Holocaust Refugee-Rabbi Lectures

On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Rabbi Jack Bemporad delivered a lecture entitled "Between Past and Future: Challenges Facing Christian-Jewish Understanding," the second in a series of lectures dedicated to exploring Catholic-Jewish relations.

Bemporad is a Holocaust refugee from Italy. He is the director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding and the senior rabbinic scholar at Chavurah Beth Shalom in Alpine, N.J.

"I heard Rabbi Bemporad speak at a conference in Rome in 2007 and was moved by his passion and his wisdom, and so I thought I would share that with you all at Providence College," said Arthur Urbano, Ph.D., of the Department of Theology.

Following Urbano's introduction Rabbi Bemporad began his lecture.

"So I'm going to try to be as honest as I can given past and present Jewish relations," said Bemporad. "I would like to start with the past…The best way, in my mind, to understand the past is to read my favorite philosopher, Plato."

The Rabbi quoted Plato on passages about communication struggles. Bemporad said that for thousands of years the Jewish and Christian communities have struggled to talk to each other. Over the years, interactions and attitudes have built in a way that prevents both groups from understanding where the other is coming from.

"When you have economic collapse you find there is a tremendous amount of suffering where Jews on a whole become scapegoats," said Bemporad. "But when you look at it the entire community suffers. To think that it was only the Jews that suffered, let's say, during the Inquisition of Spain is not true. I mean, thousands of people suffered…To say, for example, [that] during the time of Hitler that it was Jews that suffered, of course they suffered, but look at what happened to the German nation. So we have to have to look at it in some kind of context."

"[B]eginning with the church father there was a certain doctrine that emerged that said that the Jews are only a nation in exile, in no sense a universal, historic people, a nation condemned not to wonder as a witness of God, but as a witness as a faith of those who reject Christ," said Bemporad.

The doctrine, according to the rabbi, was taught and confirmed by popes and cardinals for years. Some people paid attention to this message, and others did not. Troubling attitudes developed as a result, and Jews responded by viewing Christians in a negative light as well.

"I don't think it's proper for us to say it's only a Christian responsibility," said Bemporad. He said the difference between the Jewish and Christian communities is that the "Jewish community never had the power to do anything besides talk amongst its people." This lack of power extended to social and political issues, he said.

The Church made strides to change past behavior through actions and conferences like Vatican II. One example Bemporad used was when John Paul II went "beyond the texts." He went to the synagogue. This was a significant action. John Paul II was also the first pope to acknowledge Israel by name. He was the first person who said the Jewish people had the right to a nation.

A recent example of miscommunication in Jewish-Catholic relations is the situation with Bishop Williamson, a German bishop who said that the Holocaust did not happen. Bemporad said that the Jewish community, instead of going on the offensive, should have started a dialogue.

The core issue, according to Bemporad, is how each religion can exist independently. Each religion is concerned that the other is trying to convert the other. Each sees the other in a "caricature view," a stereotype. To solve this, we need to create definitions that are acceptable to all parties. He stressed the importance of teaching to ease tensions and misunderstandings between religions.

"I thought it was really informative," said Kristen Desmarais '10. "It gave me a different perceptive, a different way of looking at the different religions…juxtaposing them together."

"I'm taking an art history class and my professor...recommended I attend it tonight because the whole class is on the convergence [of Catholicism, Islam, and Judaism]," said Brian Gay '11.

Urbano also found the event to be interesting.

"I learned a great deal from the lecture," said Urbano. "If I had to single out one thing, it would be what the rabbi said about Catholic and Jewish 'mentalities,' assumptions, and stereotypes of the other, that have at various times, past and present, hindered good relations. I like what the rabbi said about learning how to put yourself in the shoes of your dialogue partner, but also to understand how your dialogue partner views you yourself."