Catholics & Jews: How Close?

"What was good in Jesus' teachings was not new," runs an old Jewish saying, "and what was new was not good." This basic conflict between Judaism and Christianity lay at the heart of two skirmishes last week in Rome and Chicago. Both were triggered by the Vatican Council's agenda chapter on Jews.

Proposed by German-born Augustin Cardinal Bea, the "Jewish Chapter" reflects Bea's concern over the way the Nazis were able to misuse Christian beliefs in oppressing Jews. By absolving the Jewish people of the sole responsibility for Christ's crucifixion, the chapter, Bea believes, would remove the key theological rationale for such pogroms. In itself, this aspect of the chapter could only meet with approval from most of the council members.

Moslem Music. At the same time, it raised other problems. They found voice among the Middle Eastern patriarchs of Eastern Rite Catholicism, whose hierarchies are at best weak minorities maintaining delicate balance between antagonistic Jews and Moslems. "If we take the matter up, we shall have to face the music," warned Stephanos I Sidarouss, Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria (and neighbor of Nasser).

But Bea and his chapter appeared to be in a strong position: Pope Paul VI was reportedly angered when Radio Cairo cited The Deputy--a West German play that accuses Pope Pius XII of tacitly approving Hitler's anti-Semitism--as evidence that Catholics share Moslem hatred of the Jews. To Paul, the Jewish chapter appears opportune. Though the chapter is being used politically by both Arabs and Israelis, both Bea and Pope Paul have been assured that there will be no overt repression of Christians in Arab lands.

Judaism's Response. If Bea's chapter makes a gracious bow to the Jews, what should be the Jewish response? That question came under painful scrutiny last week in Chicago at the Biennial General Assembly meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the central body of Reform Judaism in the Western Hemisphere. U.A.H.C. President Maurice Eisendrath seemed to offer an ecumenical balm of his own. "Interreligious understanding is not a one-way street," he said. "What about our Jewish attitudes toward Christendom, toward Jesus especially?" Eisendrath called for a reassessment of Christ's role as a rabbi--a role that many Jews do not accept.

Eisendrath quickly came under attack from Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a leader of the Reform Jewish academic community. In a closed-door session of the board of trustees, Glueck delivered a scathing, ten-minute rebuttal accusing Eisendrath of trading off a re-examination of Jesus in return for the Vatican Council's reassessment of antiSemitism. Eisendrath's remarks, he said, made it seem "as if American Reform Judaism were prepared to put Jesus in a central role as a great rabbinical leader."

At the root of the controversy is the extreme sensitivity of Reform Jews to criticisms by Orthodox Jews that Reform Judaism is just a steppingstone to Christianity. But Eisendrath denied he had any such trade-off in mind, nor would his re-examination relate to anything more than "the man Jesus, not to Christ, his Messiah-ship."

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