Israeli ambassador urges Jews to dialogue with Catholics

21-01-2010

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For the good of the world and for the Jewish community itself, Jews should be willing to engage in dialogue and joint projects with Catholics, said the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See.

"Catholics have reached out a hand to us. It makes no sense not to take it, at least if we don't want to mortgage our future with constant animosity with the Catholic world," Ambassador Mordechay Lewy wrote in an article for the February issue of the Italian Jewish newspaper, Pagine Ebraiche.

The ambassador's article also was printed in the Jan. 20 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. He said the first 2,000 years of Catholic-Jewish relations do not bear repeating; "we both deserve better."

Lewy said that despite the Jewish biblical view that all humanity is one and despite centuries of authoritative biblical commentary demonstrating respect for other religions, some Orthodox Jews continue to be reluctant to enter into dialogue with Christians.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20100120.htm