April 3, 2005
by Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish
Director, ICCI

On behalf of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel – Israel's national umbrella organization for interreligious and intercultural relations – I express our condolences to Catholics in Israel, in Vatican City and around the world. We join you in mourning the loss of a great world leader, a man of intense spirituality and commitment, a personality who communicated his love and caring and compassion for human beings around the world in an unprecedented manner in the history of world religious leadership.

Pope John Paul II understood the value and great strength of symbolic gestures. During his visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome in 1986, he said, "The Jewish religion is not extrinsic to us but in a way is intrinsic to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers." The visit of John Paul II to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, where he shook hands with Holocaust survivors, including one whom he had help to save personally, will be remembered as one of the most moving moments of his pilgrimage to Israel in March 2000. Likewise, his visit to the Western Wall, where he put a prayer of atonement into a crack in the Wall, left indelible impressions on myself and upon Jews in Israel and all over the world, which will remain with us for many years and decades to come. Similarly, the Pope's visit to a mosque in Syria and his kissing the Holy Koran were gestures of good will deeply appreciated by Muslims.

I had occasion to meet Pope John Paul II on visits to the Vatican during recent years. In March 1998, I attended a seminar on "Education about Each Other" at the Vatican and was privileged to have my first "papal audience." In March 2000, ICCI was an active participant in welcoming Pope John Paul II to Israel when he made his historic pilgrimage. ICCI organized a series of briefings for the foreign and Israeli press on the major developments in Jewish-Christian Relations of the past 50 years, which led up to this ground-breaking visit.

Struck by the fact that so few people knew anything about these developments, two Israeli filmmakers suggested that we make a documentary film on the subject. This led to the production of ICCI's award-winning film "I am Joseph Your Brother," which traces the revolutionary changes in relations between Catholics and Jews in our lifetime. Undoubtedly, Pope John Paul II played a major role in this historic rapprochement with Judaism, the Jewish People and the State of Israel during his papacy. I was privileged to personally hand the Pope a copy of the video, having been advised that he liked to watch videos of his travels around the world.

In addition, we remember the Pope's frequent calls for the need for peace and reconciliation in various places in the world, including and especially the Middle East. On his historic visit to the Holy Land, this indeed was one of his main messages, one that unfortunately was not heeded well or soon enough. Perhaps the current leadership in the Middle East is finally now moving in the right directions to implement the Pope's calls for peaceful coexistence and reconciliation in our region.

A righteous religious leader has gone to his eternal rest. May his memory be for a blessing for all humanity.

Worldwide Faith News
Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish is the Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, ICCI. ICCI is the Israel chapter of the WCRP, the World Conference of Religions for Peace and the ICCJ, The International Council of Christians and Jews.