What Is the Future of Christian-Jewish Relations?

The Fellowship  |  January 11, 2023

Rabbi Daniel Korobkin and Bishop Paul Lanier share their thoughts on the future of Jewish-Christian relations, the alarming rise in anti-Semitism, and what we all can do as people of faith. Here is an excerpt from the Jerusalem Post’s interview:

What role do both of you see The Fellowship playing in strengthening and furthering relationships between Christians and Jews?

Bishop Lanier: It is so prophetic in its nature. Looking back, when Rabbi [Eckstein] was searching for persons to stand with him in certain ventures, he was completely blindsided by who he could trust or look to, and by those he had never imagined standing with him. Then they became his best friends and invested in his calling. And in the scriptures, often a generation is 40 years. And so we are stepping into our second generation of ministry with Yael as the face and voice primarily of this fellowship. What’s also extraordinary to me is, for example, in the latest crisis in Ukraine, The Fellowship was not reactionary to war, but had been already responding for years.

Rabbi Korobkin: I think the potential is endless. We have only scratched the surface. One of the things I so yearned to do was to meet the average donor. I really, very much believe that the only way that we can look at others as ‘the other’ is if we are looking at them from a distance. When we look at people close up and we have an opportunity to interact, not to proselytize, not to try and convince the other of the merits or demerits of their faith beliefs, but rather just to see each other up close as human beings, that is one of the greatest ways [to strengthen relationships].