Jewish-christian Relations, Black-jewish Ties Discussed at Aj Committee Annual Meeting

The progress of Jewish-Christian relations and the “common cause” American Jews must make with the Black community “against the enemies of justice” were the two themes aired at the 69th annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel here this weekend attended by more than 1000 Jewish leaders. Catholic, Protestant and Jewish theologians concurred in the view that Christian-Jewish relations had improved over the past year but also agreed that much remained to be done.

Morris B. Abram, chairman of the New York State Moreland Act Commission and a prominent lawyer and civil libertarian, declared that the future of both Jews and Blacks required them to overlook their differences and together “progress towards justice through democratic means.”

“Jews and Blacks historically have been vulnerable people,” Abram said. “The state of their security can almost be said to serve as barometric measures of the social climate. When the state trespasses on the liberty of the Jew, the freedom of all is soon in peril. When joblessness of the Black–always higher than that of the general public–begins to escalate, you can be sure that the economy is on the slide and even Chrysler will be in trouble.” Abram pointed out further that Jews and Blacks had many problems in common because the Jewish population of the U.S. is substantially urban and the Black population is rapidly becoming so.

FACTORS IN CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS

The reasons why room exists for improvement in Christian-Jewish Relations despite wide areas of progress were noted at a press conference by the Rev. Edward H. Flannery, director of the Secretariate for Catholic-Jewish Relations of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; The Rt. Rev, John Harris Burt, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio and chairman of the Interreligious Coalition Board of the National Council of Churches; and Rabbi Marc H. Tannenbaum, director of the AJ Committee’s Interreligious Affairs Department.

Father Flannery said that since the new Vatican Guidelines on Jews were issued in January, there had been an upswing in Catholic interest in improving relations with Jews for the first time since 1967. But, he said, there is still much to be done because Christians do not understand the fact of the centrality of Israel in “Jewish self identity.” In addition, Father Flannery said, there “is a vast ignorance in the Christian community of what happened to Jews in history” and therefore a lack of understanding of the reality of present-day Jewish concerns.

Rev. Burt said the Protestant community has a very basic sympathy with its Jewish fellow citizens but there was caution among. Christians in giving full support to Jewish issues because of the ties Christian churches have in Arab countries, the fear of entanglement with foreign countries, such as in Vietnam and fear of Arab economic reprisals against the United States.