Jews - Real ecumenism

Dabru Emet
(You Shall Tell the Truth)

The September 10th issue of The New York Times carried an earnest appeal signed by 172 representatives of Judaism in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Israel. An exemplary witness of a sincere desire for dialogue

edited bY ALBERTO SAVORANA

Last September 10th, a full-page document was published in The New York Times on Christians and Christianity, signed by 172 Jewish rabbis and intellectuals, mainly from the United States but also from Great Britain, Canada, and Israel. Among the signatories were Dr. Neil Gillman, who participated in the 1999 presentation at the United Nations of Giussani’s book At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and David Rosen, the rabbi of Jerusalem who has twice been a guest at the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples in Rimini, Italy, and is well known to readers of Traces.
The Jewish manifesto opens with a recognition that creates a bridge to the future: “In recent times a dramatic and unprecedented change has taken place in Jewish-Christian relations. We think it is time that Jews know about the efforts made by Christians to honor Judaism.” Significantly, the page was published in the Times the Sunday following the beatification of John XXIII and Pius IX and a few days after the release of Cardinal Ratzinger’s document, Dominus Iesus. This is a sign of a sincere desire for dialogue on the part of the 172 signatories, a desire whose fundamental condition is knowledge of and respect for the identities of each group, as the Jewish scholars point out in their document: “Only by preserving our own traditions can we continue these relations with integrity.”
Impressed and grateful for the example of real ecumenism offered by the Jewish document, we have chosen to publish it, knowing well what Father Giussani always says about our relationship with the people whom God chose to be his messengers in history and the world: “We are Jews,” in this way giving evidence of all the devotion that animates us as Christians.
The following is the text of the document.

In recent years, there has been a dramatic and unprecedented shift in Jewish and Christian relations. Throughout the nearly two millennia of Jewish exile, Christians have tended to characterize Judaism as a failed religion or, at best, a religion that prepared the way for, and is completed in, Christianity. In the decades since the Holocaust, however, Christianity has changed dramatically. An increasing number of official Church bodies, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, have made public statements of their remorse about Christian mistreatment of Jews and Judaism. These statements have declared, furthermore, that Christian teaching and preaching can and must be reformed so that they acknowledge God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people and celebrate the contribution of Judaism to world civilization and to Christian faith itself. We believe these changes merit a thoughtful Jewish response. Speaking only for ourselves–an interdenominational group of Jewish scholars–we believe it is time for Jews to learn about the efforts of Christians to honor Judaism. We believe it is time for Jews to reflect on what Judaism may now say about Christianity. As a first step, we offer eight brief statements about how Jews and Christians may relate to one another.

Jews and Christians worship the same God.

Before the rise of Christianity, Jews were the only worshippers of the God of Israel. But Christians also worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; creator of heaven and earth. While Christian worship is not a viable religious choice for Jews, as Jewish theologians we rejoice that, through Christianity, hundreds of millions of people have entered into relationship with the God of Israel.

Jews and Christians seek authority from the same book–the Bible (what Jews call “Tanakh” and Christians call the “Old Testament”).

Turning to it for religious orientation, spiritual enrichment, and communal education, we each take away similar lessons: God created and sustains the universe; God established a covenant with the people Israel, God’s revealed word guides Israel to a life of righteousness; and God will ultimately redeem Israel and the whole world. Yet, Jews and Christians interpret the Bible differently on many points. Such differences must always be respected.

Christians can respect the claim of the Jewish people upon the land of Israel.

The most important event for Jews since the Holocaust has been the reestablishment of a Jewish state in the Promised Land. As members of a biblically based religion, Christians appreciate that Israel was promised–and given–to Jews as the physical center of the covenant between them and God. Many Christians support the State of Israel for reasons far more profound than mere politics. As Jews, we applaud this support. We also recognize that Jewish tradition mandates justice for all non-Jews who reside in a Jewish state.

Jews and Christians accept the moral principles of Torah.

Central to the moral principles of Torah is the inalienable sanctity and dignity of every human being. All of us were created in the image of God. This shared moral emphasis can be the basis of an improved relationship between our two communities. It can also be the basis of a powerful witness to all humanity for improving the lives of our fellow human beings and for standing against the immoralities and idolatries that harm and degrade us. Such witness is especially needed after the unprecedented horrors of the past century.

Nazism was not a Christian phenomenon.

Without the long history of Christian anti-Judaism and Christian violence against Jews, Nazi ideology could not have taken hold nor could it have been carried out. Too many Christians participated in, or were sympathetic to, Nazi atrocities against Jews. Other Christians did not protest sufficiently against these atrocities. But Nazism itself was not an inevitable outcome of Christianity. If the Nazi extermination of the Jews had been fully successful, it would have turned its murderous rage more directly to Christians. We recognize with gratitude those Christians who risked or sacrificed their lives to save Jews during the Nazi regime. With that in mind, we encourage the continuation of recent efforts in Christian theology to repudiate unequivocally contempt of Judaism and the Jewish people. We applaud those Christians who reject this teaching of contempt, and we do not blame them for the sins committed by their ancestors.

The humanly irreconcilable difference between Jews and Christians will not be settled until God redeems the entire world as promised in Scripture.

Christians know and serve God through Jesus Christ and the Christian tradition. Jews know and serve God through Torah and the Jewish tradition. That difference will not be settled by one community insisting that it has interpreted Scripture more accurately than the other; nor by exercising political power over the other. Jews can respect Christians’ faithfulness to their revelation just as we expect Christians to respect our faithfulness to our revelation. Neither Jew nor Christian should be pressed into affirming the teaching of the other community.

A new relationship between Jews and Christians will not weaken Jewish practice.

An improved relationship will not accelerate the cultural and religious assimilation that Jews rightly fear. It will not change traditional Jewish forms of worship, nor increase intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews, nor persuade more Jews to convert to Christianity, nor create a false blending of Judaism and Christianity. We respect Christianity as a faith that originated within Judaism and that still has significant contacts with it. We do not see it as an extension of Judaism. Only if we cherish our own traditions can we pursue this relationship with integrity.

Jews and Christians must work together for justice and peace.

Jews and Christians, each in their own way, recognize the unredeemed state of the world as reflected in the persistence of persecution, poverty, and human degradation and misery. Although justice and peace are finally God’s, our joint efforts, together with those of other faith communities, will help bring the kingdom of God for which we hope and long. Separately and together, we must work to bring justice and peace to our world. In this enterprise, we are guided by the vision of the prophets of Israel: It shall come to pass in the end of days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established at the top of the mountains and be exalted above the hills, and the nations shall flow unto it and many peoples shall go and say, “Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and He will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths.” (Is 2:2-3)

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The phrase “Dabru Emet” comes from the verse: These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. (Zechariah 8:16) For an expanded discussion of the issues explored in the Dabru Emet, see Christianity in Jewish Terms edited by Tikva Frymer-Kensky, David Novak, Peter Ochs, David Sandmel, and Michael Signer. Westview Press, 2000. (www.westviewpress.com/christianityinjewishterms) Read options about Dabru Emet and discuss it with others at Beliefnet (www. beliefnet. com) We wish to express our appreciation to the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies for providing the educational setting in which the work of this projects has been conducted. For more information, contact Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, The Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies 1316 Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217 (410)523-7227. statement@icjs.org

Tikva Frymer-Kensky,
The Divinity School,
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

David Novak,
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada

Peter Ochs,
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA

Michael Signer,
University of Notre Dame
South Bend, IN

“These are the things that you must do: Speak the truth to one another. At your gates, administer fair judgment conducive to peace.” (Zec 8:16)