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Jewish Christian Relations

 Reassessment of Jewish Christian Dialogue (Fribourg 26-28 July 2008)

The combined International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) and Fribourg University Conference, held from 26-28th July 2008, on the "Reassessment of Jewish Christian Dialogue" was very constructive and stimulating. There were sixty scholars and theologians from Europe and America and only one Australian. Thirty were invited members of the ICCJ.

The question of the land and Israel is the most difficult, and where there is much controversy. That Israel has the right to exist will be argued from International law, and not from a religious point of view. The reality is that even now some parts of Christianity have denied the Jews a homeland theologically. The linking of politics and religion is a thorny one, but the problem must be acknowledged, at least...

The Berlin ICCJ conference, to be held from 5-8 July 2009, is where the document (to be known as the Berlin Theses) will be presented to the world (60 years after the 10 Points of Seelesberg) as a book in German and English.

Marianne & Dick Pruikama at Jewish Christian Conference in Fribourg

The introduction and tone of the document will be designed to speak also to the non religious world. It will aim to show that inter religious dialogue is relevant for all humankind and will speak also of human responsibility for social justice and care for the earth.

After a meeting in Oxford in 1946, there was the 1947 meeting in Seelesberg, where 10 points of dialogue were formulated. They explained that the first meeting at Fribourg University from 21-24th July 1948, brought together 130 participants from 17 countries. The idea was to form an umbrella organisation for Jewish Christian relations, and so the ICCJ was formed. This second meeting at Fribourg University, in 2008, was specifically to bring Jewish/Christian dialogue to a higher level.

The Berlin Thesis differs from the Seelesberg document because of the fact that both Jews and Christians have worked together on this document. The Seelesberg document was prepared by a group of Christians before the formation of the State of Israel.

The three daily keynote speeches were presented first by Bishop Richard J Sklba (Milwaukee), (Chair of the United States Conference of the Catholic Bishops' Committee on Ecumencial and Interreligious Affairs), who spoke on: 'An immense Patrimony. Catholic Reflections on the Prospective Berlin Theses (2009).' Sklba drew 3 parallels between Christians and Jews of the first century and today:

  • The tragedy of the destruction of the Temple led to the councils of separation. The tragedy of the Shoah led to Councils of friendship.
  • Dialogues carried a moral weight.
  • Most J/C dialogues in the first century were monitored by the fact 'we do not know everything', which could be a model for today.

Pressing issues today:

  • Cultivation of memory.
  • Need for both communities to keep working at essential partnering skills at communication.
  • Confidence to set out new directions in dialogue.

The second speaker was Rabbi Dr Marc Saperstein (London), Principal of Leo Baeck College on 'Burning Issues in Jewish Christian Dialogue', who spoke as an historian. He said to be careful of metaphors that can be used to avoid facing the real issues. 2. There should be dialogue without preconditions. 3. He entitled the third point: False witness against one's neighbour. This refers to the tendency to emphasize the least appealing aspects in the tradition of the 'other' as contrasted to the most appealing aspects of one's own tradition.

The third key note speaker was Dr Debbie Weissman, the current ICCJ President. She spoke on 'The Long and Bumpy Road: Towards a Jewish Theology of dialogue.' She quoted a few well known and beloved Jewish texts to support her thesis that the challenge of pluralism is one of the three major issues facing the world-- the environment and socio-economic justice being the other two.

Prof Othmar Keel (Fribourg) ran a workshop on vertical ecumenism. He began by saying that the Greek expression oikoumene meaning to live and stands for oikoumene ge, the inhabited earth. In its original meaning, the term was only applied to those parts of the earth inhabited by Greeks. Areas in which only non-Greeks or Barbarians lived were not considered in any real sense to be inhabited or inhabitable. (Demosthenes 7,35). So much for what the Greeks thought of 'the other'!

For more information go to the ICCj website bulletin 10