South Orange—The two featured “Women of Faith” at Seton Hall University’s third annual Sister Rose Thering Fund lecture recently were Blu Greenberg and Sister Mary C. Boys. Mrs. Greenberg is co-founder of JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance), which is committed to building bridges between women of various faiths, as well as working on women’s issues in the Jewish community. Among her most widely read books are On Women and Judaism: A View from Tradition and Black Bread Poems After the Holocaust. Dr. Boys is Dean of Academic Affairs at Union Theological Seminary in New York, a non-denominational seminary. Her most recent book is Redeeming Our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations Between Jews and Christians. They focused on how both Christians and Jews should confront the deicide charge.
Sister Rose was a pioneer in healing relations between the two faiths and her dissertation on anti-Semitism in Catholic liturgy and textbooks is given credit for influencing the Second Vatican Council to refute the charge that “the Jews killed Jesus.” Dr. Marcia Robbins Wilf discussed Sister Rose’s legacy. She was a woman who fought to end all religious prejudice and for us all to value our differences, not just tolerate them. Her platform was: (1) demonstrate courage, (2) build bridges, (3) create dialogue and (4) inspire the next generation. In her lifetime she had been honored as a lifetime member of Hadassah and honored with a toy giraffe by a large association of nuns. The giraffe was for nuns who stick their necks out. The Sister Rose Fund promotes education and raises money to fund scholarships for those who choose to study in this field.
Blu Greenberg and her husband, Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg, were among the founders of the fund and were close personal friends of Sister Rose. Mrs. Greenberg recalled that they met Sister Rose in 1967 at a dialogue for clergy. Going further back, she spoke about growing up in Seattle where she was charged by other youngsters of killing Jesus. She had to ask her mother who they were talking about and what the charge meant. She also said that she is alive because of a pogrom in Hungary. Her grandfather suffered the pogrom and decided to move with his wife to America. The branches of her family that remained in Hungary largely perished during the Shoah.
Mrs. Greenberg related that when Sister Rose, a Dominican nun, was told before Vatican II by high Church authorities to keep secret her findings that anti-Semitism permeated Catholic teaching, she immediately made them public. She maintained that the religious basis for anti-Semitism permitted bystanders during the Holocaust to look away from the murder of Jews. Sister Rose worked to undo that damage, and advocated that Christians make amends, starting with telling the truth about the Church’s contempt for Jews. She was instrumental in making Holocaust study mandatory in New Jersey schools and led 33 missions of Catholic clergy and laity to Israel. She reprimanded those who called it “The Holy Land” to recognize that it is the home of the Jewish people and should be called Israel. Sister Rose celebrated many Shabbat dinners at the Greenbergs’ home because “she wanted to do what Jesus had done,” and she installed a mezuzah on the doorpost of her home. She spent her last years in a senior residence funded by the Jewish Federation in Morris County.
Sister Rose pioneered New Christian Ecumenical Scholarship, which brought attention to the fact that a literal reading of the Gospels was very threatening to Jews. That kind of scholarship is now widespread, but Mrs. Greenberg said that the teachings of those scholars must now be brought to the pews of churches, to the people. Younger Christians are not as concerned about the deicide charge as were previous generations, but they are not aware of the damage it has done and could continue to do. She noted that Jews have two Torahs, the written and the oral, and that it took centuries to develop the latter. But Jews do not learn the one without the context given by the other. She proposed that Christians do the same, and add commentary to their Bibles and prayer books.
It turned out that Sister Mary Boys was also raised in Seattle, where she heard many anti-Semitic remarks from her community, but not from her family. In fact, there was a Jewish lady who was regularly invited to family events. She owned “an upscale candy shop” and always brought treats for the children and for the adults. Sister Mary regarded her as an “aunt” and couldn’t understand what problem others had with Jews. She was in high school during Vatican II and was pleased that it made an opening to other religions. But, quoting a friend who is a rabbi, she said that reconciliation is still new and uncomfortable for us all.
Sister Mary explained that Catholic services always include readings from the Hebrew Bible, Paul’s letters and the Gospels. In the latter two, Jews are referred to as the evil ones and villains. It is taught that the Disciples were once surrounded by threatening Jews, but it is seldom pointed out that the Disciples were Jews themselves. Vatican II told believers, “Don’t blame the Jews.” This was a good start, but the work of the Council has not been carried far enough. Post-Holocaust, it is the duty of the Church to explain the anti-Jewish attitude of the Church’s founders and how unjustified and dangerous these are. She agreed with Blu Greenberg that the Church should add “guidelines and notes” to its texts and remember that God’s love for the Jews endures forever.
Asked by an audience member about her views on Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, she spoke about being on an inter-religious panel at that time that objected to aspects of the film, but that was ignored by Church authorities. The panel objected to Gibson’s claim that his movie was the most accurate re-enactment of the crucifixion. Sister Mary said that it is much more violent and gory than any of the Gospels. The movie represents only Gibson’s views and should be judged in light of his later anti-Semitic rantings and the fact that he and his followers attend a church that is independent of any parish. But she explained that many were moved by the suffering of Jesus, and that does not make them bad people. She has found that the press is woefully ignorant of the Bible.
There was also discussion about what the crucifix itself represents to Christians and Jews. Mrs. Greenberg maintained that it is seen by Jews as a generator of hate. A Catholic audience member replied that, to many of her co-religionists, suffering is a pathway to healing. Sister Mary concluded that we should all study and live together and learn to forgive. Blu Greenberg announced that she is leading a project to have a street in Jerusalem named after Sister Rose Thering.
In a post-lecture exclusive interview with JLBC, Blu Greenberg spoke further about Jewish-Christian relations. She said that “as a vulnerable minority, often viewed with contempt by others, it is incumbent on the Jewish community to build bridges of understanding with those of other faiths. Many contemporary Christian scholars and clergy have taken steps to point out the anti-Semitism fostered by churches, based on their most sacred documents. Churches must do more to educate their members to this new development in interfaith relations. And these efforts should be warmly welcomed by the Jewish community.”
She pointed out that in a recently published book, Countrymen, author Richard Overy explains how Danish Jews fared much better than those in other German-occupied countries because the Danish people viewed their Jews as fellow Danes. Many took great risks to help save their countrymen.
Greenberg explained that “the Holocaust awakened some Christians to feel obliged to make amends for the role that anti-Semitism played in the murder of millions of innocent people. This new theological view was most significantly expressed by the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, which declared that the Jewish people were not responsible for the death of Jesus and ordered changes in Catholic textbooks to reflect this new interpretation. In that era, various Jewish-Christian Brotherhood organizations were founded.”
Late, she said, the Jews involved in those efforts were gravely disappointed at the lack of support from their colleagues for the existential threat faced by Israel in 1967, which led to the Six Day War. “Discussion of Israel had been avoided up to that time because it was politically divisive. Those Jewish leaders felt that their Christian colleagues did not understand the extent to which Jews again felt isolated. And they saw that the Jewish people needed allies in the effort to defend themselves. They redoubled their efforts to express to their colleagues what this new threat meant to the Jewish people.”
There are those who disdain dialogue with those of other faiths, fearing that mutual understanding will lead to Jewish assimilation. Mrs. Greenberg has found the opposite effect takes place. Explaining oneself to others helps clarify and strengthen your own views. This reinforces one’s self-identity and brings understanding to those with whom the dialogue is conducted. Differences should not be swept under the rug, but rather explored and understood, which can lead to healing long-standing wounds.
A focal point of this dialogue is the Holocaust. First, Christians must take responsibility for the role played by anti-Semitism.”The Jewish community,” she said, in turn, should recognize that those who were subjected to the horrors of the Holocaust should be regarded not only as victims, but as heroes. It is not natural to fight back against impossible odds. But feeling they had no other options, those who found access to weapons resisted by taking up arms and fighting bravely. Partisans and ghetto fighters have been recognized for their courage. But those who did not have this option are heroes as well, for their never-ending spiritual resistance, expressed by maintaining Jewish traditions, fostering Jewish culture and maintaining their own dignity and compassion for their fellow Jews.
“Only by fighting dehumanization and helping each other did anyone survive the horrors for even a day. Some managed in this way to survive until liberation. The Holocaust survivors are all holy people for what they endured and how they endured it.”
By Stephen Tencer
