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This book, to draw upon an ancient Greek form, is a kind of enchiridion, a handbook or set of maxims for theologians, preachers, and educators in one Christian community, the Catholic Church, about how to continue deepening the rapprochement with Jews. There are several reasons for this Catholic focus. Not only is its author Catholic, and so most familiar with the pertinent developments in his own community, but over the past decades Catholic teaching authorities have issued hundreds of texts that have in a steady and mutually reinforcing fashion—and with the aid of many Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant scholars—incrementally formed a multifaceted theological superstructure concerning the Catholic relationship to Jews and Judaism.

This book provides an introductory guide to key themes articulated in conciliar, papal, and curial statements of the Catholic Church as part of its ongoing dialogue and friendship with the Jewish people. Themes include the significance of Jesus's identity as a faithful Jew; the Church's permanent link with the mystery of Israel; the continuing validity of the “unrevoked” Jewish covenant; Scripture as a source of both unity and division between Christians and Jews; appreciation of Judaism as a living tradition; the problem of supersessionism and anti-Jewish prejudice in biblical interpretation; Antisemitism; Mission; the significance of the Land.

Un'originale ricostruzione dell'atteggiamento del Vaticano nei confronti del nazismo negli anni drammatici del secondo conflitto mondiale e una riflessione sul ruolo e sulle responsabilità di Pio XII. «Il problema dei'silenzi'non è solo una questione del mondo ebraico, ma riguarda tutti, anche i cattolici».Pio XII è una figura controversa. Da un lato protagonista di azioni riconosciute a tutela delle vittime del nazifascismo, in particolare nei mesi drammatici dell'occupazione di Roma; dall'altro accusato per i troppi'silenzi'a fronte delle notizie drammatiche che arrivavano in Vaticano, già dal 1939, dai territori occupati da Hitler, a partire dalla Polonia.Andrea Riccardi ricostruisce la storia e le ragioni di quei silenzi, avvalendosi di una ricca documentazione consultabile per la prima volta. Solo nel 2020 l'Archivio Apostolico Vaticano ha, infatti, reso accessibili agli studiosi i documenti del pontificato di Pio XII. Frutto di questa straordinaria opportunità di ricerca e a firma di uno degli storici più accreditati sulla materia, l'analisi e l'interpretazione di un nodo rilevantissimo della storia del Novecento.

Als der Papststuhl 1309 von Rom nach Avignon verlegt wurde, bedeutete dies das Ende einer erstaunlichen wirtschaftlichen Kooperation zwischen päpstlicher Kurie und jüdischen Händlern. Diese hatte gedeihen können, da im 13. Jh. die Juden Mittelitaliens an der Konstruktion von Narrativen kommunaler Zugehörigkeit beteiligt waren und Juden in den Städten häufig als vertrauenswürdig galten. Die Verlegung des Papststuhls nach Avignon (1309–1377) trug zum Bruch dieser Partnerschaft sowie zur Unterbrechung der päpstlichen Schutzpolitik gegenüber den römischen Juden bei. Der maßgebliche Grund für die veränderte Politik der Kurie war der Einfluss der in Frankreich verbreiteten antijüdischen Darstellung der wuchernden Juden auf die Mentalität der avignonesischen Päpste. Im Besonderen fungierte die französische Monarchie als Katalysator für antijüdische Vorstellungen – ganz im Gegensatz zu vertrauensvollen Atmosphäre während der jüdisch-christlichen Kooperation in Mittelitalien. Die Arbeit bietet einen spannenden neuen Blick auf die jüdisch-päpstliche Beziehungsgeschichte im italienischen Mittelalter.

“Brant Pitre is one of the most compelling theological writers on the scene today.” –Bishop Robert Barron Bestselling author of Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist casts new light on the Virgin Mary, illuminating her role in the Old and New Testaments. Are Catholic teachings on Mary really biblical? Or are they the'traditions of men'? Should she be called the'Mother of God,'or just the mother of Jesus? Did she actually remain a virgin her whole life or do the'brothers of Jesus'refer to her other children? By praying to Mary, are Catholics worshipping her? And what does Mary have to do with the quest to understand Jesus? In Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, Dr. Pitre takes readers step-by-step from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Revelation to reveal how deeply biblical Catholic beliefs about Mary really are. Dr. Pitre uses the Old Testament and Ancient Judaism to unlock how the Bible itself teaches that Mary is in fact the new Eve, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and the new Ark of the Covenant.

The'1007 Anonymous,'an imaginative, brief text composed in the third or early fourth decade of the thirteenth century, illustrates the proper relations between Jews and their lay rulers and the pope. The pope, consistent in applying laws that both restricted and protected Jews, is seen as a just ruler. Kings and dukes, by contrast, were inconsistent and capricious, threatening Jewish life. This message had to be conveyed indirectly, and the'1007's'vehicle for doing so was a fictional story of murderous attack and forced conversion known as'The Terrible Event of the Year 1007.'Yet, by examining the details of this story-which include a direct borrowing from The Quest of the Grail composed in 1221, and a reference to coinage that could only have been made during the early thirteenth century-the actual time-and the purpose-of the 1007's composition is revealed. Claims that the veracity of the story and the actuality of the supposed massacre are demonstrated thorough a comparison with the chronicles of Raoul Glaber and Ademar of Chabannes are shown to be incorrect, as part of Stow's larger discussion of the correct approach to reading medieval Hebrew texts. Students of the 1007 have in fact inverted the order, using the 1007 to give credence to the fantasies of the two Christian writers. That the 1007 was not substantiable by such comparisons was demonstrated by the great French scholar Israel Levi at the turn of the twentieth century. No one, however, paid him heed-regrettably, for he was absolutely correct. Appropriately, this book is titled Levi's Vindication.

In Popes and Jews, 1095-1291, Rebecca Rist explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jewish communities of western Europe. Rist analyses papal pronouncements in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, as well the characters and preoccupations of individual pontiffs and the development of Christian theology. She breaks new ground in exploring the other side of the story - Jewish perceptions of both individual popes and the papacy as an institution - through analysis of a wide range of contemporary Hebrew and Latin documents. The author engages with the works of recent scholars in the field of Christian-Jewish relations to examine the social and legal status of Jewish communities in light of the papacy's authorisation of crusading, prohibitions against money lending, and condemnation of the Talmud, as well as increasing charges of ritual murder and host desecration, the growth of both Christian and Jewish polemical literature, and the advent of the Mendicant Orders. Popes and Jews, 1095-1291 is an important addition to recent work on medieval Christian-Jewish relations. Furthermore, its subject matter - religious and cultural exchange between Jews and Christians during a period crucial for our understanding of the growth of the Western world, the rise of nation states, and the development of relations between East and West - makes it extremely relevant to today's multi-cultural and multi-faith society.

In 1965, the Second Vatican Council formally issued a historic document titled Nostra Aetate (In Our Time). It was an attempt to frame the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish people. Never before had an ecumenical council attempted such a task. The landmark document issued by the Council and proclaimed by Pope Paul VI precipitated a Copernican revolution in Catholic-Jewish relations and started a process that has spread to the Protestant and Orthodox worlds as well. This volume, consisting of essays and reflections by Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Jewish scholars and theologians, by pastors and professors from the United States, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, and Israel, is an evaluation of what Nostra Aetate has accomplished thus far and how Christian-Jewish relations must proceed in building bridges of respect, understanding, and trust between the faith groups. A Jubilee for All Times serves as a source of discussion, learning, and dialogue for scholars, students and intelligent laypersons who believe that we must create a positive relationship between Judaism and Christianity.

'Preghiamo anche per i perfidi giudei', così recita nel venerdì santo il Missale romanum di Pio V, pubblicato nel 1570, sintetizzando l'immagine degli ebrei nella liturgia latina. Stanno qui le radici di uno stereotipo antisemita che le traduzioni in volgare dei testi liturgici introiettano nella mentalità cattolica. Ma dal tardo Settecento la cultura cattolica comincia a interrogarsi su questo'insegnamento del disprezzo'trasmesso dal culto pubblico e ufficiale della chiesa. Gli eventi culminati nella Shoah avviano poi un decisivo confronto con la storia, portando a un riesame del rapporto con gli ebrei. Lo testimoniano tormentati rifacimenti della preghiera del venerdì santo da Giovanni XXIII fino ai nostri giorni.

Israel's Messiah and the People of God presents a rich and diverse selection of essays by theologian Mark Kinzer, whose work constitutes a pioneering step in Messianic Jewish theology. Including several pieces never before published, this collection illuminates Kinzer's thought on topics such as Oral Torah, Jewish prayer, eschatology, soteriology, and Messianic Jewish-Catholic dialogue. This volume offers the reader numerous portals into the vision of Messianic Judaism offered in Kinzer's Postmissionary Messianic Judaism (2005). An introductory essay by editor Jennifer M. Rosner sets Kinzer's thought and writings in context.

Der vorliegende Sammelband nimmt Maß an der Bedeutung, die die Israeltheologie und das Judentum in den einzelnen Fächern hatten und haben.Karl Barth hat darauf hingewiesen, dass der Verlust des Judenchristentums einen unersetzbaren theologisch-kirchlichen Verlust bedeutet. Damit weist er in die Richtung, in die sich das Buchprojekt bewegt. Über Jahrhunderte war bereits diese Frage unmöglich. Es erscheint bis heute als ein Bruch mit einer langen Erinnerungstradition, dass diese Frage als Ausgangspunkt einer theologischen Disziplingeschichte gewählt wird.Diese Geschichte nimmt sich dabei in weiten Teilen als eine Disziplinierung Israels aus. Dass Israel mit Paulus die bleibende Wurzel des Christentums sei, hat sich theologisch bis in die Gegenwart nicht wirklich durchgesetzt. Stattdessen begegnet man immer wieder offenen oder versteckten Formen einer Verdrängung oder gar Ersetzung Israels durch Konzepte und Methoden christlicher Theologie. Erst nach der Shoah und katholisch im Zuge der Umstellungen des 2. Vatikanischen Konzils verändert sich die theologische Ausgangslage. Nach den Gründen und den Konsequenzen, nach den Voraussetzungen und der Bedeutung dieses theologisch-kirchlichen Befunds fragt dieser Band.Das entsprechende Problem wird methodologisch umgesetzt: Die Bestimmung Israels als locus theologicus wird zum zentralen Angelpunkt einer Ortsangabe der christlichen Theologie. Dann aber muss man weiterfragen: Warum wurde dies notwendig? Seit wann ist dies möglich? Und was verändert sich im Blick auf unser theologisches Wissen? Diese Fragen leiten die Disziplingeschichte der Theologie im doppelten Sinn an. Es geht um die Ortsbestimmungen des Jüdischen in den einzelnen Disziplinen. Und es geht um die Disziplinierung des Jüdischen durch die Theologie. Es geht um Verdrängungen, Ersetzungen. Es geht darum, Israel als verworfenen Teil theologisch wahrzunehmen.

Set within the context of the political and ideological developments of the time, History vs. Apologetics examines the role played by the Catholic Church in the rise and consolidation of the Third Reich and in particular with regard to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Distanced in the beginning, the Catholic Church and the Nazi party drew closer as Hitler's popularity increased. At the ratification of the Concordat in Rome, a commitment not to interfere with the Nazis''Final Solution'to the'Jewish Question'was traded for a verbal promise from Berlin to exclude the baptized converts. While the Nazi government violated the Concordat at every turn, the Church kept zealously its promise. Pope Pius XII never mentioned the persecuted Jews by name and denied any knowledge of the annihilation of the Jews. Even after the war, Pius XII refused to condemn anti-Semitism and Germany's role in the Holocaust. Instead, the Vatican engaged in the protection of genocide perpetrators and assisted in their mass escape. David Cymet's comprehensive critical analysis of the polemical literature on the topic makes it possible to separate legitimate history from apologetic allegations and misrepresentations, bringing to light key elements of Church policy that is intentionally misinterpreted by apologists. By surveying the Church's policy from just before the rise of Nazism to the present, Cymet demonstrates how the Nazis were able to turn the Catholic Church into their ally in their war against the Jews.

Moving from the Catholic Church's pagan origins, through the Roman era, middle ages, and Reformation to the present, Robert Michael here provides a definitive history of Catholic antisemitism.

In February 1945, Israele Zolli, chief rabbi of Rome's ancient Jewish community, shocked his co-religionists in Italy and throughout the Jewish world by converting to Catholicism and taking as his baptismal name, Eugenio, to honor Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) for what Zolli saw as his great humanitarianism toward the Jews during the Holocaust. Almost a half a century after his conversion, Zolli still evokes anger and embarrassment in Italy's Jewish community. This book is the first authoritative treatment of this astonishing story. What induced Zolli to embrace Catholicism will probably never be known. Nonetheless, by painstaking scholarly detective work, through interviews in Italy and elsewhere, through the unearthing of private papers not previous known to exist, and through the study of previous inaccessible archival materials, the authors have succeeded in explaining why Zolli left the Jewish fold and joined the Catholic Church. Like Zolli's rabbinical career, Pius XII's long pontificate tells us much about the Church of Rome and its relationship to the Jewish people, particularly with reference to the issue of conversion. The authors focus on the pontiff's World War II policies vis-A-vis the Jews, a subject that has been heatedly debated since Rolf Hochhuth's The Deputy was performed in the early 1960s. What Pacelli knew abut the extermination of the Jews and when he knew it, what he said and failed to say, are given special attention in this book. Through the examination of previous scholarship and primary materials (including Pius XI's encyclical on race and anti-Semitism, Pacelli's behavior is evaluated to determine if Zolli accurately gauged the Holy Father's efforts to save Jews. This saga of the two Eugenios will interest historians of the Second World War and the Holocaust and students of history alike.

From the French Revolution to Vatican II, the institutional Catholic Church has opposed much that modernity has offered men and women constructing their societies. This book focuses on the experiences of German Catholics as they have worked to engage their faith with their culture in the midst of the two world wars, the barbarism of the Nazi era, and the uncertainties and conflicts of the post-World War II world.German Catholics have confronted and challenged their Church's anti-modernism, two lost wars, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi Third Reich, the Cold War, German reunification and the impulses of globalization. Catholic theologians and those others nurtured by Catholicism, who resisted Nazism to create their own private spaces, developed a personal and existential theology that bore fruit after 1945. Such theologians as Karl Rahner, Johannes Metz, and Walter Kasper, were rooted in their political experiences and in the renewal movement built by those who attended Vatican II. These theologians were sensitive to the horrors of the Nazi brutalization, the positive contributions of democracy, and the need to create a Catholicism that could join the conversation on human rights following World War II. This dialogue meant accepting non-Catholic religious traditions as authentic expressions of faith, which in turn required that the sacred dignity of every man, woman, and child had to be respected. By the twenty-first century, Catholic theologians had made furthering a human rights agenda part of their tradition, and the German contribution to Catholic theology was crucial to that development. The current Catholic milieu has been forged through its defensive responses to the Enlightenment, through its resistance to ideologies that have supported sanctioned murder, and through an extensive dialogue with its own traditions.In focusing on the German Catholic experience, Dietrich offers a cultural approach to the study of the religious and ethical issues that ground the hum

The theme uniting the essays reprinted here is the attitude of the medieval Church, and in particular the papacy, toward the Jewish population of Western Europe. Papal consistency, sometimes sorely tried, in observing the canons and the principles announced by St Paul - that Jews were to be a permanent, if disturbing, part of Christian life - helped balance the anxiety felt by members of the Church. Clerics especially feared what they called Jewish pollution. These themes are the focus of the studies in the first part of this volume. Those in the second part explore aspects of Jewish society and family life, as both were shaped by medieval realities.

In August 1942 a thirty-year-old counsel in the Geneva office of the World Jewish Congress sent a cable to Rabbi Stephen Wise in New York with the following message: RECEIVED ALARMING REPORT THAT IN FUHRERS HEADQUARTERS PLAN DISCUSSED AND UNDER CONSIDERATION ALL JEWS IN COUNTRIES OCCUPIED OR CONTROLLED GERMANY NUMBER 3-1/2 TO 4 MILLION SHOULD AFTER DEPORTATION AND CONCENTRATION IN EAST AT ONE BLOW EXTERMINATED TO RESOLVE ONCE FOR ALL JEWISH QUESTION IN EUROPE. Sent by Gerhart Riegner, this first recorded notice of the'Final Solution'came to be known as the Riegner Telegram. It was perhaps the most famous and tragic moment in Riegner's career, but there were many other important and fascinating episodes in his life of service, told now in Never Despair, Riegner's impressive memoir. He recounts his youth in a cultivated, middle-class Jewish family in Germany, and as a young lawyer in Leipzig who fled to Switzerland after Hitler's rise to power in 1933. He worked all his life for the World Jewish Congress and was involved in its most important undertakings: rescue programs and diplomacy in response to the Holocaust; the struggle for broad-scale human rights at the League of Nations and later at the United Nations; relations with Christian churches; advocacy in behalf of North African Jewry; German reparations; and work with international student organizations. In Never Despair he recounts his efforts behind the scenes and offers a firsthand estimate of many of the leading international figures of the past century. This is an essential book for students of the Holocaust and of the Jewish role in world affairs from World War II to the end of the century. With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

Volume XXI of the distinguished annual Studies in Contemporary Jewry marks sixty years since the end of the Second World War and forty years since the Second Vatican Council's efforts to revamp Church relations with the Jewish people and the Jewish faith. Jews, Catholics, and the Burden of History offers a collection of new scholarship on the nature of the Jewish-Catholic encounter between 1945 and 2005, with an emphasis on how this relationship has emerged from the shadow of the Holocaust.

Was Pope Pius XII secretly in league with Adolf Hitler? No, says Rabbi David G. Dalin, but there was a cleric in league with Hitler: the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. As Pope Pius XII worked to save Jews from the Nazis, the grand mufti became Hitler's staunch ally and a promoter of the Holocaust, with a legacy that feeds radical Islam today. In this shocking and thoroughly documented book, Rabbi Dalin explodes the myth of Hitler's pope and condemns the mythmakers for not only rewriting history, but for denying the testimony of Holocaust survivors, hijacking the Holocaust for unseemly political ends, and ignoring the real threat to the Jewish people.