Baltimore & Eisenach
Banki, Judith Herschcopf
THE ECUMENICAL TASK: 1993 JUDITH HERSHCOPF BANKI ANTHEA DOVE BALTIMORE & EISENACH ...
...fear that an honest critique of certain Christian Reich had been neatly incised from the memory of the local beliefs will cause offense, that the Christian "obsession with government...
...one denying "the savior Jesus Christ to be the sonne of God...
...Their important by Christians and Jews alike...
...The confer- ly male...
...There are women on the theology its of pluralism in the context of "theological humility...
...Many of the participants went on their own and missed exclusion of God-language from conversations among religious part of the proceedings...
...Indeed, some of the workshops bypassed coffee and For Anne Frank meal breaks, so involved were their participants in the assigned topic...
...In an essay probing the angst (his term) about the dinner in the festive banquet hall of the Wartburg, with a large word "theology," British scholar Norman Solomon specifies contingent of local VIPs in attendance, the minister of educasome fears he believes underlie the traditionalist position...
...The death penalty for "blasphemy" was never four continents...
...For others, international work bearing on Christian-Jewish relations: two the sense of frustration was compounded by the comings and cardinals, five bishops, participants from the Vatican, France, goings of some in the Jewish delegation, a few of whom came Israel, Poland, Canada, Brazil, Germany, and, of course, the for a day, or arrived to deliver a speech, but did not stay the United States, specialists in education-including seminary train- course...
...I on "theological discussion...
...An invitation from the George Higgins sat alongside current officials in Catholic-Jewish Holy See is not taken lightly...
...it addresses, papers, and reports, one was given by a woman...
...I made a tactical error," he replied...
...Archbishop Keeler's Committee for Interreligious Relations, the World Jewish gracious welcome to the ILC meeting at Saint Mary's-the first Congress, and the Synagogue Council of America-the latter Catholic seminary established in the first Catholic diocese in itself an umbrella organization of the Orthodox, Reform, and the United States-called attention to the tradition of religious Conservative wings of American Judaism-has no enforcement pluralism in the Americas, and the importance of religious libpowers, no mandate within the United States (it was formed erty in Maryland, established for that purpose...
...I had no doubt then, Olam, "healing the world," i.e., common action toward shared that Britain was best...
...The Vatican commission responsible for Catholic-Jewish relations considers IJCIC its international counterpart for purposes of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, but clear- The Setting ly, the two convening agencies are vastly dissimilar...
...In one, Dr...
...the ILC, and the first to be held in the Western Hemisphere...
...This sick world needs the witness of both...
...The meeting had three broad foci, intended for discussion I was proud of my king and queen, of Winston Churchill and and reflection in depth: the Shoah, its meaning for Jews and the Union Jack...
...from the church...
...of the ecumenical community at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk...
...Elias not be threatening to others...
...She spent four years as a member by the Thirteenth National Workshop on Christian-Jewish Relations...
...The British Council of came together in earnest dialogue in a region rich in Jewish Christians and Jews enjoys the patronage of Her Majesty the history, but emptied of Jews...
...In Eisenach, there was no joint prayer service, but the Then off she went to Bergen morning sessions were launched by a brief reflection or meditation...
...The topic of health-care resources (Rabbi and the resurgence of racism and xenophobic violence in A. James Rudin of the AJC) and other social and ethical issues Germany cast their long shadows over this gathering and lent (Rabbi David Rosen and Dr...
...cusing on textual study and halakha rather than broad princi- A few days after the conclusion of the consultation, the ples of faith, is at a disadvantage in theological discussion...
...enthusiasm with which convictions, feelings, and ultimate val- A relevant point: the Baltimore meeting was almost entireues were exchanged, even argued, was palpable...
...A visit to nearby Buchenwald might have been ar- For one who has participated in both kinds of dialogues, the ranged...
...One Christian and one Jewish participant were asked Belsen to make batteries for on successive days to choose a text and comment on it...
...I had a map of the world on my wall which Catholics...
...fear of the imposition of a was as if Hitler had never existed, as if the horror of the Third Christian agenda...
...ties, and to the grassroots organizations whose members work But it is also important for Jews and Christians to know when in the trenches...
...A fledgling Jewish-Christian association is emerging in Christians from Erfurt-devotedly and somewhat inexplicably Russia as well...
...Hainstein," a modest residence of the German Protestant The doubts about Britain came, gradually, almost unnoticed...
...connected the valuable final statement organically to the papers and discussions that proceeded it, rather than emerging, dens ex machina, on the final day of the meeting...
...It asked that national bishops' confer1990...
...Margaret...
...All of these were our empire, the places that we had and educational institutions...
...United States, the prejudice encountered by both, their coop- Eisenach: The ICCJ consultation provided a rich contrast eration in the civil rights struggle...
...Dupuy's paper, in local communities...
...Joint prayer is one of the itchiest issues on the interreligious lifted her like newsprint agenda...
...Joseph Burg, former Israeli Minister of Religious Affairs, the hard, often frustrating work of Jewish-Christian relations a response by Prof...
...Because of the ban on "theological discussion" by the These very personal reflections must seem to have nothing Orthodox rabbinate, who make up a part of IJCIC, conference whatever to do with ecumenism...
...Pier Francesco Fumagalli and his The meeting nevertheless had a strongly positive outcome...
...How different...
...Jean Halperin, Geneva, to Fr...
...It gy was used to discredit Judaism...
...This was too much for ICCJ President Martin Stoehr, Jesus" will lead to futile and repetitive disputes and divert peo- himself a German, who rose to remind everyone what had happle from constructive work...
...THE ECUMENICAL TASK: 1993 JUDITH HERSHCOPF BANKI ANTHEA DOVE BALTIMORE & EISENACH WHITBY & KLEVE n the spring and summer of 1992, two important inter- IN hen I was very young I attended a Church national Jewish-Christian conferences took place on two of England primary school...
...indeed establish religious toleration for Catholics, was not a The two convening bodies may affirm a counterpart relation- brief for religious liberty as we understand that term today...
...Once inside the church (ILC), consisting of the Holy See's Commission for Religious we filed down into the crypt and there we took our places, sitRelations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee ting on the stone floor...
...at Eisenach, ICCJ representatives were Orthodox, and Jews came together for three days of intensive selected by their respective Christian-Jewish associations on discussion...
...The their war...
...What would we do without them...
...The Dutch Council of Jews and Christians, by could feel they met on friendly ground, on a playing field made contrast, is an agency of the churches and synagogues, supported even by the U. S. Constitution...
...and what both groups called Tikkun conquered, the people that belonged to us...
...church in Eisenach, in the formerly East German state of They were a part of natural maturing, of rationalization, and (Continued on page 14) (Continued on page 12) JUDITH HERSHCOPF BANKI, former interreligious affairs director of ANTHEA DOVE, a grandmother of five and a retired teacher, is now the American Jewish Committee, is a writer and consultant...
...She felt so little comfort level within this group is high...
...The more disciplined Catholic delegation arrived toing-religious thought, ecumenism, and social action...
...tion for the state of Thuringia reviewed the history of the area, These include: "past centuries of Christian conversionism, dis- its beauty, its rich culture, its hopes for economic growth and putation, and general browbeating" in which Christian theolo- increased tourism, skipping over entirely the years 1933-45...
...In a significant gesture to- in style, not in positive outcome...
...Evaluation Her last day she couldn't get it out of her head how their death How evaluate these very different consultations...
...Cardinal Cassidy's opening statement marked, with ap- ences and Jewish communities devote one occasion each year propriate solemnity and regret, the 500th anniversary of the ex- to the dialogue...
...The quality of engagement in the quest was reB.A...
...At Eisenach, about of humanity, the world and God, a specific set of common half the participants were women...
...Half of the resource persons values, and a rich common literature...
...There was, however, a boundless openness-even enthusiasm-in probing the questions, in letting the chips fall as they might, in eschewing artificial limitations on expression or language...
...Both groups establishments...
...A few of the Jewish participants gave the impression that they would 16: 15 January 1993 Commonweal have preferred the results without the process, that the Jewish- the war is over, to distinguish present or potential friends from Christian dialogue was a necessary, but vaguely uncomfort- former enemies, and to find ways to trust one another...
...Ruth Weyl, a German-born ICCJ staff member, Jewish sources, in effect, "stealing our traditions and denying asked this government official how he could have made such them to us...
...One ground rule is essential: that Mallon, to dig up such information on his own initiative...
...Anne felt the fleas so badly she refused to wear those prison issue clothes...
...There are some alogue pioneers such as Rev...
...These are the education about Jews and Judaism (Rev...
...Geoffrey Wigoder of Israel) were a sense of urgency to the dialogue...
...Presentations by Rabbi ward Jewish sensibilities, he suggested that Vatican archives Norman Solomon (England), ICCJ President Martin Stoehr for the World War II period be opened to serious scholars on (Germany), Rabbi David Rosen (Israel), and Dr...
...Edward Flannery and Mgsr...
...Last No- working with a resource center for the disadvantaged in her homevembershe was honoredforhercontributions to interreligious dialogue town of Whitby, North Yorkshire...
...Fumagalli-two of the five perShe recalled how odd it was sons at both Baltimore and Eisenach-could not be torn away hop-scotching right into that from their French-speaking workshop, whose members insistSoldier's arms and how he ed on putting in extra hours, early morning and late evening...
...The ICCJ is also an "umbrella" organization of national Jewish- Never mind, it was a clause more honored in the breach than Christian dialogue organizations in twenty-four countries and in the observance...
...Some of the delegates expressed Baltimore: The Catholic delegation included an impressive array frustration, commenting that they had hoped for a sustained sharof hierarchs, scholars, and leaders in the church's national and ing process rather than an exchange of positions...
...At a concluding in process...
...More information about the local persons sets artificial boundaries and has a dampening effect Jewish community wiped out by the Nazis should have been on the dialogue...
...Some eighty Catholics, Protestants, Christian of them were clergy...
...education, with particular reference to the way showed a considerable proportion of the countries colored in Catholics and Jews teach about one another in their textbooks bright red...
...making sure she drank Elliott Wright reflected on what it meant to him, an American coffee from the common pot Protestant, to stand within the shadow of Luther's work and physical presence...
...Further, the size and solidity both of Saint official status within their national settings...
...these workshops proRev...
...Ar,drev,s markable...
...of Jesus, it was noted, is not necessarily helpful in the search Yet those who fear that theological dialogue might lead to for a common religious basis...
...Paper followed paper...
...Whether it is possible to impose this artificial con- can come to share in the truth, then I have to start by trying to dition on serious discussions between Roman Catholic and Jewish work it out for myself, by tracing the influences which have religious thinkers is another question, considered later...
...Remi Hoeckman, O.P...
...people who study the Bible together, who give the courses, who The Jewish delegation's contribution included an address by fight hatred in the streets as well as in the classrooms, who do Dr...
...come a bitter legacy of hatred...
...Dupuy and Msgr...
...D Commonweal 15 January 1993: 17...
...also addressed...
...It was during continents: one in the United States, the other in Europe...
...Of the twenty tering into dialogue, the asymmetry of the relationship...
...that traditional Jewish teaching and training, fo- a speech to such a group...
...There searched for a common religious basis rooted in a shared view were no women on the steering committee...
...all Jewish-Christian activities in the Netherlands are Eisenach: Eisenach is another story...
...Our teachMr...
...A panel of four German tries...
...The draft final statement was also gation included three women...
...One was Catholic-Jewish, the other more broad- orderly procession across the country lane that divided the school ly Christian-Jewish...
...The steering committee agreed to dress reviewed the history of Catholic-Jewish relations in the meet henceforth at least twice a year...
...The Jewishness There was not even a unanimous answer to the central question of whether a "common religious basis" for cooperation was necessary...
...He noted with solely for the purpose of facilitating dialogue with international pride that the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 was the first in Christian bodies), and no budget of its own for substantive pro- the Americas to establish any form of official religious toleragrams (although its constituent organizations may carry on vig- tion...
...For the assembled it down) where one small coffin representatives to know one another on a human, collegial basis, was being lowered into the oven is helpful...
...Diarmuid Martin), and Catholic basis for discussion, and laid them on the line...
...To share one's deepest faith commitments need provided...
...Simon Schoon a case-by-case basis...
...Wartburg, where Luther translated the New Testament into Moreover, there are now functioning-if weak and vulnera- German while hiding out after excommunication...
...pursuing Christian-Jewish rapprochement with the lone Jewish Clearly, a major distinction between the two organizations leader in the area open to such an effort-reported with emis that the ICCJ is largely grassroots-with interest groups of barrassment that the events of Kristallnacht were publicly wel14: 15 January 1993 Commonweal corned and approved by the Roman Catholic bishop of Thuringia maining problems (Judith Banki of the AJC and Rabbi Leon at the time...
...It should be noted that the much-heralded act, which did orous programs under their respective institutional banners...
...resentative status...
...Most were clergy, mon religious basis" with particular reference to the contem- but a number were laypersons...
...It took an American Catholic priest, Rev...
...the same central role in many Christian churches...
...led me to where I am now...
...Viewing the assembly, the dean more daring, plumbing traditional attitudes of Christians and of a Jewish theological seminary remarked, "I haven't seen such Jews toward one another, their respective rationales for en- a male-dominated conference in many years...
...The Jewishness of Jesus and the Jewish Elements of Commonweal 15 January 1993: 15 the New Testament" as a common religious basis, etc...
...The conference site is a fifteenQueen and the leading prelates of Great Britain and Scotland, minute walk from the towering and somewhat kitschy restored including the archbishop of Canterbury, as its presidents...
...Willful forgetting and willful scapegoating, the perennial These are not frivolous concerns, and there is an ample his- plague of hatred, these are the challenges to Baltimore and tory of Christian abuse of the Jewish-Christian encounter to bully, Eisenach, to the highest leadership of our religious communiharass, and cruelly punish Jews for their faithfulness to Judaism...
...It is a fifteenble-Jewish-Christian associations in Poland, Hungary, and the minute ride from the city of Erfurt, once the site of a substanformer Czechoslovakia...
...From May 4 to 7, some sixty official representatives and I do not remember being at all frightened, only delighted at invitees of the International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee the break in lessons, the change in routine...
...At the Baltimore meeting, there were separate Catholic from the attic floor in and Jewish morning services, and a brief, traditional service the oddest kind of dance marking Yom ha-Zikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, honoring those depositing her in the cattle who have fallen defending the country, to which Christians were car without a backward elance...
...the Second World War, and whenever the One was a Vatican-Jewish meeting, the other a con- siren wailed, warning of an impending air sultation of the International Council of Christians and raid, our teacher would calmly lead us in Jews (ICCJ...
...was intensely argued, edited, reworked, and finally accepted Additional papers on the Catholic side reported developments as a basis for study and further development...
...In the second, Marion Kunstenaar, a leader of liberal Judaism a bloodroot flower, her sister in the Netherlands, expounded on the Torah portion of the week...
...Bernard Dupuy of Paris offered a searching reflection vided the occasion for intense, sometimes passionate, exon the Shoah, a subject on which the Holy See's commission changes...
...The Catholic delegation included one woman, a Sister ence theme was organically connected to the papers, of Zion...
...Covenant was to show him as a faithful Jew, rooted in Jewish values, such judged a dubious common religious basis, because it is central correction does not make him a unifying force...
...Israel Guttman of Israel), the rise On the basis of their titles alone, most of the workshops would of anti-Semitism and xenophobia in Western Europe (Mr...
...If the Baltimore meeting results in more frequent cooperation and train had rolled slowly through consultation between the Holy See and Jewish organizations, a town (she had tried to write it will have accomplished a positive good...
...Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress er was the most fervent of patriots, and all our songs extolled and current chair of IJCIC, it was the fourteenth meeting of our country, with God sometimes thrown in for good measure...
...Thus, the participants at Baltimore were selected, rather than elected, and almost all Thuringia...
...There are a few individuals with porary European context, and was unabashedly free of restraints professional interreligious portfolios who cover both arenas...
...The synagogue was destroyed, the Jews beathave some measure of official status within their own coun- en and shipped off to Buchenwald...
...But his religious debt to Luther was temtrying to tease her into not pered by the realization that for Catholics, Luther brought schism thinking what it miz-ht have held helore...
...temporary Jewish Theology, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991...
...Hosted by Baltimore's Archbishop church above only in theory, but we were safe enough unless William H. Keeler at Saint Mary's Seminary and University, the enemy scored a direct hit on the church, something that never cochaired by Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy of the Holy See and happened...
...But it seems to me that if I ground rules excluded explicit theological language from the am to make any headway in the understanding of how people proceedings...
...It was a formidable The ILC's concluding statement called for cooperation to team...
...these were welcomed under the ICCJ tial Jewish community...
...On Kristallnacht, in 1938, that community umbrella at the organization's meeting in Prague, 1990...
...The Amitie Judeo- Mary's and Congregation Chizuk Amuno, where Rabbi Joel Chretienne de France, for example, is a voluntary effort with Zaiman hosted the final dinner, punctuated the message that no official links with or funding from the church or synagogue Catholics and Jews had flourished in Baltimore...
...able procedure, of instrumental value in achieving certain ends, but not as a process of mutual enlightenment, and certainly not to be enjoyed for its own sake...
...advantages to hierarchical structures...
...the International Herald Tribune reported that three severed pigs fear of "not being able to do justice to the Torah itself" (see heads were deposited outside the restored synagogue in Erfurt, "The 'Soloveitchik Line' on Dialogue," in Problems in Con- wrapped in a paper demanding that the Jews must die...
...They tried to adhere to such guidelines in Baltimore, and the Instances both of that legacy and of its denial punctuated our meeting was productive in outcome, but somewhat hamstrung final day in the stark landscape of Thuringia...
...In addition to pledirected outward toward the larger world, where global chal- nary lectures, six ongoing workshops explored different aspects lenges cried out for Catholic-Jewish collaboration...
...The Program substantive questions of great importance were raised with little opportunity to pursue them...
...American counterpart, Dr...
...While it is important to correct syncretism would be surprised to learn that there was no glib the depiction of Jesus as hostile to his Jewish background, and resolution of differences, no easy answers...
...Jews do not have a hierarchy and IJCIC, an umbrella organization con- Baltimore: Despite a sobering, preconference visit of some delsisting of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the B'nai egates to the U.S...
...fell to typhoid...
...by both...
...I emerged from my primary school a true-blue English girl...
...Here, Jews and Christians funneled through the council, OJEC...
...They were not at the paper was felt to need more work was not surprising...
...of Jewish and Christian religious thought...
...But more time for the flow of human interaction, of earth like a domed loaf' ol...
...The Ethics Henry Sobel of Sao Paolo...
...We spent those hours in the crypt singing...
...The distinctive legacies of Luther's castle, the Shoah, Klenicki of the ADL...
...The Jewish delediscussions, and workshops...
...When, frail as and conflict, and for Jews, a legacy of hatred and persecution...
...As befits a structure that works from the top pulsion of the Jews from Spain and the 50th anniversary of the down, these recommendations came out of a steering commitWannsee Conference, at which the mass murder of the Jewish tee, headed by the two cochairs, that met separately from the people was planned...
...counteract new manifestations of anti-Semitism and racism Moreover, major Catholic presentations carried forward the of any kind" and to "fight sexual and economic exploitation of positive momentum established at the last ILC meeting in Prague, women and children...
...presence more accurately reflected the real world in which Can Christians and Jews come together in a dialogue that Christians and Jews, men and women, strive together to overself-consciously restricts the language of religious expression...
...Christians and and fundamental to Jewish self-understanding but does not play Jews still look at him from different sides of the abyss of faith...
...Commonweal 15 January 1993: 11 BALTIMORE & EISENACH Christians and Jews carrying on programs of education, dialogue, or action in local communities-whereas the ILC is hi(Continued from page 11) erarchical, working from the top down...
...Like peace, ecumenism has to begin From July 12 to 16, an interreligious consultation of the with me and I see a clear parallel between my nationalism and International Council of Christians and Jews took place in "Haus my religious development...
...With all this talent squeezed into a heavily-packed program, there was almost no time for discussion...
...Jean have been considered off-limits at Baltimore: "Covenant as a Kahn of Paris), a more optimistic view of Latin America (Rabbi Category to Determine a Common Religious Basis...
...There were about a hundred of us squashed on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), came together in together round the ancient boiler...
...relations such as Msgr...
...that Christians will appropriate pened there...
...Jerzy Turowicz and Bishop Stanislaw Gadecki), ture that works from the grassroots up, ICCJ participants took addressed joint social action challenges (Msgr...
...George Higgins), their respective religious commitments very seriously as the environmental issues (Msgr...
...Without anxiety about energy after that but tried hearing another's spiritual reflections, these moments were edto keep her light bright for ifying and trod on no one's religious sensibilities...
...and reports on Poland (Prof...
...was fortunate enough to be one of five persons who attended Both conferences could lay claim to some "official" or rep- both meetings...
...But the main thrust of his remarks was (Netherlands) probed the conference theme...
...Early di- gether, prayed together, and stayed together...
...goals...
...it ship, but in respective clout they are something like the fabled specified the death penalty and confiscation of property for anyelephant and rabbit stew: one elephant, one rabbit...
...invited...
...This contraption heated the Baltimore, Maryland...
...Papers traced the "teaching of con- of the Torah and the 'Lex Christi'...as a Common Religious tempt" in Catholic education, substantial progress and re- Basis...
...A draft statement by the ICCJ's Theology Committee will develop a statement addressed to the entire Catholic church...
...Eugene Fisher...
...As befits a strucin Poland (Mr...
...How were they alike...
...This meeting focused on the search for a "com- the basis of some expertise in the subject...
...and it gauged the lim- and reporters were women...
...Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, B'rith/Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Israel Jewish D.C., Baltimore's ambience was upbeat...
...Its member groups enjoy varying degrees of put into practice...
...for reflection and feedback, even for argument, would have She supposed, leavened bread...
...dialogue should not be abused for purposes of prosyletism or Nevertheless, the spirit of the meeting was powerful, and the religious one-upmanship...
...That committee and on the executive committee...
...what Eisenach to press a specific feminist agenda, but to bring their was surprising was that it was ventured at all, and felt to be own perspectives and opinions to bear on all the issues...
...Conclusion The Eisenach consultation could have been better programmed...
...Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's keynote ad- conference proceedings...
...They was decimated...
Vol. 120 • January 1993 • No. 1
