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But giving Nostra Aetate such weight, despite it only being a declaration and not a doctrinal text, has led some to see it as having a revolutionary impact, possibly breaking with nearly two millennia of Church teaching and tradition. Documents from the Councils of Florence 1438-1445 and Trent 1545-1563 seem to radically contradict the current teaching, leading some to believe this not to be a development of doctrine but a corruption of it.

"Justice, justice, shall you pursue, that you thrive and occupy the land that the L-rd your G-d is giving you. (Deuteronomy 16:20) JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh Duma. Once upon a time, my only association with this unusual word was from a work of horror fiction from American novelist, Stephen King, "Duma Key." That association is gone forever. Non-fiction replaces fiction. Other horrors, true nightmares in every sense of the word, now come to mind. The Arab town of Duma. Some words transcend a specific time, place, or geological location. Deir Yassin was one such place. Duma will become another. It will...

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Maybe it's the centuries of living under Christian and Muslim rule. Maybe it's the history of forced conversion. Maybe it's that there's no religion requirement for the Jewish afterlife. Whatever the reasons, Jews have traditionally been uncomfortable proselytizing. But a Maryland foundation is flouting the taboo by funding outreach programs to non-Jews in an effort to bring them into the fold. "Our primary purpose is to support programs that publicize Judaism to non-Jews," Ellen Gerecht, executive director of the National Center to Encourage Judaism, says from her second-floor office in Silver Spring, Maryland. "We think Judaism has a lot to...

More than 25 prominent rabbis from Israel and abroad recently issued a statement calling for a renewed look at Jesus, Christians and the New Testament faith. Quoting from their own sages, these outstanding Orthodox rabbis are not ashamed to exalt the name of Jesus, welcoming the carpenter from Nazareth back into the Jewish fold.

In Genesis chapter 2 the order of creation seems to be different to that in chapter 1 with the animals being created (2:19) after Adam (2:7). Doesn't the Bible contradict itself here? Between the creation of Adam and the creation of Eve, the KJV/AV Bible says (Genesis 2:19) 'out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air'. On the surface, this seems to say that the land beasts and birds were created between Adam and Eve. However, Jewish scholars apparently did not recognize any such conflict with the account...

My children , do you SEE This Day before you I have created for you as my Beloved and I adore your presence with me for I AM your Presence as I surround you every where you look and in everything you touch. Yeah you breathe Me in for I am your living breath and promise your true love and voice of truth and it is My Spirit that is your counselor and guide. So listen to My words of life for my spirit is speaking to you in an eternal manner each and every day! Jonah 1:3 But Jonah...

The recent pronouncement by the Roman Catholic Church to the effect that Catholics should not proselytize Jews, as Jews, without a belief in the Nazarene, are saved, has left me confused. Am I to understand the Church has rejected its long-held theological belief in Replacement Theology, clearly evidenced in Nostra Aetate and replaced it with a theology that goes beyond Pre-millennial Dispensationalism which is largely associated with the American Evangelical Christian community? Unlike Replacement Theology, which sees the Jewish People as rejected by G-d, Premillennialism believes there is a role for the Jewish People in the future of mankind through...

Father Miguel Pro praying before execution. It used to be that Ireland followed America. Now we’re following Ireland, filthy, anti-Catholic Ireland. It’s come to my attention that David French at the National Review has reported that: A state court in Massachusetts has ruled that a Catholic preparatory school violated the state's antidiscrimination law when it rescinded a job offer to a man because he was married to another man. Matthew Barrett had accepted a job as Food Service Director at the Fontbonne Academy, a Catholic girls school. On his employment forms, he listed his husband as his emergency contact - a...

I would like to share a critical point about Chanukah, now that the chag is over. It's not just about Chanukah. The ideas are relevant year-round. We must not confine discussions relating to the Maccabean Revolt to annual Chanukah celebrations, since the original noble war to preserve the Torah's sanctity continued well beyond the miracle of the oil. Since the battle against Hellenism will surely continue until the arrival of Moshiach, we must wage war against Hellenism in every generation, in a manner that recalls our unrelenting war with Amalek. Since the time when the Greeks first polluted our waters,...

Trust me, I know that it is hard to write accurate, easy-to-read articles about complicated Vatican theological documents. This is especially true when dealing with materials focusing on very nuanced issues that continue to cause behind-the-scenes debates among Catholics. It's even harder to write informative, catchy and, yes, accurate headlines for these kinds of stories. This brings me to a recent New York Times report that ran with this headline: "Vatican Says Catholics Should Not Try to Convert Jews." The problem with that headline is that it is simplistic to the point of being inaccurate -- that is, if the...

Every Obama event somehow has to offend Christians and Jews. Could Obama pull it off for Chanukah? Yes, he could. I already wrote about Susan Talve's bizarre pre-Menorah lighting rant at the White House Chanukah party. Then, not satisfied with having made a disgrace of the Chanukah ceremony, Susan Talve declared, "I stand here to light these lights to say no the darkness of Islamophobia and Homophobia and Transphobia." Talve babbled about insuring "justice for Palestinians" and began gleefully chanting, "Ins'Allah, Ins'Allah". Or "Allah Willing".

A leading Jewish Messianic group in America has responded to the Vatican's recent claim that Jews do not need to be believers in Jesus Christ to be saved, by saying that the Apostle Paul would have been "horrified" at the suggestion. David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, said in a statement late last week that the suggestions of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with Jews are : ... egregious, especially coming from an institution which seeks to represent a significant number of Christians in the world." He further pointed out that the document's title, "The Gifts and...

CARDINAL KOCH & RABBI ROSEN Catholics should not try to convert Jews and should work with them to fight anti-Semitism, the Vatican said on Thursday in a major document drawing the Church further away from the strained relations of the past. It was the latest move on a host of issues, such as gay rights and re-marriage, that the Vatican or Pope Francis have made showing a desire to be more compassionate and open and to move further away from entrenched traditions. In the past, for example, Catholic prayers have denounced Jews for not believing in Jesus. Jews have also...

It’s Hanukkah and I am in hiding. I don't want to see Facebook posts and news items about weird creative Hanukkah candelabras in which each flame stands for some new-fangled liberal cause. I don't want to see the significance of potato pancakes explained to senators or read that Obama is Jewish in his soul. I want to keep Hanukkah close to my heart, away from those who would tamper with its true meaning which is this: The Jews fought a war against assimilation and won. Those flickering Hanukkah lights have nothing to do with equality, integration, and multiculturalism. They have...

A fine thread running through many of our columns is that the legitimacy of Islam’s religious claims to Jerusalem is in inverse proportion to the volume and frequency with which they are made. Now comes along a renowned Muslim Egyptian scholar, of all people, to corroborate our point. Prof. Youssef Ziedan, a specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies and a prolific author, has given a series of interviews to Egyptian television stations in recent days, in all of which he emphasizes one issue: There is actually no connection between Jerusalem and ancient Islam. When Islam was founded during the 7th...

The chief rabbis of Finland and Serbia have joined 23 other rabbis in Europe, Israel, and the United States in issuing an Orthodox rabbinic statement on Christianity. "As did Maimonides and Yehudah Halevi, we acknowledge that Christianity is neither an accident nor an error, but the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations," the rabbis said in their statement. "In separating Judaism and Christianity, G-d willed a separation between partners with significant theological differences, not a separation between enemies."

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples. But what makes the stone such a rare find in biblical archaeology, according to scholars, is that when it was carved, the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem for the carver to see. The stone is a kind of ancient snapshot. And it is upending some long-held scholarly assumptions about ancient synagogues and their relationship with the Temple, a center of Jewish pilgrimage and...

First part: President Obama: “Tonight, Jews in America, Israel, and around the world come together to light the first candle of the Festival of Lights. At its heart, Hanukkah is about the struggle for justice in the face of overwhelming obstacles.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.): “Today Heidi and I wish the Jewish Community a very Happy Chanukah. On this holiday, we remember the miracle that enabled a freedom-loving people – led by the heroic Maccabees – to defeat the oppressive dictator Antiochus so that they could once again freely worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For the eight...

Hanukkah is the festival when Jews celebrate their victory in the fight for religious freedom more than 2,000 years ago. Tragically, that fight is no less important today, and not only for Jews, but for people of all faiths. The Jewish story is simple enough. In about 165 B.C., Antiochus IV, ruler of the Syrian branch of the Alexandrian empire, began to impose Greek culture on the Jews of the land of Israel. Funds were diverted from the Temple to public games and drama competitions. A statue of Zeus was erected in Jerusalem. Jewish religious rituals such as circumcision and...