JEWS AND CHRISTIANS. From Past to Future

Source: iCCJ

Yohanan Elihai

It is with great pleasure that JCR announces that the book "Jews and Christians. From Past to Future" by the well known Catholic monch and Israeli linguist Yohanan Elihai (1928-2020) is being published today for the first time in English on our website, having already appeared in print in French, Italian and Polish between 1990 and 2000. For more information about Yohanan Elihai, please go here.

PREFACE

In this modest study Brother Yohanan offers his readers, and the Christians among them in particular, an extremely useful and in our times virtually indispensable instrument for an in-depth understanding of the significance of Christian-Jewish relations.

It is true that since Jules Isaac’s initial studies[1], many scholarly works have been devoted to the history of Christian anti-Semitism. Furthermore, highly specialized studies of the specific problem of Jewish-Christian relations have been undertaken. But until now it has been hard to find a book as straightforward and accessible as this one, which could be recommended to readers wishing to confront difficult questions without preliminary preparation.

This modest work is in no way intended to replace existing studies: rather, it is intended as an introduction. But we are sure that its readers, as they study this book, will become aware of how little they know, and will find themselves profoundly affected by the portrayal of facts which are troubling for the Christian conscience. Yet this book will not overwhelm its readers; rather, it will inspire them with a desire for a genuine encounter with the Jewish people, as they discover with wonderment the progress that has already been made from Pope John XXIII to Pope John-Paul II, propelled by the decisive impetus provided by the Second Vatican Council.

This timely and useful book will temper our automatic Christian judgments and prejudices with regard to the Jewish people and help us found our relationship on a genuine respect for memory and so to embark upon a more genuine conversion of our minds and our hearts.

This is a book of initiation. The most remarkable thing that could and hopefully will – happen is that this book will inspire the reader with a desire to take things further, as a result of understanding the importance and urgency of this dialogue.

If this happens, as we believe it will, Brother Yohanan can only thank God for the fruits of a labor in which – above and beyond all the technicalities of research – the impact of the thirty years he has spent in Israel is clearly discernible.

This is our wish after reading this most valuable book.

Mgr Poulain Bishop of Perigueux President of the Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism

FOREWORD

How did I, not even a writer, come to write such a book?

I was born to a Christian family, and knew nothing of the Jewish people until I was nineteen. Then, in 1945, I learned of the horror of the Shoah. In 1947, I came to Jerusalem as a pilgrim – my first encounter with this people, returned at last to the land of its forefathers. It made me think: "Something crucial is happening here, and the Christian world is missing it."

In 1956 I came to the land of Israel because I thought it important that a Christian share in this adventure of the Jewish people. I little suspected what I would discover, both the bitter history of the Jews in Christian Europe, with the deep wound left by that experience, and the spiritual wealth of this same people, with their depth of thought, their passion for truth (even to the extent of merciless self criticism), and their "innate" knowledge of the Bible, the book of their history, written in their own language.

Today, after sharing the daily life of this people for the past forty years, I thank God, and those who welcomed me.

How is it possible, however, to live in this country without getting to know the other people which have lived here for centuries? The study of Palestinian Arabic led to my involvement in its teaching, as a way toward mutual understanding in a tangled situation. This work, which included the preparation of a Hebrew‑Palestinian Arabic dictionary, would have been quite enough to keep me pleasantly busy.

However, I often meet visiting Christians who know as little now of Judaism and Jewish history as I did before coming to Israel. In view of this ignorance, I felt the need to share some of what I have learned over the years.

May these pages invite the reader to experience something of the encounter with the Jewish people, a difficult yet fascinating adventure, and which has hardly begun.

Si autem de veritate scandalum sumitur,
utilius permittitur nasci scandalum
quam veritas relinquatur

Even if truth gives rise to scandal,
it is better to allow scandal to arise
than to abandon truth.

Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezechielem 1,7,5

INTRODUCTION

The Second Vatican Council opened vast new horizons to Catholics and invited them to begin a dialogue with all mankind. It is in this context that we meet our Jewish neighbors of whom we know very little. We are ignorant of their history, their sufferings and their hopes. Likewise, we are unacquainted with their time‑honored tradition and way of life.

How can we start a dialogue without knowing or understanding the other, in however limited a fashion?

The present work aims to give the Christian reader some elements of reflection necessary if relations are to be renewed between Jews and Christians, and a fraternal dialogue established.

It would be wrong to think that these relations should be the same as those established by Christians with other religious groups such as Moslems or Buddhists. Yet the current Christian attitude toward the Jews could be summed up by the phrase: "Of course we should be friendly to the Jews since we should be friendly to everyone." In fact there are two reasons why the Jewish‑Christian dialogue should be seen as unique:

– the serious role played by Christianity in the dramatic past of the Jewish people; – the Jews' special place as the "older brother" in God's salvation plan both yesterday and today, which must at last become part of our awareness.

During the last few years many have spoken and written about the destruction of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis, sometimes comparing it to other acts of genocide while failing to note that the Shoah (the Holocaust)[2] is unique in human history. Moreover, what many have overlooked or even still refuse to admit is the influence which Christian teaching and actions throughout history have had on the treatment of Jews over the centuries leading up to the Nazi genocide. This tragedy did not come about by chance and one must ask how, after two thousand years of Christianity, could the systematic extermination of the Jews have been carried out in Europe?

The Primate of the Church of England, Dr. Robert Runcie, had the courage to acknowledge in October, 1988 (on the 50th anniversary of the Krystallnacht): "Without the centuries of Christian anti‑Semitism, the passionate hatred of Hitler would never have evoked such a strong response. Without the poisoning of Christian minds throughout the centuries, the Holocaust (the Shoah) is inconceivable."

This study, written by a Catholic, is intended to help Christians reassess the traditional attitude of Christians, and particularly those in the Roman Catholic Church, towards the Jews. The Church has had the courage to do this, and has expressed its repentance, as we shall see. But Christians as a whole must now understand the consequences of this action. This understanding is vital if we are to free ourselves of the weight of a past which still influences both our own reactions and those of our Jewish brothers. Therefore the subject of the first part of the book will be: Christian anti‑Semitism and the Shoah.

An attitude of humility will make us freer and enable us to move on to the second stage: an acknowledgment of the special place which the Jewish people still have in Salvation history. This second part – the Jewish people and Christians today – will therefore be devoted to some recent statements of the Roman‑Catholic Church, as well as declarations of the Pope and other influential persons, on the subject. For many these forgotten or unknown texts will be a voyage of discovery.

This theological awareness is indispensable if Christians are to look anew at their relations with God's people of the First Covenant, who have "remained the chosen people" (John‑Paul II, see p.38). There is no reason to run from the past or to fear a confrontation with its facts. Jesus' words: "The truth will make you free" are also true in this context. Let us not confuse the beauty of the message of our Christian faith with the image we would like to have of an ever‑perfect Christianity. Let us distinguish between the treasure received and what we have made of it. Certainly, there have been saints and the faithful common folk; but there has also been popular violence as well as deficiencies and blindness on the part of spiritual leaders.

We are in a period of renewal. The courage to face these facts, as well as the desire to make amends and turn over a new leaf are proofs of vitality, a sign of God's action in the heart of man.

1. CHRISTIAN ANTI‑SEMITISM AND THE SHOAH

Christian anti‑Semitism?

When Christians speak of anti‑Semitism or of the Shoah [2] – the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis – including one million children), they generally think of an ideology and its tragic result which they condemn and which does not concern them. "Anti‑Semitism is anti‑Christian" – is an affirmation which should be true, because it is right in principle, in the sense that the true understanding of Jesus' message should make anti‑Semitism impossible for a Christian. Unfortunately, sixteen centuries of Christian anti‑Semitism (anti‑Judaism is a better term for its incipient stage, as we shall see) belie this often complacent assertion.

To be continued

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“Jews and Christians. From Past to Future”: First publication of Yohanan Elihai’s book in English

01.11.2024 | Yuri Tabak

Source: ICCJ

It is with great pleasure that the JCR announces that the book "Jews and Christians. From Past to Future" by the well known Catholic monch and Israeli linguist Yohanan Elihai is being published today for the first time in English on our website, having already appeared in print in French, Italian and Polish between 1990 and 2000.

Who was Yohanan Elihai? A short reminiscence:

Yohanan Elihai (whose name was Jean Leroy, until 1960) was born in 1926 in a small French village near Paris and passed away on July 4, 2020, in Israel, where he lived for over 60 years. In his youth, he studied ancient languages in Versailles and received his baccalaureate in 1943. Life under the Nazis was hard, and they suffered from hunger. His grandmother told him, "We are suffering, but the Jews are suffering even more." He understood the meaning of her words when the Americans who entered Paris displayed posters in the windows of their embassy with photographs of Jews liberated from the camps.

The shock of the Holocaust defined his entire future life. He wanted to live in Israel and share the fate of those whom the Nazis could not destroy. However, already holding Zionist views, he first decided to join the recently founded monastic order of the Little Brothers of Charles de Foucauld. The order's rule stipulated that the brothers work in simple jobs in the most remote and difficult places around the world, refraining from missionary work and bearing witness to faith only through their lives. However, he was not accepted into the order due to his youth, and he spent two years teaching French at a Jesuit school in Lebanon, where he also continued studying written and spoken Arabic.

In 1947, Jean Leroy became a member of the Little Brothers of Charles de Foucauld. Inspired by an article about the merging of the rapidly developing Tel Aviv with old Jaffa, the Zionist priest became determined to go there, but the order considered his knowledge of Arabic more useful in Syria. In Damascus, while working in metalware production, Leroy compiled his own dictionary of the Syrian dialect of Arabic. In 1950, upon learning that the female branch of the order – the Little Sisters of Charles de Foucauld – had opened a branch in Israel, he asked to be sent there, stating that it had been his long-standing dream. However, the order's superior replied, "You want to go to the Jews? Know that Zionism won't work. Jews can run a bank or a clothing store, but a state, an army? Never."

He continued his studies at the Dominican seminary, spending six years studying philosophy, theology, the Bible, and history. In 1955, he was ordained as a priest, and the following year, he finally convinced his superiors to send him to Israel permanently. Settling in Tel Aviv, he worked under the guidance of renowned artist Aharon Kahana, producing ceramics. The most significant event of those years for him was the three-month task of laying tiles on the floor of the Hall of Remembrance in Yad Vashem, bearing the names of Nazi concentration camps.

Three years later, Jean Leroy naturalized, obtaining Israeli citizenship and changing his surname to Elihai ("My God lives"). With the order's approval, in 1965 he moved to the Arab Christian village of Tarshiha in Northern Galilee, where, as he later confessed, "I learned things I had never known before, being surrounded only by Jews." From then on, his life gained another purpose – to help foster mutual understanding between Jews and Arabs.

It was here that his linguistic talent fully blossomed. He said, "Language is the key to the heart" and extensively taught Arabic to Israelis in Hebrew. Becoming a brilliant expert in the Palestinian dialect of Arabic, over the next 40 years, he prepared numerous dictionaries – French-Arabic, Hebrew-Arabic, English-Arabic – and participated in the creation of an English-Hebrew-Arabic dictionary of economic terms. He wrote a Hebrew verb textbook for Russian and French speakers. His dictionaries, textbooks, and conversational courses became staples in schools, universities, and the army, both in Israel and abroad, and are often regarded as the best. In 2008, he received an honorary doctorate from the Haifa University, in recognition of his life's work. In 2018, he received a Prime Minister Golda Meir's award for his contribution to bringing people together through teaching of the spoken Arabic Palestinian language.

The second goal of his life and priestly service was to achieve mutual understanding between Jews and Christians. Becoming one of the central figures in Israel's Hebrew-speaking Catholic community, he wrote a remarkable and honest book, Jews and Christians:From Past to Future, in which he set down his experiences and reflections on Christianity and Judaism as well as the Christian-Jewish dialogue. The book was published in French in 1990 (Cerf, Paris), followed by a translation into Italian in 1995 (Qiqayon, Bose) and a Polish version in 2000 (Znak, Kraków). In 2001, he wrote an English version himself, with a foreword by Mgr. Poulain, then Bishop of Perigueux and President of the Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism. Inexplicably, however, the English version was never published. Elihai himself finally sent the English version to the author of this article before his death - and JCR is pleased to publish this English version today for the first time. Elihai's book is an impressively knowledgeable and - considering it was written around the year 2000 - in many respects theologically progressive book, which is still inspiring and worth reading today for everyone interested in the history and meaning of Jewish-Christian relations.

As the epigraph to the book, he chose the words from a homily by Pope Gregory the Great: Si autem de veritate scandalum sumitur, utilius permittitur nasci scandalum quam veritas relinquatur – "Even if truth gives rise to scandal, it is better to allow scandal to arise than to abandon truth."

To read Elihai's book go here: Jews and Christians:From Past to Future

Editorial remarks Yuri Tabak is JCR's Russian language editor.