Rabbi Eckstein spurs reconciliation following events in Old City
Tuesday, October 26, 2004

News Release

At a meeting Tuesday initiated by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger expressed regret over recent attacks by religious Jews against Christian clergy and called for reconciliation and tolerance between the two communities.

“There is a saying in Hebrew that sometimes from bitter things good can happen,” Eckstein said in praising Metzger’s strong and rapid response to hostile behavior toward churches and Christian clergy by Orthodox yeshiva students in the Old City. “We hope this will be the first step towards an improved relationship, marked by respect, tolerance and cooperation between Jerusalem’s Christian and Jewish residents.

“It is a relationship to which I have committed the past 25 years, and I pledge to pursue efforts of reconciliation between these groups that hold so much in common,” said Eckstein, a recognized bridge-builder between Jewish and Christian communities.

Addressing representatives of 12 church denominations attending the meeting among them, the Orthodox Patriarchate, the Catholic Church, the Armenian Church, the Latin Patriarchate, the Ethiopian Church and the Franciscan Order Rabbi Metzger termed “any incident aiming to humiliate a man of faith as despicable.” He added that both Judaism and Christianity regard Jerusalem as an island of peace, where people of many faiths may be gathered together.” 

Archbishop Aristarcos, general secretary of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, called the historic gathering “an important and joyful event.

“We were all created in the image of God, and that tells us that God respects man, all men,” he said. “We, as his believers, are obligated to do the same, to respect our fellow man.”  

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (HaKeren L’Yedidut in Israel) was founded in 1983 to promote understanding and cooperation between Jews and Christians and to build broad support for Israel and other shared concerns. Based in Chicago and Jerusalem, the organization in recent years has contributed more than $100 million toward Jewish immigration, resettlement and social welfare projects in Israel, as well as funding food, housing and social service programs for Jews in the former Soviet Union and other areas of poverty and oppression around the world.