Jewish scholars ask Pope Francis and Catholic Church to condemn Hamas and affirm Israel’s right to self-defense
Letter asks church to distinguish between Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and civilian casualties from Israel’s war in Gaza
Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Nov. 12. Photo by Vatican Pool/Getty Images
By Beth Harpaz November 14, 2023
A group of Jewish scholars, religious leaders and practitioners in “Jewish-Christian dialogue” called on Pope Francis and the Catholic Church to condemn Hamas and affirm Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.
They asked that the pope and his followers act as “a beacon of moral and conceptual clarity amid an ocean of disinformation, distortion and deceit” by distinguishing Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks “from the civilian casualties” of Israel’s war in Gaza, which they described as a “war of self-defense.”
The open letter to the pope and “the faithful of the Catholic Church” was signed by Karma Ben Johanan, a professor of religious studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Malka Zeiger Simkovich, director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; Rabbi Jehoshua Ahrens, Central Europe director for the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation; Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, president of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life, and Rabbi David Meyer, professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in the Oct. 7 attacks. Israel’s war on Gaza has now killed more than 10,000 people, according to health officials in Gaza.
Challenging a position of ‘political neutrality’
The signatories acknowledged that the pope and other Catholic officials have already, in the weeks following the Oct. 7 attacks, renounced antisemitism. They added that they “share the Church’s grief for Palestinian civilians who fell under Hamas’s rule against their will, and were killed as a result of the war without committing any crime,” and that they understand “that the Church seeks to maintain political neutrality on the War in the Middle East.”
But they asked that the Catholic Church be “mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews,” quoting from Pope Paul VI’s 1965 Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions, and “extend a hand in solidarity to the Jewish community.”
The letter noted that blame for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s war in Gaza have increasingly been “directed towards all Jews collectively. Many have gone far beyond the limits of political criticism against Israeli policy by voicing protest against Israel’s right to exist, and aligning with Hamas’ intentions to destroy Israel.”
The letter added that the “global surge in onslaughts against Jews since Oct. 7 — including killings, physical assaults, threats, harassment and vandalism — marks the worst wave of antisemitism since 1945.”
On Sunday, the pope spoke in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, saying, “The weapons must stop, they will never bring peace, and the conflict must not spread! Enough!” He called for aid for Gaza and the release of the hostages, adding that “every human being, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, of any people and religion, every human being is sacred, precious in the eyes of God and has the right to live in peace.”
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