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Fall 2000 Christian-Jewish Dialogue

by Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

This year, Beth Tzedec Synagogue, Calgary and Rabbi Moshe Saks offered their warm hospitality at the Annual Fall October 10, 2000 CCCJ, Alberta Region Dialogue. The topic was: "Your Tent or Mine? How can I be true to my faith without being false to yours?" Rabbi Joseph H. Ehrenkranz was the keynote speaker. He had served Congregation Agudath Sholom, in Stamford Connecticut for 45 years - and remains Rabbi Emeritus of that congregation - before becoming the Executive Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut.

In 1992, Rabbi Ehrenkranz co-founded the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding and the Center has sponsored numerous national and international missions, seminars, colloquia, and conferences to advance the work of interreligious dialogue and reconciliation among Christians and Jews. When speaking of his dedicated work at the Center, Rabbi Ehrenkranz said: "This is the thirst of my life. There cannot be peace in this world without religious peace. There cannot be religious peace unless there is religious dialogue."

About 160 Jews and Christians were seated around tables of eight in the social hall of the large synagogue. Rabbi Ehrenkranz, opened his address by citing Genesis chapter one, verse twenty-seven, providing the audience with an illustration of how he views the Hebrew Bible. He emphasized that God created man and woman simultaneously - not woman later from Adam's rib, as in the Genesis chapter two account - in God's image.

Rashi - one of the most famous Jewish commentators - in the Midrash asked: "Why does the Torah say that God created one man?" Rabbi Ehrenkranz answered: "Because it is true." However, the Midrash declares: for the rest of humankind, for all millennia to follow, we remember that all of us come from one mother and one father. The answer is not because it is true, said Rabbi Ehrenkranz - rather, the Torah is a philosophy, not a history or science book. The midrashic insight underscores the message that we are all equal, that is why all of us have the common ancestry of one man and one woman.

Rabbi Ehrenkranz, citing a story about a man who realized that his choice suit was well worth waiting for; likened that to God creating human beings, not first, but later, not perfect, yet with the potential to be perfect, to make a better world. According to the rabbi, this is the heart and core of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The first 1,960 years of Jewish-Christian history was a bloody one. It was a history of persecution. Christians believed that when Jesus was born, God ended the covenant with the Jewish people - Christianity now superceded Judaism. In this supersessionism, Jews became a little less than human beings. On Sunday, people went to church, and from Monday through Saturday, they killed Jews during World War II. It was a difficult, hurtful history of crusades, the Inquisition, pogroms, expulsions, persecutions, reaching its culmination in the Shoah.

Ever since the second Vatican council and Nostra Aetate, Christians have renounced "the teaching of contempt" and supersessionism. The Sinai covenant with the Jewish people remains valid forever. Antisemitism and anti-Judaism are a sin against God, the Jewish people, and the church. Rabbi Ehrenkranz commended John Paul II's words spoken to eminent rabbis during a visit to the Great Synagogue in Rome, on April 13, 1986: "You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers." At one time, the Jews had been condemned in Christian teaching to be eternal wanderers for their rejection of Jesus. Now that teaching has been reversed, the present pope supports the Jewish right to a homeland and nationhood.

Rabbi Ehrenkranz related an anecdote, ascribed to Martin Buber, who told it on one occasion to a Christian audience. Buber asked them what the difference was between himself, a Jew, and the Christian audience. His answer was that Christians believe the Messiah has already come, whereas the Jewish people believe he has not come yet. When he comes, Buber suggested that the most pressing question for Jews and Christians would be whether this was the Messiah's first or second coming. However, before the Messiah revealed his answer, Buber would whisper in the Messiah's ear: "Don't answer that question." Rabbi Ehrenkranz's take of Buber's anecdote was that the point of our belief in the Messiah is not whether it is his first or second coming. Rather, that our belief in the Messiah inspires us all - Jews and Christians alike - to be better people; to make the world a better place to live in for everyone; to live in the world as equals.

If I believe in God, I'm responsible and accountable, contended Rabbi Ehrenkranz. He insisted that we have the responsibility to make this a better world - belief in God will bring out the best in us precisely because we are accountable. On Yom Kippur, the rabbi stated, God seals the fate of all people - who shall live and who shall die, and so on. No matter what God has sealed, the rabbi emphatically declared, the power is in us through repentance, prayer, reconciliation, forgiveness, etc., to cross out, to erase the fate that had been sealed for us for the year ahead.

In his encounters with Jews and Christians, Rabbi Ehrenkranz likes to ask, "What is Jewish history?" Jewish history, according to him is: the Crusades, the Inquisition, pogroms, expulsions, persecutions, and the Holocaust. If people are kind, he said, they will mention the birth of Israel as a state.

According to the rabbi, the beautiful events that have occurred in the last half-century -especially since Nostra Aetate - are a wonderful mystery and we need to celebrate it! He emphasized to his audience that Tikkun Olam, i.e., the work of mending, repairing this world is integral to the principal that there cannot be world peace without religious peace and that there cannot be religious peace unless there is religious dialogue. John Paul II has stated that it is sin for a Christian to proselytize a Jewish person. The ultimate goal, concluded Rabbi Ehrenkranz, is the same for Jews and Christians: the work of tikkun olam, peace for everyone, for all time.

Following Rabbi Ehrenkranz's address, Rabbi Moshe Saks monitored a brief question period. In response to one question, Rabbi Ehrenkranz commented that the chronicles of history have proven that both the Vatican and the United Nations have failed the Jewish people, and humankind. However, the rabbi also defended John Paul II, saying that in his estimation, the pope has truly advanced the causes of world peace and interfaith dialogue. The question period was then adjourned for a brief refreshments/fellowship break.

After the break, everyone reconvened for table dialogues. Every table of eight had an intentionally mixed number of Jews and Christians. It proved to be an excellent opportunity to share what, in each person's tradition, was most meaningful to the individual. One of the conversations at our table focused on how ancient traditions come alive and reveal new meanings through the transmission process with one's children.

The dialogue then continued with Rabbi Ehrenkranz responding to some of the comments and questions arising out of our table discussions. He said, "On Sinai, approximately 3,000 years ago, Moses transmitted a covenant to the Jewish people. Through Isaiah, Israel was given the obligation to be a light to the nations - i.e., to bring moral values to the world. For Jews, Jesus is not God's only son, however, many of his teachings are consistent with Judaism." The rabbi asserted that as a Jew, he is open to the possibility of God making other covenants with non-Jews. It is okay if other people feel close to God in other ways/covenants than that of the Jewish tradition. He went on to claim that neither dialogue partner has to agree with the other on matters of faith. It is quite all right to agree to disagree, while at the same time, communicating with the other in mutual respect. Moreover, just because we disagree with each other does not imply that one religion is true and the other false. He pointed out that even within Judaism people differ in their beliefs and practices - citing the popular adage, when two rabbis are in the same room, there are at least three opinions - without necessarily regarding some as true and others as false.

When questioned about the legacy of Pius XII during the Shoah, Rabbi Ehrenkranz was not overly critical; stating that maybe he didn't speak out as much as he could have done, because he was afraid that if he did, even more Jews and Roman Catholics may have been killed by the Nazis. He also instructed his audience not to judge in the same manner now, in the year 2000 as one would in the year 1940. The philosophy was different then, he insisted; it was one which permitted Germans to kill Jews.

The rabbi was also questioned about recent official statements composed by Jews and Christians. He told the audience that he was one of the 170 Jewish rabbis and scholars who signed the document Dabru Emet [speak the truth] on Christians and Christianity. He told the audience that he endorses the document completely, with the exception of the remark that if Hitler and the Nazis had succeeded in killing all of the Jews, they would have started killing Christians. He believes they would have killed Czechs, Poles, and other ethnic groups. He expressed accolades for the Roman Catholic document, "We Remember - a Reflection on the Shoah," and he also commended the many mainline Protestant churches for their statements, advancing the cause of Jewish-Christian relations.

Commenting on a question about interfaith marriages, he confessed that he is afraid of Jewish inter-marriage, since there still remain so few Jewish people - they have not recovered in numbers due to the pogroms and the Shoah. With the death of every Jew, Judaism's survival is in danger - if Jews live, Judaism shall live too. "I love my Judaism, and I hope it will flourish," Rabbi Ehrenkranz declared, speaking with deep conviction.

When questioned about the recent events in the Middle East, the rabbi gave a short review of the history of the Middle East since the Balfour Declaration and pointed to the homelessness of the Jewish people during and after the Shoah, when other nations, including Canada, failed to offer Jews refuge. Unless - especially after the Holocaust - the Jewish people have a strong country of their own, they are destined to doom. Historical evidence has proven, he observed, that during times of trouble, war, persecution, and oppression, not many will stand up for the Jews. Now however it is time to negotiate with a view to ending conflict and reaching a peaceful solution.

In his answer to the final question of the evening, on Jewish-Protestant relations during the last 50 years, the rabbi asked which Protestants? - considering the situation of a plethora of Protestant denominations today. He noted that the Southern Baptist Convention declared God doesn't even hear Jewish prayers. However, he also related a conversation with a leading figure of the SBC that had taught him not to take official pronouncement more serious than the actual position of leading individuals. Many Protestants have asked Jews to forgive them. The rabbi said that he had no authority to forgive on behalf of the murdered. He then reiterated his earlier remarks, commending some of the mainline Protestant Churches for their statements on Jewish-Christian relations. There is a trend today of diverse peoples of faith coming together to create a better world - that, concluded the rabbi, is even more important than statements.

The Annual Fall Dialogue came to a most pleasant closure with the Reverend Brian Pearson, Rector of St. Stephen's Anglican Church, Calgary, reading a story called "Words" from his recent book, How the Light Gets In. He then led the audience in the singing of his composition, based on Psalm 122, "Yerushalim Shalom," with accompaniment on his guitar. Rabbi Moshe Saks concluded the evening, inviting the audience to join him on a guided tour of the synagogue sanctuary.

Rory Hornstein's Grade 3A students of the Calgary Jewish Academy had built miniatur sukkahs which they dedicated as centrepieces for the tables at the Annual Fall Dialogue event of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews - Alberta Region. They were silent reminders to many participants that another generation will be affected by our attitudes and decisions.