Dr. Pisar began by saying that his two credentials for speaking that night were the Auschwitz numbers engraved on his arm, and the shared determination with everyone present that the horrors perpetrated in this barbaric century, would "never be repeated again." He said that he was convinced that if Jesus, his mother Mary, and the 12 Apostles had lived in his time, they would have been with him at Auschwitz. He confessed that his pain had been so great that he had often "raised a blasphemous fist to heaven and asked: Where is God? Where is the pope? Do they know what is happening here to us? Do they care?"

Dr. Pisar praised the Church of France and Cardinal Lustiger who played a crucial role in the writing of an extraordinary mea culpa for Catholic passivity and silence during the tragic period of Nazi genocide and Vichy collaboration. Speaking to Cardinal Lustiger, Dr. Pisar said, "We heard these words of repentance with tears in our eyes: Tears which came from the same well of sorrow, because our mothers, yours and mine, had both perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz."

Dr. Pisar also praised Pope John Paul II and prayed that God would give him "strength to continue to speak out against the venomous roots of religious and secular anti-Semitism, which have bred so much hatred and violence."

Dr. Pisar then related that Edith Stein, recently canonized as Sister Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, was gassed at Auschwitz in 1942 "not because she was a Carmelite nun, but because she had been born a Jew." He said he was encouraged by the pope's announcement that Catholics will annually commemorate the Shoah, but added, "Such commemorations on August 9th, the day of the new saint's death, rather than the 27th of Nissan, established under the Hebrew calendar half a century ago as Yom Hashoah, to mourn the six million Jewish martyrs, may generate needless confusion and pain. Let us hope that the Vatican will not be indifferent to such concerns."

Returning his focus to Cardinal Lustiger, Dr. Pisar said, "Eminence, on behalf of the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding, and in recognition of your immense and lifelong contributions to inter-faith harmony, it is now my great honor to confer upon you the Nostra Aetate Award."

Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger Archbishop of Paris "Jews and Christians, Tomorrow"

Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, Israeli Ambassador Shmuel Sisso and John Cardinal O'Connor speak at Cardinal O'Connor's residence

Cardinal Lustiger began his lecture in the 100-year-old Sutton Place Synagogue by noting the contrast of Europe, with its still-open wounds of the past, and American history and culture which has allowed the conditions of trust and freedom for Jewish-Christian relations to thrive. In the spirit of that trust and freedom Cardinal Lustiger responded to Dr. Pisar's earlier concerns by saying, "I will not fail to invite the Catholics of Paris to join the Jewish communities in prayers on Yom Shoah-the Day of the Shoah, April 13, 1999; 27 Nissan, 5759." Cardinal O'Connor affirmed that the same invitation would be made to the Catholics of New York.

Cardinal Lustiger's paper focused on four areas: 1) New relationships between Jews and Christians; 2) Election and jealousy; 3) Historical time and world history; and 4) the universality of the blessing. The cardinal said that geographical changes have corresponded to "cultural and spiritual transfers, and also to new types of relationships between Jews and Christians." He remarked how Jews are respected when they live among Western Christians, whereas the young State of Israel is still striving for economic and political security. With this gradual evolution of the Jewish condition and the renewal of the Catholic Church, he said, "Christians have opened their eyes and ears to the Jewish pain and wounds. They accept to be held as responsible. They agree to bear that burden without rejecting it on others. They have not tried to declare themselves innocent."

Briefly commenting on French Bishops' Declaration of Repentance read at Drancy on September 30, 1997, Cardinal Lustiger explained that the bishops did not want to insist on the role played by numerous Catholics who saved Jewish lives in France. The bishops were afraid that they would have yielded, even unconsciously, to the temptation of justifying themselves. He said that only an honest declaration of repentance was the proper beginning of a meaningful dialogue in order to acknowledge what still divides people. He said, "It would be an illusion to think that preaching tolerance or even educating to it is enough to eradicate incomprehension and rejection. Together, we still have to identify the causes of such fierce tensions . . . [that] cannot be eliminated by human determination."

In the second part of his paper, Cardinal Lustiger presented the historical background to the concepts of election and jealousy in the Christian Church. He said, "As early as 50 or 60 AD, Saul of Tarsus-Paul-had tried to arouse the jealousy of his Pharisee brothers against the pagans who were followers of the Messiah. . . . Under his pen, this suggests emulation in faithfulness to the election by the living God, not arrogant and homicidal envy. The 'jealousy' that Paul expected was not the murderous envy which seized Jacob's sons in front of their brother Joseph (Genesis 37), but the divine jealousy which is the burning of loving predilection." Cardinal Lustiger noted that the double meaning of the word "jealousy" in the Bible has induced two contradictory interpretations of the Scriptures and bifurcated behavior in history. He said, "What has happened between Jews and Christians over the last 20 centuries is a tragedy of human jealousy usurping the appearance of divine jealousy. This jealous zeal, which was only too human, took up a different disguise depending on whether the simulators were Jewish or Christian."

Despite the fact that the best minds knew that the Scriptures, Revelation, and the Source of Salvation were all received from the Jews, Cardinal Lustiger said that the Christians' jealousy of Israel took the shape of a claim for an exclusive legacy which resulted in Christians competing with, marginalizing, pushing out, and even persecuting Jews. It is true, he admitted, that the Jews reciprocated by exiling and ignoring Christians as impure goyim. However, due to the eventual large numbers of Christians and unequal power between the two groups, Cardinal Lustiger said that the symbols of the Christian faith came to be understood by the Jews as "symbols of the violence and death whose victims were the Jews. These emblems could no longer in any way signify mercy, forgiveness, or love. They were but horrible pictures, which were better not to look at, which must not be thought of or mentioned, as forebodings of death and supreme blasphemies!"

The third part of Cardinal Lustiger's paper compared Jews and Christians in world history. He pointed out that the last destruction of the Temple and the great dispersion left the Jewish communities only with synagogues where they were no longer able to offer sacrifices and were forced to practice a life of prayer and fidelity that approached the "monastic." Cardinal Lustiger said, "For centuries the Jews participated only marginally in human history . . . [and] allowed themselves to be buried in history in order to be the witnesses of their faith and of their prophecies. They were hidden inside history and absent from history-except through misfortunes and persecutions. Without a land of their own, without being citizens, they used the languages of the nations that accepted their particularity, but they kept at the heart of prayer the language of the Revelation. They were present everywhere and absent from everything."

On the other hand, "Christians of the nations," said Cardinal Lustiger, "should have remained aware that they were offered gratuitously-as a grace which they had not deserved-to take part in what God had granted to Israel. But they were permanently tempted, in the course of these last two millennia, to reduce to the particularities of their own history the final accomplishment of the divine design. . . . Such religiosity, which was bound to be oppressive and intolerant, was incomprehensible and in any case unacceptable for the Jews whose only king was God and who knew that no kingdom could claim to be God's kingdom, unless it was governed by God Himself in peace and justice."

The final part of Cardinal Lustiger's paper addressed the universality of the blessing. Comparing Jews with Christians, Cardinal Lustiger said that Jews needed to protect themselves and lived through the dispersion by "stressing their particularity and preserving their identity behind the fence of the Law." Christians, who were pagans of all languages, cultures, and races reacted in a similar way and received the whole of the Scriptures as the Word of God. The difference was that Christians were able to accomplish a more universal mission by adapting to the languages, ethnic groups, cultures, kingdoms, and empires where they lived. National and ethic divides remain today the most serious threat to the unity and universal communion that Christians are called to bear witness to and to foster, Cardinal Lustiger said, "But we have entered a new age in the history of humankind and the fundamental conditions are being upset and turned upside down."

The cardinal commented that both Jews and Christians have worked for a secular universalism which is based on reason and on the ambition of human rights. He confessed, however, "Jews have often joined the Christians in the miscalculations and faults which were caused by human presumption, while they were the first victims of these advances, which backfired with unprecedented selective cruelty." But thanks to their participation in the dramatic evolution of civilization and culture, Jews have created the State of Israel by asserting their national identity and destiny; whereas the Catholic Church in the modern era is trying to be freed from the domination of princes and from national identifications.

Cardinal Lustiger concluded by saying that the rediscovery of perpetuity of the existence of the people of Israel, and of its fidelity, is the fruit of Christians rediscovering their own wealth and vocation. He said, "There is no steering away from the direction we are now following. This is part of the movement through which humankind is being united, even at the cost of confrontations. This orientation testifies to the Catholic Church's determination to carry out her mission in the service of this world, to do the will of the Creator of Israel and Redeemer of humanity."

John Cardinal O'Connor Archbishop of New York
Cardinal O'Connor shared his trademark blend of humor and spirituality and elicited applause and laughter when he said that he enjoyed coming to a synagogue because all the men dressed as he did. [pointing to his keepo] He also informed Cardinal Lustiger that he would never be invited to St. Patrick's Cathedral. [The last two places where Cardinal Lustiger was scheduled to speak both burned down.]

Cardinal O'Connor said that he would seek clarification from the Pope about the confusion over an alternate Shoah commemoration, as Dr. Pisar had mentioned. He believed that Pope John Paul II did not propose a replacement date for Yom Shoah, but some journalists has misrepresented what the Pope meant when he said that Christians would also remember the victims of the Shoah when they remembered the feast of Sr. Teresa Benedicta. He said that the Pope is "deeply pained when he is interpreted as saying something that would be justifiably considered offensive. I will be in

Rome in a couple of weeks and I will be audacious enough to ask the Holy Father's clarification of this."
Turning to Rabbi Sirat, Cardinal O'Connor said that Rabbi Sirat has been consistently a professor and teacher: "He is a man who has spent his life seeking understanding, seeking clarification, and trying to transmit his own insights-especially to students." Again eliciting applause, the Cardinal said, "I consider him a rather young man. He was born in 1930. As one who was born in 1920 I do not want to offend him by calling him a youngster."

Cardinal O'Connor closed with a Hassidic tale often told by professor Ellie Wiesel. The story concludes when the rabbi of the tale is asked by his students what he sees as he is being burned to death in the scrolls he has been wrapped in. The rabbi in the story responds, "The parchments are burning, but the letters remain alive. The letters are indestructible!" Cardinal O'Connor concluded, "Words do not disappear. It is as a teacher that he leaves them. Rabbi Sirat, it is as a teacher that I presume to ask you to accept this Nostra Aetate Award.

Rabbi Rene-Samuel Sirat Chief Rabbi of France "What Can We, Jews, Learn from Nostra Aetate?"

Rabbi Sirat first began by acknowledging the teshuva of the Catholic Church concerning the Shoah, and prayed that this process would reach full achievement. He confessed that this would be difficult because of the past silence and lack of concern on the part of world leaders as Jews were being murdered during WWII. He also mentioned the imminent canonization of Edith Stein as "an offense inflicted upon the survivors of the Shoah who remained faithful to the God of Israel during these hard times."

Remembering with joy the 50th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel, Rabbi Sirat said, "We should also mention the explicit assertion of a policy of making friendly overtures with Middle-East countries-the will to be on good terms with neighboring countries and to live with them in peace and in mutual respect. Also striking is the determination to emphasize the democratic character of the newborn state by granting its citizens equal rights and duties, regardless of sex, ethnic group, or religion."

He admitted that difficult times lay ahead, as the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin clearly demonstrated. But he said that such tragedies should not muffle the voices of the rabbis, princes of peace, to comment untiringly on the Pirke Abot, the maxims of the Fathers of the synagogue. Rabbi Sirat said that he had spoken modestly of peace, fraternity, and love for humanity but received "almost no feedback to [his] words. Obviously, peace speeches are not popular in these times." He said, however, that the courage of the Church to speak out and work for justice could serve as an example for Jews. Rabbi Sirat said that an act of collective teshuva is necessary and began his paper by describing the need for teshuva towards women.

He said, "Our sisters, our spouses, our daughters have achieved by sheer willpower (and alas, without our help, when it wasn't against our will!) the achievement of their legitimate place in society." He acknowledged that there needs to be a literal and figurative place for women in the synagogue. He criticized the Jewish community for not codifying the Bat Mitzvah where "a 13-year-old brother receives all the honors and his 12-year-old sister, a quiet and hasty ceremony, with no real participation of the young girl entering into the community of Israel." He said that he had achieved some progress in the advancement of women in academia but had "failed miserably" as the Chief Rabbi of France by not following up on his proposals towards "a progressive change of our ways of thinking and reacting." He wondered if modern Jews had become more religious than their fathers or grandfathers by not allowing women into the prayer area. He invited the audience to "take up the noble challenge of the Bible where a woman like Deborah was named supreme judge in Israel." He also asked for compassion and change in the policies that require women to go to rabbinical seminary for matters of divorce, levirate, or conversion and the injustice of the inadmissibility of a woman's oath.

The second part of Rabbi Sirat's paper was a call for teshuva towards the Jewish people. Citing political divisions, Rabbi Sirat said, "The unity of the Israeli people can be rebuilt only if we move beyond the ideological rifts and definitely assert our political will to focus on the goal and the means of strengthening our social fabric. The setting up of a social plan, fundamentally different from the current rage of uncontrolled liberalism, of which America experiences today, with its risks and limits, is necessary." He lamented that the study of the Jewish tradition by the majority of the chosen people has waned and implored those who had become secular or agnostic: "Come back, make teshuva, study the Torah, even without practicing the Mitzvoth. In it, you will find the answers to questions that assault you, when the death of ideologies-all ideologies of right and left-leave you in a state of utter confusion. At least, allow your children to find the roots which you so badly lack."

Rabbi Sirat's third section focused on teshuva towards the Palestinians and the peoples of the Middle East. Rabbi Sirat extolled many of the accomplishments of Zionism in the last 50 years; namely, the remarkable resurrection of the Hebrew language, the integration of Jews from 70 regions of the world, the production of superior technologies, a nation which can defend itself when being attacked, and a land that lives in abundance.

Rabbi Sirat observed that on 36 occasions the Torah says that Jews shall love strangers as they love themselves. He said, "Considering the conciseness of the biblical text, such an insistence bears considerable weight. It is by this moral obligation that the success of the Project of Return, of the redemption of the Land of the Promise, should be evaluated." Unfortunately, Rabbi Sirat confessed, much work still needs to be accomplished in this area. He emphatically stated that the notion that Jews would seek to rule over other peoples was not acceptable. He said, "For this, Rabin and Peres completely deserved the Nobel Prize for Peace. Yet, the duty of the rabbis to make teshuva towards the Palestinians remains. It is the duty of Israel to avoid any vain moral or physical sufferings and to call the people to make teshuva." He continued, "There is no holy war. Only peace is holy. But peace cannot be unilateral. If your enemy wants your destruction, you must use all the means of defense at your disposal, even the death of the assailant."

The final part of Rabbi Sirat's paper advocated that Jews should make a teshuva towards the world. Rabbi Sirat said, "Since 1945, after the dreadful Shoah, the nations of the world, in their entirety, have shown signs of a real teshuva. In return, in a conscious or unconscious manner, they are expecting Israel to become again the wise and discerning people referred to in the Bible." He said, "People-Witnesses can become again the people of the Word, the People of the Message, the People of Ethics, in short, the light of the nations."

He concluded by saying, "Our teshuva, followed by the teshuva of humankind will lead to universal peace and harmony. In other words, the messiah riding on an ass will enter into a Jerusalem of justice, faithfulness, holiness, fraternity, and peace. In that time, Israel will have accomplished God's will and will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

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