Please join us at Saintly Friend Brooklyn Jew played key role for Pope John Paul II. Ruth Ellen Gruber Jewish Telegraphic Agency SHOES for 8 Rome eoo W hen hundreds of thousands of people converge on the Vatican for the beatifica- tion of Pope John Paul II on May 1, a Brooklyn-born Jewish orchestra conductor will have an honored place among them. Gilbert Levine, whose grandparents emigrated from Poland and whose mother- in-law was a survivor of Auschwitz, is a dis- tinguished conductor who has performed with leading orchestras in North America, Europe and Israel. For 17 years, Levine enjoyed a unique, and unlikely, relationship with the Polish- born John Paul, one that led him in 1994 to become the first American Jew to be granted a papal knighthood. Levine says it also played a role in his deciding to become more involved in his own Judaism; he now attends an Orthodox synagogue. The connection between the pontiff and the maestro had much to do with the fos- tering of Jewish-Catholic relations that was a cornerstone of John Paul's papacy. But it had little to do with formal meetings or dialogue sessions. Instead, from 1988 until John Paul's death in 2005 at the age of 84, Levine worked closely with the Polish pope to pro- duce a series of landmark classical music concerts at the Vatican and elsewhere. Their aim was to use music as a tool to fos- ter religious dialogue and reconciliation. "The pope ennobled and enabled me to think that this was a mission that I should take with me for the rest of my life,' Levine told JTA.`And I do, very gladly' The performances included the unprece- dented Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah, held at the Vatican on Yom HaShoah in 1994. At the beginning of the concert, which featured the recitation of Kaddish by the actor Richard Dreyfuss, six Holocaust sur- vivors lit six candles — one representing each of the 6 million Jewish victims. One of the survivors was Levine's mother-in-law, Margit, who was born in Czechoslovakia and had lost 40 members of her family in the Holocaust. The pope "believed that wordless prayer was incredibly important, and I believe that music gave voice to that wordless prayer," Levine said."I think he understood and came to understand through me that art can do a tremendous amount:' Levine recounted the story of his years working with John Paul in an intensely personal memoir titled The Pope's Maestro, TRUNK SHOW ONE DAY ONLY THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011 1 1:00 AM - 5:00 PM Pope John Paul II and Gilbert Levine in an undated photo. which was published last fall. The book traces a relationship that Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's longtime secretary, termed "a deep, spiritual friend- ship:' "If a Jewish kid from Brooklyn can have a spiritual friendship with the pope, then the world can learn something',' Levine said in a video presentation about the book. The friendship began in 1988, in the waning days of communism, when John Paul summoned Levine to a private audi- ence at the Vatican shortly after Levine had become director of the philharmonic orchestra in John Paul's beloved Krakow, the city that had been his archdiocese before he became pope in 1978. From the early days of his pontificate, John Paul had signaled that outreach to the Jewish world would be one of his priorities. Born Karol Wojtyla in the small town of Wadowice in 1920, John Paul had Jewish friends and neighbors, and he was an eye- witness to both the Holocaust and totalitar- ian communism. In 1986, he crossed the Tiber River to Rome's Great Temple to become the first pope to enter a synagogue. There he embraced Rome's chief rabbi and paid respects to Jews as Christianity's "elder brothers in faith:' A few years later, John Paul oversaw the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, and in 2000 visited the Jewish state. John Paul's death triggered an unprec- edented outpouring of tribute from Jews. Levine said his bond with the pope affected his own Jewish identity. "My sense of Judaism became much more powerful," he said. "The pope honored my Judaism and the faith of our family so deeply and so honestly, from his heart, that it really just opened us up to our Jewish faith and heritage even more than it was before." II FREE GIFT WITH PURCHASE REFRESHMENTS ALL DAY 248-737-9059 (PREVIOUS PURCHASES EXCLUDED) 6915 Orchard Lake Rd • West Bloomfield On the Boardwalk balm 20 - % OFF one item exc. 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