According to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, one of the statement’s initiators, 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.”

Orthodox Rabbis Issue Groundbreaking Declaration Affirming ‘Partnership’ With Christianity

A group of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is “the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations” and urging Jews and Christians to “work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era.”

“Jesus brought a double goodness to the world,” the statement reads. “On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically” and on the other hand “he removed idols from the nations,” instilling them “firmly with moral traits.”

This year 2015 marks the 50^th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the declaration issued in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council, which marked a watershed in Jewish-Christian relations.

In language unusual for its day, Nostra Aetate stated that “God holds the Jews most dear,” stressed the great “spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews,” and condemned “hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

Now, a group of Jewish leaders has responded in kind, expressing their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”

“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,” the text reads.

The statement bears the title, “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians,” and is signed by over 25 prominent Orthodox rabbis, who invite fellow Orthodox rabbis to join in signing the statement.

“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,” it says.

Echoing recent words by Pope Francis, the document states: “We are no longer enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of humanity.”

“Neither of us can achieve G-d’s mission in this world alone,” it says.

Steven Riskin Experiencing Jesus  & Perlow's Disease

According to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, one of the statement’s initiators, 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.”

“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.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/12/17/orthodox-rabbis-issue-groundbreaking-declaration-affirming-partnership-christianity/

• Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries: Introduction
• Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries
• The Earliest Christians
• Political Changes
• Peaceful Coexistence and Papal Intervention
• The Medieval Era
• European anti-Semitism after 1800
• Summary

Introduction to Gerald S. Sloyan’s article on Christian Persecution of Jews Over the Centuries

By Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, PhD

Professor of Social Ethics, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago
Member and Former Chair, Committee on Church Relations and the Holocaust, United States Holocaust Memorial Council

Antisemitism has many parents. Scholars of ancient civilizations have revealed the presence of a cultural antipathy towards Jews and their religion in Greco-Roman society. There is little question that some of the early Gentile converts to Christianity shared in this cultural bias. As Gentiles they also were not well acquainted with the internal life of the Jewish community at the time of Jesus. Hence they read many of the New Testament texts as condemnations of Judaism as such rather than internal quarrels which were commonplace within the Jewish community of the period.

This image of a medieval etching, depicting Jews committing a purported ritual murder, was featured on the front page of the Nazi weekly Der Stürmer in 1939. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Competition for converts and other factors led to an intensification of Jewish-Christian conflict towards the end of the first century even though there is evidence of continued Jewish-Christian interaction, including Christian participation in Sabbath worship, in some areas well beyond that. These conflicts had a negative impact on the writers of certain parts of the New Testament especially the author of the gospel of John which was compiled about this time. In several places John’s gospel associates “the Jews” with darkness and with the devil. This laid the groundwork for centuries of Christian characterization of Jews as agents of the devil, a characterization which found its way into medieval popular religion and eventually into passion plays.

In the second century and beyond, many of the principal Fathers of the Church began to write of Jews as a “rejected people” who were doomed to a life of marginality and misery. Jews were to wander the world as a “despised people.” This image persisted in Christian preaching, art and popular teaching for centuries to come. In certain countries it often led to civil and political discrimination against Jews and in some instances to physical attacks on Jews which resulted in death. While some Popes, bishops and Christian princes stepped up to protect Jews, they were clearly a minority. It was only in the mid-twentieth century that the Catholic Church and many Protestant denominations issued major statements repudiating this anti-Judaic theology and began a process of constructive Christian-Jewish interaction.

A page from an antisemitic book for children, titled Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom), distributed by Der Stürmer’s publishing house in 1938. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

When the Nazis came on the scene in Germany they were able to draw upon the legacy of Christian anti-Judaism even though biologically-based antisemitism went well beyond classical Christian anti-Judaism by arguing for the annihilation of the Jews rather than only for their misery and marginality. Christian antisemitism provided an indispensable seedbed for the success of Nazism on the popular level. It led some Christians to embrace the Nazi ideology and many others to stand on the sidelines as masses of Jews were exterminated.

In the following pages noted Scripture scholar and theologian Gerard Sloyan has detailed in chronological fashion the “shadow” on the cross of Christianity. It does not make for pleasant reading. But it is a legacy that must be confronted with honesty and remorse. Knowledge of this history of antisemitism within the Christian churches is indispensable for any full understanding of the Holocaust.

Read excerpts from Gerald S. Sloyan’s article
Download a full printable version of Gerald S. Sloyan’s article (PDF)

Two millennia of Jewish persecution

An overview of 2,000 years of Jewish persecution

http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_pers2.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_pers3.htm
http://www.academia.edu/7994345/Violence_and_Persecution_Medieval_Jewish-Christian_Relations
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/HistoryPersecution.htm