Dr. Emil Fackenheim, a noted Jewish philosopher, said today that while the “spiritual Jerusalem” is important to all Jews, the need for a physical Jerusalem is necessary as a safe harbor for all Jews in times of oppression. Fackenheim addressed a “Convocation on Jerusalem” sponsored by the New York Board of Rabbis at the National Conference of Christians and Jews headquarters in New York. The Catholic and Protestant perspectives on Jerusalem were also presented.
Fackenheim, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, spoke of the “relationship between the Jerusalem above and below” the physical and spiritual aspects of the city. Fackenheim emphasized the political explosiveness of the Jerusalem issue in noting Canadian Prime Minister Jew Clark’s campaign promise to move the Canadian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as a formal recognition of that city’s rightful claim as Israel’s capital. He said this has sparked unprecedented hostile attacks on the Clark government.
Rev. William Harter, chairman of the National Council of Churches Committee on the Status of Jerusalem and Human Rights in the Middle East, said Jerusalem was a “symbol of survival” with an “infinite capacity to astonish,” Harter cited the rise of Jerusalem after 1948 as ruining the theory of the destruction of Jerusalem as told in the New Testament. “Jerusalem is being freed by God to be renewed to bear God’s revelation, today,” Harter said. He stressed that we mustn’t “reduce the present and immediate future to allegory and symbol. The Jerusalem to come must not cancel out the Jerusalem that is.”
Dr. Eugene Fisher, executive secretary of the Secretarial for Catholic-Jewish Relations of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, presented a Catholic perspective on Jerusalem. Fisher outlined the traditional outlook on Jerusalem and the “Holy land,” and emphasized that the church was deeply committed to Eratz Yisrael.”
He noted that as a result of the Second Vatican Council, there is “no fundamental core interest. conflicts in our views” with the Jewish faith Fisher did note that the official church position on Jerusalem still favors some sort of internationalization to guarantee the preservation of the holy sites and to protect Christians living in the city and in Israel But he personally hopes that Jerusalem will be “one city and a city of peace.”
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