24 The Jewish Herald • Friday, March 22, 2013 27 C O N T I NU E D S
Jews Find Early Signs From Pope Francis Encouraging
his virtues and have no doubt whatsoever that he will do an excellent job for the church.” As archbishop of Buenos Ai-
res, his relationship with Ar- gentinean Jews was personal as well as institutional. His only book, Regarding
Heaven and Earth, is the tran- script of wide-ranging conversa- tions between himself and Rab- bi Abraham Skorka, the rector of the Latin American Rabbin- ical Seminary. Francis and the rabbi also shared billing on an Argentinean TV talk show on religious issues. Francis has referred to Skorka
as his “brother and friend.” The then-cardinal attended services at Skorka’s synagogue and also arranged for Skorka to receive an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Argentina. Francis also wrote the fore-
word to a book by another Buenos Aires rabbi and civ-
ic activist, Sergio Bergman. “Bergoglio is a master,” Berg-
man wrote in the Argentinean media after Francis’ election. “True to my Jewish roots and rabbinical vocation, inside my home community and the entire Argentine society, I found in Fran- cis a teacher who heard me, guid- ed me and advised me on how to deploy my vocation to serve both the Creator and his creatures in defiance of common good.” Last December, Bergoglio joined Bergman and other Jew-
ish leaders and representatives of other faiths in lighting the Chanukah candles. Francis is cited with par-
ticu lar warmth by Argentin- ean Jews for showing solidari- ty with the Jewish community following the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish commu- nity center in Buenos Aires that left 85 dead. The attack, Francis told the Argentin- ean media, was “another link in the chain of pain and persecu- tion that G-d’s Chosen People
has suffered throughout history.” In 2005, he signed a petition
for justice in the AMIA bomb- ing case and a document called “85 victims, 85 signatures.” In June 2010, he visited the rebuilt AMIA building to talk with Jew- ish leaders. “The closeness between Fran-
cis and the Jewish community is special and precious,” said Rab- bi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, vice president of the World Union of Progressive Judaism. Bretton-Granatoor, who is
continued from page 44
based in New York but has met Francis a couple of times, called the new pope “a mentsch” who “gets the importance of a rela- tionship with the Jewish com- munity, who understands the meaning of the Shoah and has a heart in the right place on a number of issues that concern us as well.” Obviously, he added, “we will
vigorously disagree with him on many fundamental issues as well — but that is part of the game, isn’t it?”
o
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