Serving as president of the New York Board of Rabbis has been quite an experience. In that capacity I’ve had the privilege to visit the West Wing; engage in dialogue with leadership of other faith communities and with our governor, mayor, and police commissioner; meet with Israel’s top decision makers; sit down with the secretary-general at the United Nations; and interact with ambassadors from around the world.
But my recent visit to the Vatican and meeting with the pope was certainly a rare and unique opportunity.
(Kudos to our executive vice president, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, for his extraordinary work in cultivating critical partnerships that enable the NYBR to represent the Jewish community in an impactful and meaningful way.)
To be honest, I dreaded returning to Rome. I remember being there a decade ago and I recall the unsettling feeling. After all, Rome is the symbol of the crushing of Jerusalem and our people’s enslavement and exile.
Nevertheless I was there because the NYBR leadership was invited to participate in a major international conference focused on anti-Semitism. How ironic. The Romans ransacked Israel, the Catholics were responsible for endless persecution of our people, and here we were in Rome talking about anti-Semitism.
We were attending the International Conference on the Responsibility of States, Institutions and Individuals in the Fight against anti-Semitism organized by the world’s largest regional security organization – the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. There are 57 member countries in the OSCE and, remarkably, foreign ministers from nearly every one of those countries were in attendance.
Italy recently assumed the leadership of the OSCE and Italian officials felt strongly that this year’s conference should address the alarming issue of the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. Fittingly, the conference took place in conjunction with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
I prepared extensively for my visit to the Vatican. I have always been cognizant of the halacha of not entering a church, and I certainly wasn’t going to violate that precept now. I sat in the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace next to Daniel Mariaschin, the CEO of B’nai B’rith International, and Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome. (Of all places to meet a chief rabbi – the Vatican!)
Mr. Mariaschin commented to me how important it was to reflect on the words of Dayeinu at that moment.
“Look how far we’ve come,” he said. “Consider how much anxiety and persecution our people have endured due to edicts that emanated from these very walls. And here we are today, sitting in a meeting with the pope. We can comfortably wear kippot on our heads. We are welcomed – as dignitaries – by a sitting pope who discusses the Shoah and responsibility. For this reason alone, we should say Dayeinu. Yes, there is more to be done. But be mindful of how far we’ve come with this institution.”
In his remarks, Pope Francis said “the enemy against which we fight is not only hatred in all of its forms, but even more fundamentally, indifference.” He spoke about “responsibility” and said, “we are responsible when we are able to respond.”
He went on to quote from the Nostra Aetate, primarily that “the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”
Upon conclusion of his words the pope greeted each one of us personally.
The main conference took place at the Italian Foreign Ministry and drew several hundred participants. The morning presentations focused primarily on the foreign ambassadors of each country delivering statements condemning discrimination, intolerance, and anti-Semitism.
Representatives of countries such as Sweden, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Belarus, the Netherlands, and others declared “there is no justification for anti-Semitism.” The ambassador from the Vatican said that “anti-Semitism is completely contrary to Catholic principles.”
After nearly two hours of these prepared statements, Holocaust survivor and former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau was handed the microphone. His stinging words stilled the entire room.
“[Three] years ago,” he said, “the [pope] came to Yad Vashem and made a comment that I’ll never forget. Quoting God in the story of Cain and Abel he asked, ‘ayeka.’ Where are you?’ Pope Francis said that this is the question that has to bother us always.”
Rabbi Lau went on to say:
“Where were you during the War? Kristallnacht? Babi Yar? Look at the newspapers in each of those countries on the day after atrocities took place. Barely a comment, let alone a condemnation! Where were you? Why did you keep silent?
“Pope John Paul II told me he knew my grandfather. During the War John Paul II was a priest and my father was a rabbi in the same town. John Paul II would see my father walking to shul every Shabbat. Each time, my father took 47 children with him to shul. How many of those children survived? Just five. Yet time and time again we are told that the church is committed to [its] ‘older brother,’ the Jewish people. The United States sent back the [refugee-filled ship] Saint Louis. Ayeka? Where were you?
“When World War II broke out, I was just two years old. At the end of the war I was seven and a half years old. For those six years, the only language I knew was Polish. And all that time, there was one word that constantly rang in my ears. In the camps, in the ghetto, in the trains, in the snow, all I could think about was this one word: lachergo? Why? Why is this happening to me? What did I do? What did my people do wrong? Did we threaten them? Did we have pistols?”
Rabbi Lau then said: “I listened to all your speeches, representing your respective countries. You’ve each delivered passionate speeches about the dangers of anti-Semitism. I lived through it! Tell me, what did we do wrong? What did I do wrong? A seven-and-a-half-year-old boy?
“Some told me, ‘You are foreigners here. If you had a land of your own, you’d be fine and we’d leave you alone. Your contribution to mankind is amazing, but we oppose you because you are a people without a land.’
“Today we have a land. Exactly seventy years ago the United Nations decided to finally give us a land. Do you love us now? We are intelligent people. We have much to offer the world. I hear all your speeches and this makes no sense. Europe is burning. Look what’s going on in your countries. Jews fear for their safety. European Jewry has decreased by more than 20 percent in the last ten years. Anti-Semitism is illogical. It’s irrational. It’s madness.
“You didn’t like the Jews in Poland because they had beards and black coats. Some told me, ‘If you’d be like us and look like us, we’d appreciate you.’ Yet look at Germany. We didn’t have beards. We spoke a beautiful German. Many of us were actually completely assimilated. Did you embrace us there?
“I ask you. Please. Decide. What do you want from us? Lachergo? Why? What did we do to you? Ask the people in your countries. Share the question with the pope. Ayeka? Where are you? We Jews love everyone. We appreciate everyone. Please just let us live. See the fruits that we can contribute to society.”
Rabbi Lau’s words were so intense and the moment was so powerful that it took several minutes for the complexion of his listeners’ faces to be restored.
And while it was wonderful to hear countries like Austria, Hungary, France, and Jordan articulate their opposition to any form of anti-Semitism in their countries, one couldn’t help but be shaken by Rabbi Lau’s riveting words.
In reflecting on this visit, some will ask: why bother? Of what use are these conferences? Personally, I say thank God that at least the Europeans are having these conversations. The issue is being addressed.
Furthermore, when European anti-Semitism is being discussed, it is critical for the American Jewish community to be at the table. We need to stand with our brothers. And we need to be ready. Because America could very well be next.
There is no question that anti-Semitism is completely irrational. The Torah tells us this outright. We are “a nation that dwells alone.” Nevertheless, Yaakov prepared for his meeting with his brother Eisav in three ways: with gifts, prayers, and readiness for battle. Thus, clearly gifts and words of friendship should not be ignored. In Yaakov’s case, gifts and prayer were enough for that particular moment.
Throughout Jewish history we have seen rabbinic leadership meeting with authorities to build healthy relationships on behalf of the Jewish community. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi would visit in Rome. Abarbanel was close to the king of Spain. Maimonides was a physician to the sultan in Egypt.
We look back at the painful history of hatred and we pray that through commitment and collaboration a new chapter of inclusion and understanding will be written.
