Friday, August 19, 2011

What does Karol Wojtyla’s Beatification mean to Jews?

It would be difficult to find a Jewish person who does not feel Karol Wojtyla to have been a very special, in fact, an extraordinary, human being.
 
Asked to comment on Pope Wojtyla’s beatification, Rabbi David Rosen, Director of International Interreligious Relations for the American Jewish Committee, said, “While beatification is a Catholic procedure with its own internal character, it is universally perceived as a moral statement about the person concerned and his/her record.   

Among Blessed John Paul II’s most notable and public demonstrations, were his unique and historic contributions to Catholic/Jewish reconciliation.  It was in this light that world Jewry overwhelmingly celebrated his beatification.” 
 
John Paul II’s historic visit to Rome’s Main Synagogue and lifelong friendship with Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff, his calling a Summit of world religious leaders to pray for peace in Assisi, his unconventional personal intervention in the Auschwitz Carmelite Convent dispute, his decision to open diplomatic relations with Israel, his pilgrimage to the Jewish State and his poignant, unforgettable act of penance in slipping a prayer into the Western Wall requesting forgiveness for the harm done by the “sons and daughters of the Church”  to “the children of Abraham”,  his countless visits to Jewish communities during his travels – are but a small part of the long list of John Paul II’s deeds aimed at communicating his – and the Catholic Church’s -  commitment to reconciliation and a new relationship between Catholics and Jews and all other religions.

“Vatican Insider” contacted many Jewish friends in different walks of life to hear their spontaneous  reactions to John Paul II’s recent beatification.
                                                                                                               
David Gerbi, an Italian Jewish Jungian psychologist of Libyan origin, said that while for him there was no religious significance to beatification – just as there was none for him in Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca – he felt the Jewish world was deeply moved by John Paul II’s many conciliatory gestures, “especially his friendship with Rome’s former Chief Rabbi, Elio Toaff, who is one of only three people remembered by John Paul II in his Testament.” 
 
Ariel Dumont, a French journalist living in Rome confirms that beatification has no personal meaning for her as a Jew, but that perhaps the ceremony also served to distract people’s attention from current problems and scandals plaguing the Catholic Church. She too praises John Paul II as having been “highly charismatic, a master of communication.” She finds his papacy to have been “of great political importance. I remember his eyes,” she recalls,  “his expression when I saw him during World Youth Day – so warm and engaging.”
 
The Viennese born rabbi, Arthur Schneier, who received John Paul II in his synagogue in New York in 2008, also stresses the political aspects of the Wojtyla papacy, recalling joint efforts of Schneier’s Appeal of Conscience Foundation and the Vatican in working for religious freedom  in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. “John Paul II was very sensitive to the Shoah and Jewish suffering, and he made major contributions to Catholic-Jewish relations by recognizing Israel, reconfirming the ‘Nostra Aetate’ guidelines. and in condemning anti-Semitism as a Sin against God and Man.”  
 
Daria Nahum, who directs the Jewish bookshop near the Rome Synagogue recalls her attendance along with a substantial number of Jewish friends at the commemoration of John Paul II’s beatification in the Rome Auditorium, where Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni spoke in honor of the Pope’s memory.  “Apart from his beatification, about which I have no feelings, I certainly think of John Paul II as a distinguished, unforgettable, exceptional human being” she said. As an afterthought she added, “Perhaps, if I were a Catholic, I would be disturbed by the cover-ups of pedophile scandals throughout all past papacies….”
 
Prof. Giacomo Saban, an émigré from Istanbul who served as President of the Rome Jewish Community during John Paul II’s historic visit to the Synagogue in 1986, said “the simple fact – the image -  of his visit, of his embrace with Chief Rabbi Toaff, shattered the age-old stereotype of Jews being ‘cursed’ and ‘untouchable’. John Paul II had enormous charisma.  I remember the young people in the Synagogue being won over by his smile and way of talking. He was very sincere about his wish to improve relations between Catholics and Jews.”
 
Despite the lack of meaning to most Jews of Wojtyla’s beatification, their desire to express appreciation and esteem drew some significant attendance at the ceremony in St. Peter’s Square last May 1. Notably, the State of Israel sent an official delegation accompanied by Israel’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy and led by Minister Yossi Peled, a Holocaust survivor saved by a Belgian Catholic family. The delegation also included Ambassador Bahig Mansour, Director of Israel’s Department of Interreligious Affairs.

Minister Peled declared that as a survivor, he found John Paul II’s beatification “particularly important”. 
 
“This man”, he said, “born in a period of publicly approved anti-Semitism, stood up and challenged those who wanted to subjugate the spirit of the human race…the image of his encounter with his childhood friends in Poland and his slipping a prayer into the Western Wall are still fresh in my mind. His decision to initiate diplomatic relations with Israel among many other things, made possible the start of a new relationship between Christians and Jews.  Probably no other man is more fitting to represent the true spirit of Christianity” he concluded.   
 
Others who attended the May 1 event were Prof. Marco Morselli co-president of the Rome Jewish Christian Friendship Association, in representation of Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni; myself as AJC’s Liaison to the Holy See and in representation of Rabbi David Rosen, AJC’s Director of International Interreligious Affairs; and the renowned conductor, Sir Gilbert Levine, who was a personal friend of John Paul II.
 
“His Holiness John Paul II was the most inspiring, the most generous patron any artist could imagine” said Sir Gilbert.  “I was privileged to create and conduct numerous concerts with his direct creative and spiritual impetus and support, at the Vatican and in great cities around the world, for more than 17 years. Intended as concerts to bring together the world’s diverse religions in peace and harmony, the most historic were his Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah of 1994 and the Papal Concert of Reconciliation of 2004.”
 
Pope Wojtyla and he, Sir Gilbert Levine recalls, “prayed together, conversed together, smiled together, with him teaching me more about the world than I could ever hope to learn, deepening my Jewish faith all the while.  A relationship that ennobles my art immeasurably to this day.” The story of this rather unique friendship can be read in the conductor’s autobiographic book, “The Pope’s Maestro.” 

John Paul II had other close Jewish friends, such as his childhood classmate, Jerzy Kluger, who lives in Rome and regularly came to visit him.
 
As today’s Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni recalls, there was “a special feeling”, between the Pope and Rome’s former Chief Rabbi, Elio Toaff, who welcomed him to the Synagogue in  1986. Toaff  who turned 96 on the day of Karol Wojtyla’s beatification, contributed words of praise in the May 3 issue of “L’Osservatore Romano.”
 
“The memory of Karol Wojtyla will remain indelible in the collective memory of the Jewish People, with his call for brotherhood and for a spirit of tolerance foreign to all violence…the heritage of John Paul II endures as one of the few spiritual islands guaranteeing the survival and spiritual progress of mankind.” 
 
In the same issue there was another tribute by Rabbi Di Segni . Beginning by stating that “a Jewish View must necessarily distinguish between the human values demonstrated by this Pope and any theological considerations that might still separate us”, hd sai “John Paul II brought about a revolution, breaking down the thousand year old wall of diffidence against the Jewish world.  He conveyed a great sentiment of sympathy.  

His visit to the Synagogue of Rome, to Israel, his initiating diplomatic relations with the Jewish State, were fundamental steps. Obviously,  the process of beatification is totally extraneous to the Jewish mentality, but we must conceive this great day in Rome in honor of John Paul II as an important manifestation of religious sentiment--“ He later added , “This Pope was able to break the ice and today we all realize that his gesture has changed the atmosphere of our relations forever.”
 
Rabbi James Rudin, AJC’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, commented on the beatification in an article for Religious News Service with the paradoxical title, “John Paul II, the Jewish Saint”.
 
“When the Vatican beatifies someone and places the person just one step away from sainthood, it usually attracts scant attention among Jews because it is correctly perceived as an internal church process” wites Rabbi Rudin.  

 “But the recent beatification – and likely canonization – of the late Pope John Paul II is different.  The Jewish community remembers the Polish-born Karol Wojtyla as the best Pope the Jews ever had. As he moves along the path to sainthood, Jews are among those cheering him on” .

“The tragedy of the Holocaust and a warm personal relationship with Jews were both etched into the Pope’s head and heart” Rudin continues.   

“During the 27 – year pontificate John Paul’s positive actions earned him an honoured place in Jewish  history.”