wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Jewish-Christian dialogue: a demanding miracle

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World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 22/06/2005

   JEWISH-CHRISTIAN DIALOGUE:  A DEMANDING MIRACLE
   By Juan Michel (*)

						     Free photos available, see below

Given the history of their relationships, interreligious dialogue between
Christians and Jews may be seen as a "miracle", but it's also a complex
and demanding endeavour.  In the following article, three practitioners of
interreligious dialogue - two Jewish and one Christian - who participated
at a major interreligious conference hosted by the World Council of
Churches (WCC) early June in Geneva share their views on what it takes to
advance a dialogue often complicated by political issues.

Interreligious dialogue veteran Rabbi James Rudin, a longtime member of
the American Jewish Committee, used to say that after centuries of painful
relationships between the faithful of the two religions, experiences of
dialogue between Christians and Jews amounted to a "miracle of the 20th
century".

Rev. Dr Hans Ucko, responsible for Jewish-Christian relations at the WCC,
recalls Rudin's assessment when asked about a dialogue that started in the
wake of the Holocaust.	According to Ucko, the last fifty years have seen
a "conversion" in the relationship between Jews and Christians.  "The
age-old theological teaching of contempt of Judaism has been challenged,"
he says, "and churches have taken a clear stand against anti-Semitism".

As an example, he quotes the declaration of the WCC founding assembly,
held in Amsterdam in 1948, which stated that anti-Semitism is "absolutely
irreconcilable" with Christian faith, and defined it as a "sin against God
and man".  "To the Jews, our God has bound us in a special solidarity,
linking our destinies together in his design," the declaration affirmed.

This and similar statements from different Christian confessions represented "a shift of paradigm in comparison with the previous nineteen centuries", says Dr Yehuda Stolov, executive director of the Jerusalem-based
Interfaith Encounter Association.

Rabbi Naamah Kelman, dean of the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and
board member of Rabbis for Human Rights, agrees: "The very fact that
Christians are willing to talk to us and that, today, we can see each
other as sister religions, is rather striking," she says.

Although the mere existence of dialogue is an achievement in itself,
obstacles remain.

According to Stolov, the most important is that those involved in the
dialogue are a tiny minority.  He would also like to see practitioners
adopting an attitude that allows for more openness.  Understandable when
it started, the dialogue remains cautious and too polite for his taste.
"There are issues that we don't touch, like conversion, and we should," he
says.

Ucko thinks that the dialogue, invaluable as it is, needs some new
insights.  "In many ways, we are at a turning point," he says.	The
dialogue needs to be recapitulated and broadened if its achievements are
to be fruitful.

> When politics gets into the picture

For Kelman, in the volatile Middle East situation, politics is what most
complicates dialogue.  In that context, the main hindrance is the
difficulty of seeing the diversity of the other when that other is an
adversary.  As a result, the extremists on both sides are used to applying
labels.  "When Zionism is equaled to Nazism, that sets us back," she says.
 "I agree that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is evil,
but we are not Nazis."

Ucko sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a "particularly troublesome
feature" for the Jewish-Christian dialogue.  For some time, he says,
"those involved in dialogue somehow dodged the conflict, while those
dealing with the conflict rather seemed to ignore the findings and fruits
of the dialogue, and focused on a perspective that privileged solidarity
with the Palestinian people".

>From that perspective, certain policies of the State of Israel - in
particular the occupation of Palestinian territories - have motivated
criticisms from churches and Christian organizations.  Are those criticisms an obstacle to the Jewish-Christian dialogue?	Kelman and Stolov think
that, in their current form, they are.

As an example, Kelman mentions the WCC central committee decision of last
February inviting its member churches with investment funds to consider
not participating economically in activities related to the occupation as
a way to put pressure on multinational corporations benefiting from it.
"Even if I don't disagree with some of the rationale of the decision, I
have a serious issue with its terrible timing," she says.

Stolov considers that WCC decision "extremely unfortunate and unbalanced".
 "By accepting fully the position of one of the parties," he says, "you
become completely irrelevant as a promoter of peace, since the other side
is automatically alienated".

Does this mean that Christian churches and organizations should avoid any
criticism of Israeli policies for the sake of the Jewish-Christian
dialogue?

No, Kelman and Stolov say.  The point is not to avoid criticism, but to be
careful with the language used, to acknowledge the diversity and be
sensitive to the human suffering on both of the sides in conflict.  "We
would like Christian organizations to refresh their condemnations of
anti-Semitism, and to affirm the right of Israel to exist, although not
its right to the occupation," Kelman says.

"Although the condemnation of anti-Semitism and the affirmation of the
right of Israel to exist in security and peace are already there in many
of our official statements," Ucko says, "anti-Semitism is still a danger
that requires a clear Christian stance."

And, he adds, we need to understand that "what we are heard to say may be
as important as what we are actually saying".  As a consequence, the
concern for peace and justice needs to be expressed within a framework of
sensitivity for the psychological trauma that Jewish people still carry
after centuries of suffering at the hands of Christians amongst others.

> Keep trying for a richer world

What is the way forward for Jewish-Christian dialogue in the light of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

For Stolov, in that context the dialogue itself is the action that needs
to take place.	He sees it as one of the most powerful tools for ordinary
citizens to shape the society they live in.  "By engaging in face-to-face
dialogue," he says, "people are enabled to develop inter-communal
relations and to live together".  Outside agents such as the WCC and the
churches could help by encouraging both sides to engage in such a
dialogue.

According to Kelman, the dialogue - which in that context must include
Muslims too - would also benefit from involving people from other
contexts.  "Not to deny the Palestinian suffering, but to make the
conversation bigger."  In addition to that, she sees protecting Christian
worship and rights in Israel as a Jewish responsibility.  "We have to make
sure that Christianity has a place there," she says.

For Ucko, the WCC and the churches face the challenge of "holding together
the commitment to justice for Palestinians and to security for Israelis so
that these two goals don't jeopardize or deny each other".  Only in this
way can they contribute to realizing the hope for peace for both peoples.

Also, he points out that "what dialogue has achieved is not automatically
communicated or implemented".  It requires sustained follow-up efforts.
Face-to-face relationships are important here, as well as symbolic actions
and language that gives account of the spirituality involved in the
dialogue.

Although difficult and demanding, for Kelman interreligious dialogue
"makes the world far richer than it would be without it".  "My tradition
teaches that we cannot finish the task," she says, "but we must not excuse
ourselves from it".  [1216 words]

(*) Juan Michel, WCC media relations officer, is a member of the Evangelical Church of the River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Free high resolution photos of the three persons quoted in this article
are available at:
http://www.oikoumene.org/Photos.947+B6Jkw9MA__.0.html

This feature is part of a series highlighting issues and experience of
interreligious dialogue, and is published by the WCC in the context of the
conference on a "Critical moment in interreligious dialogue" hosted by the
WCC, 7-9 June 2005, in Geneva.

Further information, news and documents related to the conference are
available on the conference website:
http://www.oikoumene.org/interreligious.html

Additional information:

- WCC and peace in Palestine/Israel
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/regconcerns-palestine-israel.html

- WCC and interreligious dialogue
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/index-e.html

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect WCC policy.
This material may be reprinted freely, providing credit is given to the
author.

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
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which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.