We all know how well old dogs do with new tricks — but how about old Jews and old Catholics?
In 1974, the Vatican announced that, regarding Jesus, “What happened in his passion cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today.”
According to Professor Sara S. Lee, a specialist in interreligious education, many Catholics educated before that pronouncement have trouble accepting it, and may not feel that Jews possess a “viable covenant with God.”
Meanwhile, many middle-aged or older Jews have trouble accepting Christians’ viable covenant, don’t understand the religion and see Christians only as would-be persecutors.
“We can’t make nice on the crusades,” Lee said in a recent phone interview. “We can’t just say ‘these were poor, misguided Christians who went out and killed Jews.’ I’m not asking for us to sweeten up some of the bad things that happened. But we can pay attention to how we present Christianity as a living and vital tradition.”
Lee, scholar-in-residence at Oakland’s Temple Sinai, will deliver three lectures relating to religious pluralism Dec. 13, 14 and 15.
“One of the great challenges is how to undertake relationships between Jews and Christians in a world where both Jews and Christians really have to revisit their assumptions about each other.”
As director of the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at Los Angeles’ Hebrew Union College, Lee has facilitated a number of Jewish-Catholic dialogue sessions with Catholic colleagues. Many Christians, she believes, mistakenly see Judaism only as a “biblical religion.”
“It’s almost as if from the Bible to the destruction of the Second Temple nothing happened until now [with] contemporary Jews in the state of Israel. There’s an ignorance of the rabbinic traditions, the great texts, the great scholars. We weren’t dormant until now. All along, Judaism has been evolving,” she said.
“Who we are today as Jews, we really are Jews of the rabbinic tradition, not the biblical tradition. What shapes Judaism as it exists now is rabbinic tradition, the Talmud, the codes in which Jewish philosophy evolved, not the sacrificial cult of the temple.”
Jews, too, tend to dwell on the past. Jews tend to see Christians as “misguided people who ran after Jesus” and don’t acknowledge the evolution of Christianity over thousands of years.
And while many Christians might mischaracterize Judaism, Lee believes they know more about Judaism than Jews do about Christianity. Most of the seminary students she has talked with are very literate in the Hebrew Bible, but only a few of the future rabbis and Jewish educators she has taught possess more than a superficial knowledge of Christianity.
This is unfortunate, said Lee, because understanding friends and associates who are of a different faith isn’t totally possible without understanding their faith.
“Working with Christians and having Christian friends doesn’t necessarily mean you know them in the context of their own faith tradition.”
Relating to one-another while ignoring religious matters is possible, Lee noted. But that wouldn’t be very pluralistic.
“We could all be Americans, and then religious tradition wouldn’t matter at all. But that would suggest that one’s religious identity is basically irrelevant. Obviously, as a religious educator, I don’t believe that. I believe religion has much to contribute to society. Who we are as people of religion ought to inform the world.”
Besides, Lee stresses, Jews should care what other people believe. And if Jews don’t understand much about Christianity, they really don’t have a clue when it comes to Islam.
While Jews and Muslims have a far less antagonistic history than Jews and Christians, Lee has a hard time imagining any dialogue group not being weighed down with the political detritus of the Middle East conflict.
“We need to find a way to talk to Muslims,” said Lee.
“Hopefully, things will get better in Israel, and at some point we have to have serious dialogue with Muslims for two reasons: They’re a very growing population in this country and because we should want to help Muslims appreciate Judaism without being contaminated by the whole Mideast and Israel. We’re not going to solve Israel’s problems. That’s not the objective here.”
Jews, too, need to discard notions that Muslims are “all fundamentalists” and Islam is “a fanatic religion.”
Lee makes no promises of a quick fix and sees only many years of honest dialogue between religious groups as the road leading to a better future.
“If I came up with any miracle solutions, then tear up this interview!” she said. “I’d have no credibility.”