EAJC President Julius MEINL speech at the Annual session of the World Jewish Congress Governing Board

These are difficult times for those of us who love Jerusalem and share a deep connection with the Holy Land. Religion is being used not as a force for spiritual enlightenment, not as a way to connect us all but as an excuse by some for violence and murder. Wild incitement about religious holy sites inflames tensions and incites Palestinians to murder Israelis. Social media whips up the frenzy and radical preachers encourage hatred. The wave of terrorism in Israel has been brutal and few dispute the dangerous evolution of the conflict into one fuelled by religion and not policy.
It seems nothing remains truly sacred anymore. No Jews was left unmoved by the site of Joseph’s Tomb in flames having been set on fire by arsonists, none of us can forget the faces of the human victims, murdered simply for being Jews.
When religion is so divisive it is tempting to dismiss interfaith dialogue and interfaith relations as a luxury. A pastime for the naive. But the truth is the exact opposite. This is the time when we need religious leaders to make their voices heard, when we need to work to better understand one another. We need to look to religious leaders to counter the narratives of extremism.
Over 50 years ago we had one such example. The Nostra Aetate Declaration was a historical moment in the history of Christian-Jewish relations. It is worth recalling its powerful words after centuries of anti-Semitism, “The Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures... Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”
Over a decade ago, the historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen wrote in his seminal book on the role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust that after the Nostra Aetate, “The Church has progressively altered Catholic doctrine, liturgy and teachings (including textbooks) about Jews in a manner that, although far from perfect, has been substantial.” Although deeply critical of the Catholic Church he goes on to say that following the declaration, “Along with excising many of its own anti-Semitic features, the Church has begun to teach a degree of tolerance and acceptance of Jews that was previously all but unimaginable.”
The milestones since the Nostra Aetate have been many – the visit by Pope John Paul II in 1986 to the Great Synagogue in Rome and the joint prayer for peace in June 2014 in which Jewish and Muslim prayers were read aloud inside the Vatican grounds to name just two. It should be seen not as an isolated statement but as the rejuvenation of relations, the foundations on which to build Jewish-Christian relations.
It is a sign of how far we have come that we have before us at this meeting a resolution in which we can call upon the Pope to “launch an initiative to bring together leaders of all major faith communities” and we know, that Jews would be welcomed at such an initiative as equals.
The work of interfaith relations is never complete, we can always work to strengthen the bonds, to deepen the understanding and enhance the mutual respect. It is incumbent on us all in these difficult days to amplify the voices of reason by reaching out beyond our own community.
I’d like to conclude with the powerful words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, who concludes his book on confronting religious violence with a call to each of us, “Now is the time for Jews, Christians and Muslims to say what they failed to say in the past: We are all children of Abraham. And whether we are Isaac or Ishmael, Jacob or Esau, Leah or Rachel, Joseph or his brothers, we are previous in the sight of God. We are blessed. And to be blessed, no one has to be cursed. God’s love does not work that way. Today God is calling us, Jew, Christian and Muslim, to let go of hate and the preaching of hate, and live at last as brothers and sisters, true to our faith and a blessing to others regardless of their faith, honouring God’s name by honoring his image, humankind”.