A capacity crowd at Beyachad last night was enthralled by Rabbi David Rosen’s account of the extraordinary revolution in Jewish-Catholic relations that has taken place over the past fifty years. Rabbi Rosen, one of the world’s foremost Jewish leaders in the field of inter-faith relations, was in the country last week to participate in the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of Nostra Aetate, a landmark declaration in which the Church decisively turned its back on more than fifteen centuries of antisemitic dogma and embarked on a new era of outreach to and friendship with the Jewish people. In recent decades, he has been intrinsically involved in the ongoing building of bridges between the two faith communities, for which work he has been recognised by, inter alia, the bestowing of a Papal Knighthood from the Vatican.
Rabbi Rosen observed that even today, the Jewish world has not fully grasped the significance of the Catholic Church’s transformation in terms of how it views not only Jews and Judaism, but the State of Israel. Whereas Theodor Herzl had been told by Pope Pius X that the Vatican would never recognise a Jewish homeland until such time as Jews recognised the Christian Savior, it today had diplomatic relations with Israel and was staunchly opposed to attempts to delegitimize it.
Rabbi Rosen was introduced by SAJBD Gauteng Council Chairman Shaun Zagnoev, while Gauteng Council member David Kuming gave the thanks and closing remarks.
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