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(Vatican Radio) For the first time since the Second Vatican Council changed Christian teachings toward Judaism and the Jewish people 50 years ago, a group of Orthodox rabbis have issued a public statement advocating partnership with Christians and appreciating the religious value of Christianity.

Published on December 3rd on the website of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) in Israel, “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians” is signed by over 25 prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, United States and Europe and calls for cooperation between Jews and Christians to address the moral and religious challenges of our times. The proclamation’s authors are inviting fellow Orthodox rabbis to join in signing the statement.

 “The real importance of this Orthodox statement is that it calls for fraternal partnership between Jewish and Christian religious leaders, while also acknowledging the positive theological status of the Christian faith. Jews and Christians must be in the forefront of teaching basic moral values to the world,” said Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, one of the statement’s initiators, and founder of CJCUC, member of the Israeli Rabbinate and the Chief Rabbi of Efrat. While not a direct response to the Church’s 1965 “Nostra Aetate,” “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven” was clearly influenced by Christianity’s new affirmation of the eternity of the Jewish covenant and the respect that Christian leaders have demonstrated toward Judaism and Jews in contemporary dialogues and religious encounters.

“Jewish thinkers have previously crafted statements like Dabru Emet in 2000 on Jewish-Christian relations and theology, but few Orthodox rabbis could go along with those theological and practical claims in light of their understanding of Jewish tradition. This proclamation’s breakthrough is that influential Orthodox rabbis across all centers of Jewish life have finally acknowledged that Christianity and Judaism are no longer engaged in a theological duel to the death and that Christianity and Judaism have much in common spiritually and practically. Given our toxic history, this is unprecedented in Orthodoxy.” said Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn, Academic Director of CJCUC.

The statement cites traditional opinions by past rabbinic authorities to justify partnership with Christians and religious appreciation of Christianity. “We understand that there is room in traditional Judaism to see Christianity as part of God’s covenantal plan for humanity, as a development out of Judaism that was willed by God,” said Rabbi Irving Greenberg, perhaps the most active Orthodox theologian in Jewish-Christian dialogue and covenantal theology. Another of the statement’s initiators, Jerusalem’s Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, added, “We need to work together to meet our common challenges: the assault of radical secularism, religious extremism and moral relativism on the heritage and dignity of humankind.”

Please find below the full text of the Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity

December 3, 2015

To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven:

Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians

After nearly two millennia of mutual hostility and alienation, we Orthodox Rabbis who lead communities, institutions and seminaries in Israel, the United States and Europe recognize the historic opportunity now before us. We seek to do the will of our Father in Heaven by accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters. Jews and Christians must work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era.

1.     The Shoah ended 70 years ago. It was the warped climax to centuries of disrespect, oppression and rejection of Jews and the consequent enmity that developed between Jews and Christians. In retrospect it is clear that the failure to break through this contempt and engage in constructive dialogue for the good of humankind weakened resistance to evil forces of anti-Semitism that engulfed the world in murder and genocide.

2.     We recognize that since the Second Vatican Council the official teachings of the Catholic Church about Judaism have changed fundamentally and irrevocably. The promulgation of Nostra Aetate fifty years ago started the process of reconciliation between our two communities. Nostra Aetate and the later official Church documents it inspired unequivocally reject any form of anti-Semitism, affirm the eternal Covenant between G-d and the Jewish people, reject deicide and stress the unique relationship between Christians and Jews, who were called “our elder brothers” by Pope John Paul II and “our fathers in faith” by Pope Benedict XVI. On this basis, Catholics and other Christian officials started an honest dialogue with Jews that has grown during the last five decades. We appreciate the Church’s affirmation of Israel’s unique place in sacred history and the ultimate world redemption. Today Jews have experienced sincere love and respect from many Christians that have been expressed in many dialogue initiatives, meetings and conferences around the world.

3.     As did Maimonides and Yehudah Halevi,[1] we acknowledge that Christianity is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations. In separating Judaism and Christianity, G-d willed a separation between partners with significant theological differences, not a separation between enemies. Rabbi Jacob Emden wrote that “Jesus brought a double goodness to the world. On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically… and not one of our Sages spoke out more emphatically concerning the immutability of the Torah. On the other hand he removed idols from the nations and obligated them in the seven commandments of Noah so that they would not behave like animals of the field, and instilled them firmly with moral traits…..Christians are congregations that work for the sake of heaven who are destined to endure, whose intent is for the sake of heaven and whose reward will not denied.”[2] Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch taught us that Christians “have accepted the Jewish Bible of the Old Testament as a book of Divine revelation. They profess their belief in the G-d of Heaven and Earth as proclaimed in the Bible and they acknowledge the sovereignty of Divine Providence.”[3] Now that the Catholic Church has acknowledged the eternal Covenant between G-d and Israel, we Jews can acknowledge the ongoing constructive validity of Christianity as our partner in world redemption, without any fear that this will be exploited for missionary purposes. As stated by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel’s Bilateral Commission with the Holy See under the leadership of Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, “We are no longer enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of humanity”.[4] Neither of us can achieve G-d’s mission in this world alone.

4.     Both Jews and Christians have a common covenantal mission to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty, so that all humanity will call on His name and abominations will be removed from the earth. We understand the hesitation of both sides to affirm this truth and we call on our communities to overcome these fears in order to establish a relationship of trust and respect. Rabbi Hirsch also taught that the Talmud puts Christians “with regard to the duties between man and man on exactly the same level as Jews. They have a claim to the benefit of all the duties not only of justice but also of active human brotherly love.” In the past relations between Christians and Jews were often seen through the adversarial relationship of Esau and Jacob, yet Rabbi Naftali Zvi Berliner (Netziv) already understood at the end of the 19th century that Jews and Christians are destined by G-d to be loving partners: “In the future when the children of Esau are moved by pure spirit to recognize the people of Israel and their virtues, then we will also be moved to recognize that Esau is our brother.”[5]

5.     We Jews and Christians have more in common than what divides us: the ethical monotheism of Abraham; the relationship with the One Creator of Heaven and Earth, Who loves and cares for all of us; Jewish Sacred Scriptures; a belief in a binding tradition; and the values of life, family, compassionate righteousness, justice, inalienable freedom, universal love and ultimate world peace. Rabbi Moses Rivkis (Be’er Hagoleh) confirms this and wrote that “the Sages made reference only to the idolator of their day who did not believe in the creation of the world, the Exodus, G-d’s miraculous deeds and the divinely given law. In contrast, the people among whom we are scattered believe in all these essentials of religion.”[6]

6.     Our partnership in no way minimizes the ongoing differences between the two communities and two religions. We believe that G-d employs many messengers to reveal His truth, while we affirm the fundamental ethical obligations that all people have before G-d that Judaism has always taught through the universal Noahide covenant.

7.     In imitating G-d, Jews and Christians must offer models of service, unconditional love and holiness. We are all created in G-d’s Holy Image, and Jews and Christians will remain dedicated to the Covenant by playing an active role together in redeeming the world.

Initial signatories (in alphabetical order):

Rabbi Jehoshua Ahrens (Germany)

Rabbi Marc Angel (United States)

Rabbi Isak Asiel (Chief Rabbi of Serbia)

Rabbi David Bigman (Israel)

Rabbi David Bollag (Switzerland)

Rabbi David Brodman (Israel)

Rabbi Natan Lopez Cardozo (Israel)

Rav Yehudah Gilad (Israel)

Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein (Israel)

Rabbi Irving Greenberg (United States)

Rabbi Marc Raphael Guedj (Switzerland)

Rabbi Eugene Korn (Israel)

Rabbi Daniel Landes (Israel)

Rabbi Steven Langnas (Germany)

Rabbi Benjamin Lau (Israel)

Rabbi Simon Livson (Chief Rabbi of Finland)

Rabbi Asher Lopatin (United States)

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin (Israel)

Rabbi David Rosen (Israel)

Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg (Israel)

Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger (Israel)

Rabbi Shmuel Sirat (France)

Rabbi Daniel Sperber (Israel)

Rabbi Jeremiah Wohlberg (United States)

Rabbi Alan Yuter (Israel)

STATEMENT SOURCES

[1] Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 11:4 (uncensored edition); Kuzari, section 4:22

[2] Seder Olam Rabbah 35-37; Sefer ha-Shimush 15-17.

[3] Principles of Education, “Talmudic Judaism and Society,” 225-227.

[4] Fourth meeting of the Bilateral Commission of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jewry, Grottaferrata, Italy (19 October 2004).

[5] Commentary on Genesis 33:4.

[6] Gloss on Shulhan Arukh, Hoshen Mishpat, Section 425:5.

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Washington D.C., Dec 10, 2015 / 07:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A U.S. designation of genocide for ISIS’ actions would offer prompt and significant support to the religious minorities it has targeted, said one researcher, warning that history cautions against inaction.    “It is striking what a difference that word makes,” Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch and a research professor at George Mason University, told the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations in his Dec. 9 testimony on Capitol Hill.   Stanton’s group studied past use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” in four previous genocides: Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Darfur.    They found that if the term “ethnic cleansing” was used to describe atrocities against an ethnic or religious group, no action was taken to stop the violence. However, if the term “genocide” was used publicly, action was subsequently taken to stop the atrocities.   “The reason why it is so powerful,” he continued, “is that ‘genocide’ actually means the destruction of a people.” He added that it “therefore impoverishes the entire human race,” he added, and is a “crime against the entire future of the human race.”   “Our conclusion as genocide scholars is that when lesser terms, weaker terms are used, it is a sure indicator of an unwillingness to act,” Stanton said.   The hearing took place as the State Department is soon expected to designate ISIS’ atrocities inflicted on the Yazidis in the Nineveh region of Iraq as genocide, based mainly upon a Holocaust Museum report. According to reports, Christians, Shi’a Muslims, and other ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria will not be listed as victims of genocide by ISIS.    A group of legal experts, religious leaders and other advocates wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Dec. 4, asking him to a briefing with a delegation on why ISIS’ campaign against Christians in Iraq and Syria is, in fact a genocide.    ISIS has waged genocide against not only Yazidis, but also Christians, Shi’a Muslims, and Turkmen and Shabak communities in Iraq and Syria, said the independent, bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a religious liberty watchdog that makes policy recommendations to the State Department. On Dec. 7, the commission urged the administration to make a genocide designation for all those communities.   “We have adequate proof already of the intent to commit genocide by ISIS against Christians and against Shi’a Muslims,” Stanton stated in his testimony.    And Congress should consider special funding to investigate for further evidence of genocide in Syria and Iraq, suggested Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, before the House subcommittee.   A prompt genocide designation would also give prioritization to the resettlement of Christian refugees, many of who cannot be resettled in the U.S. because they avoid the U.N. refugee camps out of security concerns, and thus do not register as refugees. The U.S. bases its resettlement process off of referrals by the U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR.   “Religious minorities do not feel safe in the camps, and therefore if the process hinges on being in the camps, we have to find alternative mechanisms to go out and register these people outside of the camps,” Anderson said.    “That’s why the designation of genocide is so important because it gives priority to these vulnerable minorities,” he added, many of who are stuck in neighboring countries. They have had their homes destroyed and communities occupied and could wait years to obtain a visa.   One of the objections raised to a genocide designation for Christians is that they are theoretically considered “People of the Book” and therefore given an option by ISIS invaders to remain in their communities if they pay a jizya tax. While they would receive second-class status, they would not be forced to flee, convert to Islam, or be killed. The Holocaust Museum report – upon which the State Department will reportedly base its designation – noted this, Stanton said.    However, this concept is “an ISIS lie,” he said. “The truth is, the ISIS tax is so high that few can pay it, and so they’re beheaded, or even more likely, crucified if they do not renounce their faith in Jesus Christ and convert to Islam.”    In his written testimony, Stanton explained that history shows the importance of promptly recognizing a genocide when it occurs.    For example, the U.S. and other countries for years referred to the atrocities committed in Bosnia as “ethnic cleansing.” Following the Srebrenica massacre in July, 1995, however, a NATO conference took place days later and NATO began bombing Serbian forces in late August. The Bosnian civil war soon ended.    Atrocities in Kosovo were also referred to as “ethnic cleansing” before the U.S. war crimes ambassador told of “indicators of genocide” on April 7, 1999. Belgrade was bombed promptly afterward, Serbia soon surrendered and NATO subsequently occupied Belgrade. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia later convicted six Serbian leaders for crimes against humanity. 

Photo Credit: Evgeni Gitlits via www.shutterstock.com.    

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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A coalition of religious leaders joined three U.S. senators on Capitol Hill Dec. 8 to say "enough is enough" to those who want to bar Muslim refugees from Syria and other Middle East trouble spots from the U.S. after terrorist attacks in Paris and Southern California.

In the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, shooters identified as jihadists killed at least 129 people. In San Bernardino, California, a married couple, who authorities say were radicalized Muslims, killed 14 people and injured 21 others Dec. 2 at a county social services center.

"There is absolutely no reason to stop or pause the resettlement of Syrian refugees. The fear around this is wrong and as people of faith, we must demand more from our public officials," said Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington.

The House has passed legislation that would pause the Obama administration's plan to take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year. A similar bill will be taken up by the Senate. Lawmakers backing the measures claim there are too many holes in the process to properly vet refugees to be resettled in the U.S.

But Cardinal McCarrick in his remarks on the Hill said the United States "has the most secure refugee resettlement process in the world. Refugees are the most scrutinized and screened individuals to enter the United States."

"Many families find themselves between the violence behind them and the refusal of resettlement in some place with peace and safety, which is all that they really want," said Bishop Sally Dyck of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church. "I trust that all of our elected leaders will not prevent these Syrian families from being able to resettle in our country."

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said that "intolerance has no place in our country," adding that accepting refugees is part of U.S. history and culture and a part "of who were are."

"It can be done safely with the proper screening procedures," he continued. "In the words of Pope Francis, our message to those seeking refugee should be 'one of hope and healing, of peace and justice.'

"To respond by closing our doors to those fleeing our enemy is to give in to that enemy. It is in these difficult moments that our actions most directly reflect who we are as a nation. It is time for senators to lead by following our consciences. It is time to do what is right and moral."

He was joined by U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Timothy Kaine, D-Virginia.

The senators and the religious leaders also roundly criticized an anti-Muslim backlash that has followed the latest terrorist attacks.

After the rampage in San Bernardino, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump Dec. 7 called for all Muslims to be barred temporarily from entering the U.S. until the government figures out what is behind such attacks.

His remarks were roundly condemned by his fellow Republican candidates, the Democratic presidential candidates and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, among others.

Reacting to such "horrific terrorist attacks" by calling for the government to suspend admitting refugees to this country "is precisely what terrorists want," said Durbin.

"They commit these atrocities to disrupt our lives, make us look over our shoulders, and to turn neighbor against neighbor in fear. We cannot allow the United States to fall into that trap," he added.

In the debate over refugees, "we cannot abandon the core principles that we stand for as a nation," said Kaine. "Refugees are not our enemies. ISIL (the Islamic State) is our enemy."

"America's response to these attacks should be to take the fight to ISIL abroad and to strengthen our national security at home," he said. "Our response should not be to slam the door on the children and families fleeing ISIL terrorism themselves."

Rabbi Jack Moline, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance, said barring refugees from the U.S. because they are Muslim is a violation of the Constitution, which "says there should be no religious test" for running for office, for "our compassion" or for "the humanity of a refugee."

"If the legacy of this country is to give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, what does it mean when our fellow human beings who are running for their lives for their lives ask us to be true to that legacy? It means no religious test," the rabbi said.

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By Natalie Hoefer

INDIANAPOLIS (CNS) -- The two small children and their parents were exhausted as their plane landed in Indianapolis at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7.

These were not the average tired travelers coming home from a tourist trip. This was a family arriving to their new home, ready to start a new life in a new country.

This was a family of refugees, leaving behind all they owned in war-ravaged Syria, ready to finally settle in the United States after a three-year wait to be welcomed.

Flor Bickel, senior immigration consultant for the Indianapolis Archdiocese's Refugee and Immigrant Services, assisted the family at the airport.

"They were so tired, and the children were sleeping in their arms," she told The Criterion, the archdiocesan newspaper. "But there was so much hope in their eyes."

Heidi Smith, director of the archdiocesan refugee services agency, said it was a "happy reunion" with the mother's sister and the sister's family, who live in Indianapolis.

The family's journey has been a long one. Fleeing their home in Syria three years ago due to violence, they have been living in transitional housing in Amman, Jordan.

After two years of extensive security checks and personal interviews by the U.S. government, the family was approved to come to America.

Because of the family's relatives in Indianapolis, the archdiocese was asked to help resettle the Syrian family through its regular participation in a program that is a public-private partnership between the federal government and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its Migration and Refugee Services.

Then, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Nov. 16 announced that he would suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state.

On Dec. 2, Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin met with the governor to discuss the family's plight, to reassure him that they had gone through an extensive background check, and to explain the archdiocese's refugee resettlement process.

A news release was distributed to the media by the archdiocese Dec. 8 announcing that the family had safely arrived the night before.

"I thank Governor Pence for meeting with me last Wednesday, when I was able to explain in some detail the plight of this family as well as the role of the Archdiocese's Refugee and Immigrant Services program in welcoming them to Indianapolis, where the family already has some relatives," the archbishop stated in the press release.

"I listened to the governor's concerns regarding security and prayerfully considered his request that we defer from welcoming them until Congress had approved new legislation regarding immigrants and refugees," he added.

"I informed the governor prior to the family's arrival that I had asked the staff of Catholic Charities to receive this husband, wife and their two small children as planned," Archbishop Tobin said.

Soon after the archdiocesan news release was distributed, the governor's office issued a statement that, while the governor "holds Catholic Charities in the highest regard," he "respectfully disagrees with their decision to place a Syrian refugee family in Indiana at this time."

On Dec. 8, Pence said at a news conference he would not block the refugee family from receiving state aid such as food stamps and health care, though he told the media he continues to oppose the family's relocation to Indiana.

David Bethuram, director of Catholic Charities Indianapolis, said his office has received numerous calls of support for the resettlement of the family -- from offers of living space to offers of financial assistance, and even "calls just saying 'we support what you're doing.'

"It's given us a good opportunity to explain to people the process of refugee resettlement, this avenue of the church to welcome (refugees)," he said. "We've done it for 40 years, and will continue to do it."

While there are no other Syrian families slated for resettlement in the archdiocese, Bethuram pointed out that Syrians "are not the only population we're resettling right now. We have lots of others from Burma, Bhutanese (from Nepal), Africa -- all of them have gone through the same process this Syrian family has gone through."

Per this process, the Syrian family will be placed in an apartment furnished with donated items. The archdiocese's Refugee and Immigrant Services will assist the family in registering for medical, welfare and Social Security aid, followed by help in transitioning to their new life in America. They will receive community and cultural orientation, English classes, tutoring, job readiness courses, professional certifications and employment placement.

The family arrived in the archdiocese on the eve of the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and also in the midst of Advent, as Archbishop Tobin noted.

"We welcome this family during Advent, a time when the Christian community asks God to renew our hope and recognize God's saving power among us," he said. "As we wait with hope during this season of Advent, I ask all people of good will to pray for peace in our homes, local communities and throughout the world."

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Hoefer is a reporter at The Criterion, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

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By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholics are called to witness to their faith in Jesus before all people, including Jews, but the Catholic Church "neither conducts nor supports" any institutional missionary initiative directed toward Jews, says a new document from a Vatican commission.

How God will save the Jews if they do not explicitly believe in Christ is "an unfathomable divine mystery," but one which must be affirmed since Catholics believe that God is faithful to his promises and therefore never revoked his covenant with the Jewish people, it says.

In the statement, "The Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable," the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews gives thanks for 50 years of Catholic-Jewish dialogue and looks at some of the theological questions that have arisen in the dialogue and in Catholic theology since the Second Vatican Council.

The topics covered in the document, released Dec. 10, include: the meaning of "the Word of God" in Judaism and Christianity; the relationship between the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament; the relationship between God's covenant with Israel and the New Covenant; the meaning of the universality of salvation in Christ in view of "God's unrevoked covenant" with the Jewish people; and what evangelization means in relation to the Jews.

The document explicitly states that it is not a "doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church," but a reflection based on doctrine and flowing from Vatican II's declaration "Nostra Aetate" on Catholic relations with other religions.

Like "Nostra Aetate," the new document condemns all forms of anti-Semitism and affirms that Christianity's relationship with Judaism is unique in the field of interreligious dialogue because of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. In addition to believing that the Jewish Scriptures are God's revelation, Jesus and his disciples were practicing Jews, and many elements of Catholic liturgy developed out of formal Jewish prayer.

"One cannot understand Jesus' teaching or that of his disciples without situating it within the Jewish horizon in the context of the living tradition of Israel," the document says. "One would understand his teachings even less so if they were seen in opposition to this tradition."

The Jewish roots of Christianity, it says, give the Christian faith its necessary "anchoring in salvation history," showing how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are part of the story of God's saving work since the beginning of time, and that Christianity is not a system of religious belief that appeared out of the blue with the birth of Jesus.

Because Catholics recognize their faith as having its roots in the faith of the Jews, the document says, dialogue and joint study bring obvious advantages to Catholic knowledge of the Bible and faith in the one God.

The first Jewish Christians continued to go to the synagogue and, the document said, historical evidence indicates the break between Christianity and Judaism -- between the church and synagogue -- may not have been complete until the 3rd century or even the 4th century. In addition, modern rabbinical Judaism developed after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70, the same time as Christianity was developing. For those reasons, the document says, Jews, too, can learn from Christian historical studies.

Within Catholic theology over the past 50 years, some scholars have hypothesized the existence and validity of two "covenants," one that God made with the Jews and one made through Jesus. The new document, however, insists "there can only be one single covenant history of God with humanity."

At the same time, however, the document says God's covenant with humanity developed over time: it was first forged with Abraham, then the law was given to Moses, then new promises were given to Noah.

"Each of these covenants incorporates the previous covenant and interprets it in a new way," the document says. "That is also true for the New Covenant which for Christians is the final eternal covenant and, therefore, the definitive interpretation of what was promised by the prophets."

The covenant sealed with the death and resurrection of Christ, it said, is "neither the annulment nor the replacement, but the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Covenant."

The Vatican document also rejects the notion that there are two paths to salvation, one for Christians and one for Jews. "Confessing the universal and therefore also exclusive mediation of salvation through Jesus Christ belongs to the core of Christian faith."

But that does not mean it is up to Christians to determine that God can save only those who explicitly acknowledge Christ as son of God and savior, it says. "Here we confront the mystery of God's work, which is not a matter of missionary efforts to convert Jews, but rather the expectation that the Lord will bring about the hour when we will be united."

A week before the Vatican document was released, two dozen Orthodox rabbis signed a "statement on Christianity" circulated by the Israel-based Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation.

"We acknowledge that Christianity is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations," the statement said. In separating Judaism and Christianity, God "willed a separation between partners with significant theological differences, not a separation between enemies."

In addition, the rabbis said, now that the Catholic Church has acknowledged the eternal covenant between God and Israel, "we Jews can acknowledge the ongoing constructive validity of Christianity as our partner in world redemption, without any fear that this will be exploited for missionary purposes."

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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