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News of pope’s visit
hailed by Italy’s Jews
by Lisa Palmieri-Billig
ROME (JTA)—The Jewish
community has warmly welcomed
the Vatican’s announcement
Monday that Pope John Paul II
will visit Rome’s main synagogue
next month.
But while this is viewed as an
“historic gesture” which may well
be the first papal visit ever to a
Jewish house of worship, the feel
ing among Jewish leaders is that it
will be up to the pontiff whether
the occasion is merely “symbolic”
or contributes substantively to
Catholic-Jewish relations.
“It would be a fantastic step
forward,” said Tullia Zevi, presi
dent of the Union of Italina Jewish
Communities, “or it could be a
perpetuation of ambiguities.” She
was referring to certain fundamen
tal issues that remain unresolved
after more than 20 years of Vati-
can-Jewish dialogue that began
after Vatican Council 11 in 1965.
The chief Vatican spokesman,
Joaquin Navarro Vallis, an
nounced at a press conference
Monday that the pope’s visit
would take place on the afternoon
of April 13. He said it would be the
first such visit in living memory,
though he could not be certain it
would be an historic precedent.
The Jewish community, in a
statement released Monday night,
expressed its “satisfaction at the
decision of Pope John Paul II to
visit the synagogue of Rome,”
adding that “this will mark an
important step in the direction of
an ever more rewarding dialogue.”
The Rome synagogue was the
scene of a traumatic event in Oct
ober 1982 when worshippers were
attacked by Arab terrorists with
machineguns and grenades. A two-
year-old boy, Stefano Tache, was
killed and 34 persons were
wounded.
More than a year earlier, on
Feb. 9, 1981, thespiritual leader of
the synagogue, Rome’s Chief
Rabbi Elio Toaff, met with the
pope at a church adjacent to the
old Jewish ghetto, about lOOyards
from the synagogue. From that
time on, a papal visit to the syn
agogue itself seemed more and
more in the realm of possibility,
awaiting only the appropriate
“conditions.”
Zevi stressed in her remarks
Monday that the conditions could
never have materialized but for the
changes in Catholic-Jewish rela
tions engendered by Vatican II.
Yet there is disappointment in Jew
ish circles here and abroad that the
changes have not progressed fur
ther than they have. One issue that
wrankles Jews is the Vatican’s per
sistent refusal to extend formal
recognition to the State of Israel.
This was one of the main criti
cisms vented by a Jewish ecumeni
cal group in June 1985 over a just
published Vatican document
called “Notes on the Correct Way
to Present the Jews and Judaism in
Preaching the Catechesis in the
Roman Catholic Church.”
According to the International
Jewish Committee on Interreli
gious Consultations (IJCIC), the
Notes fail to acknowledge the reli
gious significance of Israel to the
Jewish people and refer only
briefly and superficially to the
Holocaust.
The IJCIC called them a retro
gression from the historic “Nostra
Aetate” (Our Times) which e-
merged from Vatican Council II in
1964 and the Dec. 1, 1974, “Guide
lines and Suggestions for the Appli
cation of the Declaration Nostra
Aetate.”
Dr. Joseph Lichten, the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith’s liaison with the Vatican,
told the Jewish Telegraphic A-
gency Monday that the pope’s
forthcoming visit to the synagogue
“will certainly be a historical event.
Never before has a pope set foot in
See Pope, page 26.
The Southern |
Israelite
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The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
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Vol. LXII
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, March 21, 1986
No. 12
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Shamir on shaky groun
as convention falls apai
by Yaacov Ben Yosef
Special to The Southern Israelite
JERUSALEM—Following a
stormy week of infighting within
the Herut Party, Israel’s political
scene has undergone a sudden
shift. Yitzhak Shamir’s position as
Herut Party leader is in serious
doubt and new questions have
been raised whether Shamir will be
able to replace Shimon Peres as
prime minister next October.
All of this is a direct result of the
four-day Herut Party convention,
the first in seven years and the first
without Menachem Begin. By the
early hours of Thursday, the con
vention had literally disintegrated
into a startling deadlock between
Shamir and the combined forces of
Ariel Sharon and David Levy.
Herut, dominant party in the
right-wing Likud bloc which
shares power with Peres’ Labor
Party in the national unity gov
ernment, ended its convention
amidst fistfights and bitter name
calling.
Yaacov Ben Yosef
The real loser in the free-for-all
gathering was Likud leader, For
eign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. He
failed to earn a clear-cut vote of
confidence from the 2,000 dele
gates in his leadership of the party.
Moreover, the Sharon-Levy forces
actually took over the running of
the convention from Shamir’s
people.
Though Shamir was trying to
repair the damage this week in
order to regain his position as
party leader, his weakened s
ing may well invite Labor to
euver itself out of the govern
with the aim of foiling rotation;
and of setting up a narrow gov
ernment without the Likud.
That Likud nightmare has sent
Ariel Sharon, the minister for
commerce and industry, shuttling
around, trying to win support from
among the Shamir and Levy fac
tions for a plan that would get the
convention back in session for one
day. During that day, Sharon
wants to have Shamir sanctioned
as party leader; Levy, as chairman
of the party executive; and himself,
as chairman of the all-important
central committee. That clever
move would bring Sharon into a
preeminent position in the party.
That proposal appeared doomed
after Shamir met Monday with
other Herut ministers and declared
afterwards that Sharon’s plan was
unacceptable. Shamir’s main ob
jection: rather than hold the party
See Shamir, page 26.
Purim in Israel
Youngsters in Jerusalem participating in a Purim parade.
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