some six million people--along with millions of Gypsies, homosexuals, Poles, and other "subhumans." The reflections in the booklet do not form a curriculum but are designed to help Catholic educators begin developing curricula and other educational programs on the Holocaust.

The development of the booklet began in 1999 when the BCEIA joined with the American Jewish Committee and the Archdiocese of Baltimore to cosponsor a dialogue of leading Catholic and Jewish educators. These teachers had all been involved in Holocaust education for many years. Early drafts were shown to an even wider group of educators, then discussed and reframed at meetings of the BCEIA before being formally adopted. Among the goals for Shoah education cited in the booklet are: to provide Catholics with accurate knowledge and respect for Judaism; to encourage a positive appreciation of Jews and Judaism and the ongoing role of the Jewish people in God's plan of salvation; to promote the spirit of repentance and conversion called for by We Remember; and to help Catholics combat forms of Christian anti-Judaism by studying the causes and conditions for genocide--so as to prevent such atrocities from happening to Jews or any other group in the future. The booklet contains an extensive bibliography on holocaust education, including many websites.

"Catholic Teaching on the Shoah: Implementing the Holy See's We Remember" is available from the USCC Office of Publishing and Promotion Services. The price is $2.95 per copy with bulk rates for 50 or more copies. Call 800-235-8722, or go to the OPPS site on the Conference website, WWW.NCCBUSCC.ORG 

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Yom Hashoah Menorah Memorials to be Placed in Catholic Seminaries

A project placing Yom Hashoah Menorahs in major Catholic centers in America as a means of continuing the strong Catholic/Jewish relations that exists thanks to Pope John Paul II was launched here today with the placement of the first Menorah in the United States in a Catholic institution in St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore in the presence of William Cardinal Keeler, seminarians and Jewish leaders - March 5th.

Catholics and Jews will utilize this liturgical symbolism to commemorate the Shoah and educate both faiths on the contemporary lesson of this tragedy. Other Menorahs are scheduled for Palm Beach, March 15th; Miami, May 1st; and Boston, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Rockville Centre, New York City, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles (dates to be scheduled).

The project has been developed by the Interreligious Information Center (IIC), New York City, and the Center for Interreligious Understanding (CIU), Secaucus, NJ. The Menorah, created by Gunther Lawrence of IIC, was sculpted by Aharon Bezalel of Jerusalem. On April 13th, 1999, this Menorah was placed and dedicated at the North American College in the Vatican and the following day Pope John Paul II received a replica. When told of the project, he said, "This is a good thing you are doing."

Both Lawrence and Rabbi Jack Bemporad, Director of CIU hailed the current status of Catholic/Jewish relations, thanks in great measure to the Pope and individuals like Cardinal Keeler. They emphasized, however, that a great
deal needs to be done to spur grassroots activities and educational programs both by Jewish and Catholic groups.

Major benefactor for the project is Stephen Ollendorf, President of CIU, a resident of Tenafly, NJ, who has personally championed closer ties between all faiths as a major part of his agenda.

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