THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
friday, March 5, 1971-19
Boris Smolor's
'Between You
... and Me
Yi
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA
(CaPYright 1,71, JTA Inc.)
CATHOLICS AND JEWS: It is over five years since the Vatican
Council issued the historic Declaration absolving Jews as a people from
the charge of crucifying Jesus, repudiating anti-Semitism and disasso-
ciating itself of the anti-Jewish views of earlier Church Councils.
What is the effect of this important document today, five years
later?
- The American Jewish Committee has now completed a study of the
impact of the Vatican Declaration on Catholic-Jewish relationships in
this country and in other countries. A picture emerges showing im-
pressive progress. However, the study also shows that a number of
crucial questions still remain unresolved.
On the whole, the positive factors outweigh the negative ones,
especially in the United States. But there is still a lack of deeper
understanding by Cztholics in this country of the meaning of Israel to
the Jewish people and Judaism, and there is inadequate presentation
of the Jewish people in Catholic history. There also are other deficien-
cies. It seems that a great deal more must be done by the Catholic
Church before it could be said that the Declaration had been imple-
mented satisfactorily.
*
•
•
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS: Among the outstanding achieve-
ments of thie Declaration is the elimination of phrases offensive to Jews
from Catholic parochial and released-time textbooks used by most of
the 5,000,000 Catholic children in the United States.
Other outstanding achievements include the revision of the entire
teaching process to include the latest findings of scholarly studies
regarding Judaism, Israel and -the Jewish people; extensive use of
Jewish professors and rabbis on the faculties of Catholic seminaries,
colleges and universities; and the setting up, in 1967, of guidelines
by American Catholic Bishops to solidify Catholic-Jewish understanding.
A broad range of programs and activities to promote better under-
standing between Catholics and Jews also were undertaken by Catholic
church leaders in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Holland, England
and in some Latin American countries. But not in Mexico and Central
-America. The lack of any fundamental improvement in the attitude of
the Catholic Church in Mexico and Central America toward Jews is
one of the problems "unsolved" five years after the issuance oLthe
Vatican Declaration.
The situation in Mexico and in Central America seems to be per-
turbing. "Although there have been some changes among ecclesiastical
authorities there, Catholics as a whole have not abandoned their negative
attitude toward Jews," Philip E. Hoffman, president of the American
Jewish Committee asserts. He attributes this, in part, to the failure of
the local churches to educate or exhort in accordance with the Vatican
Council's Declaration.
Specifically, Hoffman charges there is no systematic effort in
Mexico and Central America to eliminate prejudicial material from
Catholic textbooks. Also, that there is persistent anti-Israel propaganda
in these countries—where the Catholic Church has a strong influence
on the population—by anti-Semitic organizations and publications. This
propaganda is obviously stimulated by the Arab agitators and centers
on alleged Israeli atrocities against Christians in Israel.
In Argentina, anti-Semitic statements in the schools have decreased,
but the American Jewish Committee study found that many of the
Catholic•Institutions and publications there give nothing but lip service
to the Vatican Declaration. This is a far cry from what the Catholic
church does in the United States.
•
•
•
DRAMATIC ACTION: A dramatic attempt to implement the Vatican
Declaration as it applies to Jews has been made in the United States
by the Fordham University, a Catholic institution.
The John XXIII Center of the Fordham University published a
unique series of pamphlets aimed at Catholic parishioners across the
country and designed to attack the "evil of anti-Semitism as a thought
as well as an act." Each pamphlet had a first printing of 250,000 copies
and was endorsed by American Bishops who urged priests in . their
dioceses to distribute the pamphlets to their parishioners.
Catholics are made aware in the pamphlets of the depth and the
extent of persecution suffered by the Jews down the ages. Emphasis is
laid on the fact that "Judaism is the root from which Christianity
grew." Anti-Semitism is termed "un-Christian" and "against all that
Christ preached." The John XXIII Center, under the auspices of which
the pamphlets were published, is named after the late "Good Pope"
who laid the ground for the issuance of the Vatican Declaration and
who went into history as one of the greatest humanitarians and as a
warm friend of the Jewish people.
Masada Gives In at Last
JERUSALEM--Sites intertwined
with ancient tradition are bending
to the forces of progress.
The Masada cableway, inaugu-
rated Feb. 11 at Sodom, is carrying
visitors up the side of the mountain
fortress,. locale of the last defense
of the Jews against the Romans.
It has long been a practice to
climb to the summit, but only the
Toung could manage it.
Now, the 2,788-foot cable, up the
Dead,Sea side, stops some 100 feet
short of the summit, so that visitors
still "get the feeling of approach-
' ing the summit on foot," said Prof.
Algal Yadin, the archeologist who
_discovered Masada's historical se-
crets,:
z It:lakes some three minutes to
Aise4s3t1 the mountain. Each of the
two cable can holds 40 persons.
EWA at a cost of 2,40e,N0
itssmils ($51111,1611), the cableway
was financed primarily by Israel
government loans. The remain-
der, 40 per cent, was invested by
New Yorkers Arnold Kagan and
Nathan Cohen. The Swiss firm of
Brendli built the cableway.
A note of irony accompanying
accounts of the dedication was that,
even as guests were taking their
first ride up the mountain, "a long
snake of young people was 'seen
below them, still insisting oo doing
it the hard way."
Meanwhile, the East Jerusalem
Development Corporation is study-
ing a plan to build a monorail con-
necting the hill tops on the eastern
edge of Jerusalem. It would prob-
ably have stations at Mt. Scopus,
the Mount of Olives and possibly
Mt. Zion, among others. One worry
is the possible esthetic effect the
supporting pillars might have on
tics. eau .45A3 .kaVili1111 6014
N.Y. Sends Million in Aid to Yeshivot; Rabbi Seeks More
NEW YORK (JTA)—The state
administration In Albany mailed
out checks totaling "close to $1,-
000,000 in direct" aid to yeshivot,
it was reported to the Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency by Rabbi Moses
Sherer, executive president of the
Agudath Israel.
The checks, he noted, were dis-
patched under the 1970 Mandated
Services Act, which provides for
$28,000,000 in aid to private schools
in 1971 and the same sum in 1972.
Pupils from the first through sixth
grades will get $27 a year, those
in the sixth through 12th grades,
$45 a year.
The funds are earmarked for
record keeping, student testing and
related nonsectarian procedures.
Thirty-five Jewish schools were
not included in Monday's mailing
of aid checks.
The schools—most of them in
New York City—allegedly failed to
complete the proper forms for re-
ceiving the aid. But the 35—most
of which insist the forms were filed
and say they have photostatic co-
pies to prove it—are being given a
chance to file duplicate applica-
tions.
Rabbi Sherer said there are 55,000
pupils at 175 Hebrew day schools
throughout the state. The grants,
he told the JTA, are "a first-round
victory against those stubborn
forces who have attempted to halt
even this minimal funding of the
secular needs of nonpublic schools."
Rabbi Sli erer "applauded"
Gov. Nelsen A. Rockefeller's
statement in Albany Feb. 22 that
be "very definitely" fevered in-
creased state aid to private
schools because "there is a great-
er crisis by far in the private
schools than there is in the pub-
lic schools."
But the Orthodox leader said he
felt Rockefeller was "in error" in
continuing to oppose the Speno-
Lerner Parent-Aid bill, which
would provide tuition grants to
parents of private-school children,
based on income.
The Committee for Public Edu-
cation and Religious Lib erty 's
=MI
(PEARL) executive co-chairman,
William Haddad, declared that
"Once again, Gov. Rockefeller has
yielded to the pressures of paro-
chial advocates without listening
to the other side." PEARL is the
umbrella group for opponents of
public funding of private schools.
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