Under the Long Shadow of the Holocaust

Two significant statements about the relations between Jews and Christians were published toward the end of 2015; both were widely reported by both religious and general media. On December 3, 2015, the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding, an Orthodox institution located in Efrat, Israel, published a statement on the relation between the two faiths signed by a number of prominent Orthodox rabbis from Israel, America and Europe. On December 10, 2015, the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews published a statement with a much sharper focus: It announced that the Roman Catholic Church would stop all missionary activities specifically targeting Jews for conversion. While these statements were motivated by contemporary developments (such as the turbulence in the Middle East and the related resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe), I think that one must see these recent events in the context of decades of Jewish and Christian efforts to understand the religious significance of the Holocaust, that monstrous crime that continues to throw its long shadow over any serious conversations between representatives of the two communities.