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However, the gathering gave Jewish leaders an opportunity to relay their concerns personally to the pontiff. The post-Shabbat meeting also was an indication of how highly the pope values relations with the Jewish community, given that he squeezed the gathering into his hectic four-day trip to the Unit- ed States. The globe-trotting pope makes a point of meeting with lo- cal Jewish leaders wherever he travels. When representatives of Jew- ish groups met with him in New York at the residence of the city's archbishop, Cardinal John O'Connor, they were meeting with the Catholic leader who has — more than any other pontiff— shaped the relationship between the two communities in a positive way. This pope has a "long history of solidarity with the Jewish peo- ple," said Rabbi Leon Klenicki, director of the Anti-Defamation League's interfaith affairs de- partment. Rabbi Arthur Schneier, of the Park East Synagogue in New York and the founder of the ec- umenical group Appeal of Con- science, said he thanked the pope "for taking a stand on anti-Semi- tism and remembering the Shoah." Rabbi Schneier said, "His re- ply was, We must always re- member the lessons of the Shoah,' using the term `Shoah.' " Rabbi A. James Rudin, direc- tor of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who also attended the event, said the topic of an encyclical on anti- Semitism was raised in the meet- ing. Jewish groups want the pope to issue an encyclical — em- bodying many of the things he has said previously — that would condemn anti-Semitism as a sin. An encyclical is the highest lev- el of interpretation a pope can is- sue. John Paul II has issued about a dozen during the 18 years of his papacy. The issuance of the document would be a "worthy capstone" to the teachings of this pope, Rabbi Rudin said. Although the pope has main- tained the Catholic Church's tra- ditional positions on a host of issues, from contraception to the ordination of women, he has bro- ken dramatically with the church's historical attitudes to- ward Judaism to reconcile with the community he has called "our elder brother in faith." The relationship has long been colored by mutual suspicion and hostility. Today, say many of those involved with Catholic-Jew- ish dialogue, it is a relationship based on mutual respect and for that they credit, on the Catholic side, the pope. Pope John Paul II has done a great deal to implement the Catholic document Nostra Ae- tate, which first articulated the notion of a "spiritual bond" link- ing the church to Judaism, they say. Nostra Aetate, or In Our Time, was produced by the Sec- ond Vatican Council and adopt- ed in October 1965. • Dozens of times, he has ad- dressed healing words to, and about, the Jewish community, and publicly condemned anti- Semitism as a sin. • The first pope to visit a Nazi death camp, he visited Auschwitz in 1979, making special reference Much work remains to clear all obstacles. to "the memory of the people whose sons and daughters were intended for total extermination." • He was the first pope to vis- it a synagogue. He went to a con- gregation in Rome in 1986. • John Paul II was the first pope to commemorate the Holo- caust formally, which he did with a tribute performance by Britain's Royal Philharmonic at the Vatican on Holocaust Memo- rial Day in 1994. • Under his reign, the Vatican finally established formal diplo- matic relations with the State of Israel, in December 1993. The tone set by this pope has had an important trickle-down effect on the Catholic Church worldwide, say observers, though there remains work to be done. Both the German and Polish Catholic bishops conferences, for example, have issued documents apologizing for the role of Catholics in creating the horror of Nazism. When Nostra Aetate was adopted 30 years ago, the church articulated a new approach to- ward non-Christian religions and devoted special attention to the Jews. But it was not until 1978, when Pope John Paul II was elected to lead the Catholic Church, which has some billion followers worldwide, that the new policy began to bear fruit.