additional funding by konover investments corporation and its founder simon konover. narrator: abraham, founder of monotheism, the first jew. the two most closely related abrahamic religions -- judaism and christianity -- claim abraham as their father. though jews and christians share a biblical legacy, their journey for the past 2,000 years has been rich yet troubled. and now part two of "jews and christians -- a journey of faith."

mazel tov. mazel tov. man: covenant, chosen-ness, does not mean that there's anything intrinsically different between the jewish people and any other people in the world. in fact, in deuteronomy we are told, "not because you are the greatest of the people "has god chosen you, because you are amongst the weakest, the puniest of peoples." but god has set his name on us, or god has chosen us, in order to testify to his presence in the world. circumcision is an external manifestation of this covenantal relationship that we have this special responsibility, this special obligation, this special destiny that obliges us to live accordingly. during the first decade or two of the young christian religion, all christians were jews. and if a gentile wanted to convert to christianity,

that gentile first had to convert to judaism. and that meant adopting all the laws and traditions and rituals of judaism. so in order to become a christian, a gentile had to undergo circumcision. and many gentiles were quite unwilling to do this, because in the greek world there was a negative feeling towards this rite. and adults were often quite unwilling to undergo the pain and unpleasantness of this procedure. paul, who was trying to find a way to include the gentiles into the church without trying to make them become jewish, begins to twist the metaphor a bit, and he talks about a circumcision of the heart. in other words, he's trying to turn circumcision now into an allegory. he's using it as a means of talking about how we can all be the distinctive people of god, and that there is room for all of us in god's kingdom,

if, in our hearts, we have chosen this distinctive identity of journeying with god, as paul would say, now, "in the lord jesus christ." the newly formed christian community began to see itself as a chosen people in covenant relationship with god. chosen because god was now enlarging the sphere of the covenant to include gentiles. a new covenant, because that new covenant was through christ and his death on the cross. certainly if you have a notion that you can inherit the biblical promises, that you can inherit the status of a descendant of abraham without having to observe the torah, without having to observe the commandments of the torah, including the commandment of circumcision, that would certainly be a major cause of a split. when the jews lose in 70 and the temple is destroyed

and the beginning of the great exile occurs, they view christians, jewish christians and then increasingly gentile christians, as "other," as outsiders. and christians in return are no longer part of the jewish people as they were. and in the process, those gentile christians of rome, those church fathers, began to look with very jaundiced eyes at the jewish people, and actually forbade christians from attending synagogue, from studying the torah, declared sunday to be the official christian sabbath, and in effect severed the roots, the common heritage, of christianity and judaism. it's a terrible history, and christianity has suffered significantly, i believe, because of its alienation from its jewish roots. i would say that what the church has to seriously consider is what paul actually advocates in his letter to the romans.

it's only, let's say, 25 years after jesus, he writes to the romans, "stop being proud, "stop being arrogant. "consider that you have been grafted into israel. "you have not become the tree. "on the contrary, you have been grafted into israel, "and it is their root that carries you, and not you who carry the root." i would say that the contrast theology, they totally cut off the root. and their replacement teaching, they claimed to be the tree. from the time that the church gained worldly power in the fourth century, the church passed legislation not only prohibiting judaism, violating the jewish community in different ways, but actively and forcibly trying to convert jews. so jews associate mission with violence.

jews associate mission with force. jews associate mission with bloodshed. jews associate mission with conversion. and, of course, mission indicates, again, the theology of supersession -- that the church does not recognize that jews as jews can be saved. it is stunning to see the subtle ways in which, and sometimes not so subtle ways, in which a christian teaching of contempt becomes enshrined in the very habits, the most basic practices of the church. one of the hymns that we've paid very careful attention to is perhaps my favorite -- ♪ o come, o come, emmanuel ♪ and ransom captive israel ♪ that mourns in holy exile here ♪

♪ until the son of god appear ♪ rejoice, rejoice, emmanuel... ♪ leighton: what is implicit in that hymn is that the story, the christian story, is a story of redeeming israel from the conditions of captivity, which could not be overcome until the sinful condition that attended the fall of adam was overcome with the arrival of jesus and his redemptive death. now, the problem with the way in which the christian story has been told is that israel itself is in a condition of desperation, which is a consequence of the terrible fall that occurred when adam sinned and violated the creation.

so the master narrative that becomes enshrined in the christian story suggests that after the creation, the fall rendered the creation broken, fragmented, alienated, and it remains in that condition until jesus comes and redeems us from this woeful condition. which is another way of saying that israel's own story has no relevance to the salvation of the world. so the hymn itself not only carries a triumphalism, a supersessionist bias, but it also writes israel out of its own story. ♪ rejoice ♪ rejoice ♪ emmanuel leighton: if you were to suggest that this hymn

carries the seed of contempt for the jewish people, the vast majority of people in our congregations would look at you as though you'd lost your mind. i mean, this is a hymn that has claimed the imagination that stirs very deep spiritual longings within the community. so i'm not suggesting that we delete or excise a hymn of tremendous power and beauty, but i am suggesting that the priest, the minister, the educators need to be much more intentional in using a hymn like this to teach our history and to cultivate an aptitude for self-criticism. it is a tragedy in the history of art to find that often christians portray jews in a disparaging way.

and how is jesus depicted? as an ideal greek. one of the staples of medieval art were two figures -- the synagogue, synagoga, and the church, ecclesia, they are pictured as two women. and while there are many variants on the theme, in general, the church is presented as a woman who is erect and proud and triumphant. and the synagogue is presented as a woman who is defeated, vanquished, fallen. her crown has toppled from her head. she carries a staff that is broken. typically she's blindfolded. it's to show that somehow the synagogue has been defeated. that is in cathedrals all over europe. many of these works of art provide an almost cartoon-like description of the jews being demonic. and therefore you see images of jews being suckled by swine. you see them involved with --

dirtied by excrement from unclean animals. the filth and degradation that the artist links with the jewish people are one more strategy of demonizing the jewish people. there is certainly a very long tradition of teaching of contempt. the end of which is the extermination of the jewish people. we can say that this teaching created the possibility of the impossible. the end of which are the concentration camps, death camps in europe a generation ago. you cannot get from the new testament to auschwitz directly. that is wrong. and people who lay all of the responsibility at the foot of the church simply do not understand the fundamental difference between christianity and nazism. they are absolutely different things.

on the other hand, you could not have auschwitz had you not had the long pre-history made possible by christian anti-judaism. christianity did so much evil to jews and judaism over the centuries that for many jews it remains the enemy, the bad guy no matter what they do. this was deepened in the 20th century by the holocaust experience, which, of course, was a total genocide, done, not by christians, but for which many jews feel jews were set up for by this long tradition of hatred and isolation. and so this has only deepened the fact that even for secular jews sometimes, the only thing left of their jewish memory is that somehow the christians are the other or the enemy. man: when black citizens, black christians in particular, tour the holocaust museum, i think there are at least two responses -- the first is to remember once again

how much in the black community we tend to parallel our black experience with that of the jewish experience. that's a motif, that's a leitmotif if you will, in black religion that is just historic. that black christians have always seen themselves as sort of repeating, if you will, the experience of the ancient israelites. right here you have this bench sign that says "for aryan only." and this one says "for jew only." was there ever a time in the united states where we had signage that said for one race or the other? what was the whole situation? the jim crow laws. you'll notice that the jews are wearing stars of david, but this was a closed ghetto. and what do i mean by that? what i mean is that this ghetto, the people who lived in this ghetto could not leave this ghetto. to work -- all the work that they did, they did inside this ghetto, if there was any work available.

and that was by choice or that was by force? that's by force. and nobody did anything about it or said anything about it? no... because if you did, then you would be eliminated. to see what happened to the jews of europe between 1939 and 1945 is to be reminded, it seems to me, that there but for the grace of god, we might have been as well. we shouldn't be so complacent, because slavery has been since time immemorial. and we have to make sure that others are safe and that we should treat each other kindly. the separation for jews-only on a bench, or access to a store, or being able to shop -- and for me it touches a part of how we live today. so it's hard for me to see it as history because it's only been in the last 25 years that we've given birth to children who haven't lived that experience or been born into that in this country.

i come from a universe where my people were condemned to torture, to death, for no other reason but because they were jewish, even the children. and i was about your age or much younger when i was going through that. we do realize that not all the victims were jewish. but all the jews were victims. one of the things that we're hoping to achieve is to make people think about this history and to apply its lessons and its parallels to what's happening around us today. do you think that there are still people today who have anti-semitic views towards jewish people? i think there is a big difference between my experience during those years of darkness and today.

and you know what the difference is? the difference is that then we were alone. and today, we are no longer alone. today we have the community behind us. when we had an anti-semitic outbreak a couple of years ago, the whole community showed up at a rally. there were as many christians as jews. rosen: john xxiii, who many people saw as quite a simple guy -- he brought about what's called the second vatican council. and one of the profound areas of focus of the second vatican council was its relationship with the jews. coming out of this second vatican council was a document called nostra aetate, meaning "in our times." and this document is a revolutionary document. and basically what this document says is any attempt to try to present the jews as cursed or rejected by god is illegitimate from a christian point of view.

it's not what christianity teaches. and that the covenant between god and the jewish people is an eternal covenant, never broken, never to be broken, quoting paul in support of this position. and for the first time, the catholic church, in this document, publicly condemned anti-semitism, regardless of where it may come from. martin luther in his old age wrote some of the most despicable anti-jewish pamphlets that have ever been written. and that's painful for a lutheran to read that stuff. so that, for example, in the united states a couple of years ago, there was an official statement by the evangelical lutheran church in america which said this is a shameful part of luther, and let us say it openly and not try to explain it away.

there has been this remarkable attempt at repentance, self-correction on the part of christianity. it can be misjudged as simply a confession of fault and of evil, but in my judgment, it only shows the remarkable power and spiritual depth of religion that's willing to self-criticize and correct matters that are at the very heart of its own scriptures. for all those statements which can be construed correctly as anti-jewish, there are other people who read this text. christians at le chambon, in france, for example, which protected jews during world war ii, read the new testament not as anti-jewish but as very pro-jewish and said because the new testament comes from jewish roots, because it speaks of jewish people as god's people, therefore it is our responsibility to protect jews from nazi atrocities. does the new testament have to be read as anti-jewish?

no. has it been and can it be? unfortunately, yes. woman: i want to welcome all of you this afternoon and to thank you for taking the time to come and talk about teaching the passion stories. as catholic teachers, at whatever level we teach, given the mandate of nostra aetate, we cannot altogether avoid the question of who killed christ. if we want to teach a bible story, we have to make sure that we understand how kids are hearing it. sirois: you're the teacher. what are you going to tell them? think about it -- let's talk about it. woman: i've seen them role play in the school yard being crucified. we were studying the passion and they're taking each other up against the wall and i'm being crucified. i'm like, oh, boy, should i let this go or stop this? i didn't know what to do with it. and i let them go on and, i mean, the name "jews,"

and, i don't know, i don't see it as an issue at that level. sirois: what are they hearing? it would be bad men killed jesus. i don't think they could articulate the jews did it or would even know what jewish is or jews are. the problem there is, of course, jews are associated with bad people. you know, which is something that you may have to deal with later on. though we now know the gospels were not by any means intending to indict all jews of all time for the death of jesus, the way in which the gospels were read sometimes served to do just that. and so this is one of the issues that we take on. [ blows shofar ] very good, excellent. woman: for their own christian experience,

it's important for them to understand the relationship between judaism and christianity, to understand the hebrew roots of the christian faith. i think it's also extremely important for them to be able to relate to judaism, to relate to jewish people. that we can begin at a very early age to fight anti-semitism. now, remember when we talked about abraham this morning? and he was the only one that knew that there was only one god. and the debt that we owe to the jewish people for always passing that on to us -- the idea of one god comes to us through them. okay, what is mezuzah? mezuzah is a hebrew word. what does it mean, mezuzah? deuteronomy 6:9. but what does it mean? door post, yes. yes, the thing that goes around the door. this was important to god. it's important to god's chosen people. it's says something to us. what does it say to us? and you should learn how to read hebrew so you can read what it says.

hauer: that's a good idea, but we don't all have time to do that, do we? well, i guess the thing i would like you to learn from this is "i want you to remember what's governing your life. "i want you to remember me. "i want you to honor me in all of your goings-out and your comings-in." and so we can look at this -- we can respect this as a very important part of jewish tradition, and we can learn from it for ourselves. john, why don't you come up here? boy: they usually wear it every saturday when they're having a torah meeting. hauer: steven, what would he do with this if he was going to pray, just leave it like this? no. no. put it over his head. i can't see. i think there's something for us to learn there. where can he see? straight ahead. straight ahead. can he see to the right? no. no. can he see to the left? no, no. can he get distracted, then? no, no, no. what is he? all he has to do is move it. he's shut in with god, isn't he?

this is part of the what experience? jewish. we believe that if we start with the children and they learn it young and build on it as they grow, it will make a very big difference in a very short period of time. [ singing in hebrew ] because is judaism, if somebody dies... man: the catholic-jewish educational enrichment program, we call it c-jeep, is one of the most exciting things that's probably going on in america right now in christian-jewish relations. this is probably the first time in history that ordained clergy have taught on a regular basis in each others high schools. [ singing ] man: i recognize this as a way to god. that is why i will join them in the synagogue in the morning

and be very much part of the religious life that goes on here at the school. i would hope that in the end when they are adults they might see the fruits of this effort as creating -- seeing two groups as partners in faith rather than as people who might be in competition with each other or being diametrically opposed to each other. what was the question you were going to ask? i was going to ask -- man: our students don't know a lot of jewish people, most of them. their information about jews comes second hand. could be that they have misconceptions about who jews are, about how jews behave, so that when they experience the rabbi, when they come to meet this man face to face, their perception of who jews are has changed.

rabbi: let me ask you a question. what do you think jewish people believe about god? that jesus wasn't the savior, and you're still waiting for him to come. jewish people don't identify god as jesus, or the son of god as jesus, and one of the things that we should know, that you should know, is that even though i might say things that i believe that aren't consistent with what you believe, i'm not trying to challenge your faith. [ singing in hebrew ] woman: the students just were ignorant of christianity and catholicism until they met father massey. they had read about it in books, in particular in their history books, and they, of course, know christian people, but hadn't really engaged these people on issues of religion. so father massey put a face to catholicism

and gave them an address for their questions and their concerns. but what are some of the questions you have about catholicism? how does it affect you? is it strange? is it frightening? is it mysterious? is it benign? yes? why do you feel that people need a bridge to god? why do you feel that you are that bridge and why can't they just talk directly to god? the priest kind of represents in one person the whole community. the whole community at that moment. okay, so do you believe in one god or three, like the trinity? one god, three distinct experiences of that one god. what did you hear about jews, about judaism? were there any stereotypes, any things that you had heard that you didn't, you know, you didn't have any way to kind of challenge?

sara, go ahead. that you think jews are cheap and they hold their money real tight, they're always counting their money and they're always kissing their money like they love money. cove: kissing their money, okay. the stereotypes that we have nowadays may have come from the shakespearean play "the merchant of venice" where the main character was a jewish merchant named shylock, which is actually a terminology used today for a person who's uptight with their money. cove: that's right. money was seen as something dirty, it was seen as something that ordinary human beings shouldn't get involved in. because the jewish people were always seen as a separate, apart community, never really being accepted as full citizens of a particular host country -- and in some societies really seen as sub-human --

so the jews were given the ability to handle the currency of the particular place. and so they became the money lenders. but to characterize as shakespeare has done in "merchant of venice" that this is the way jews operated through and through the community, this is what created the stereotype. so, tell me what you believe about death and what your tradition has taught you. on the high holidays and other holidays there's remembrance services. yizkor service? yeah, and every day there's also the kaddish yahrzeit for someone who's died. so it never really ends, there's always that -- you're always remembering them. one of the things that we do, and it's very similar to the way that you describe, is we remember the dead every day. there is a mention of all of those

who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith at every time that we pray. can you tell me what a priest and a rabbi have in common? we believe in the best of human nature, that we believe in the ability of human beings to change and to evolve and to grow and to be able to come to new understandings mostly about ourselves and how we relate to other people and to god. that's part of our role is to be in many ways prophetic, to be able to see you and to say god's got great things in store for you, god's got a wonderful life, god has done a wonderful miracle in the person that you are, and we're kind of calling you to that awareness. and that's where the ministry comes from, i believe. we were afraid that if we were exposed to other religions it might cause problems in terms of our own faith. that fear has gone out of roman catholicism,

and what has happened now is that we see ourselves in terms of our relationship. so that having a rabbi come into our school now has a tendency to give us insights into the origins of our religion. they can relate better to christians now through a position of knowledge. but they also understand that there are low fences that will remain, meaning that the catholic community and the jewish community need to preserve their own identities. and that just because you understand someone and can co-exist well with someone else it doesn't mean that you have to become that person. we're not the same, jews and catholics. jews and christians are not the same, and need to preserve their own identities, but they can do that through peaceable co-existence. woman: anyone like to offer something like that? for jewish people to understand

what makes the christian people uncomfortable? is there anything? that i am somehow responsible for all of the hurt and anguish of the jewish people in the past. and i have to say it prevents me then from hugging this man next to me and feeling good about him. right, in answer to that, that's the point. if there were more people like her who would be uncomfortable because i am here, then maybe we might have an answer to where we're going. woman: if we had more christian people who felt the way she does, absolutely. oh, good, and he gets a hug after all. why is it difficult or impossible for a jewish and christian couple

to marry in the jewish faith? how could you possibly ask a person to suddenly turn off their heart and turn off their emotions and turn off possibly 20 years of an upbringing to what seems to them a rejection of everything that was instilled in them? so whether it's right or wrong or how it should be dealt with, we cannot simplify the emotions that exist in parents. i hear your response, and i receive that, but i struggle with the why in the face of the pain and the division within families over this issue. that this is really hard, that there are things that are conflicts that you're going to do the best with, but they remain conflicts. the statistics are there about intermarriage. then following intermarriage,

the small number who actually raise their children jewish, did that ever get to you as you got close to marriage, that cultural lesson that's been drummed into your head over and over again about the destruction of the jewish people? judaism would be lost on my kids. we don't live in a predominantly jewish neighborhood, they're not going to a jewish -- no one else i know at their school is jewish. so unless i'm intentional about it, that we really talk about the holidays and the stories and the history, i think it would be lost. so i feel much more intentional then i might be if i were with a jewish partner. my mother was a holocaust survivor, and her mother and step-father perished in the holocaust, that i do feel strongly and one of the concerns i had before we got married was wanting to pass on a sense of jewishness to my children.

what are those times when you realize that you're in a relationship that's different? like december is this black month for terry. i think that oftentimes he feels like it's this big party that jews aren't invited to. and i remember one of first discussions that we had was over a christmas tree and what a big, loaded deal that was. and we've talked about it and we've worked it out and we have our own kind of celebrations, and we do hannukah and christmas. but i think that was when i first realized this is different from what other people go through. and we celebrate a traditional jewish christmas. we have chinese food and go to a movie. i think one of the challenges i feel as a catholic is that there are certain ceremonies that our children would need to pass through -- baptism and then first holy communion and things like that, in order to sort of fully participate in that tradition.