Liturgical music was proposed by a Dominican monk this week as a means to promote unity, understanding and peace between the different faiths in Jerusalem.
Father Marcel DuBois, head of the Philosophy Department of the Hebrew University, spoke at the 40th annual convention of the Cantors Assembly here. DuBois, a member of the Vatican’s Commission on Jews, said every person of good faith, whether Jewish, Christian or Moslem, listens to music. “Every one of us sings according to our own melody, but when we sing together, it is not a cacophony. We are singing the same music to Jerusalem,” DuBois said.
He described Jerusalem as “a laboratory of tolerance” where Jews, Christians and Moslems of every denomination are trying to live together.” He thought the division of the churches between the eastern and western parts of the city was a “scandal.”
DuBois, a Jerusalem resident since 1962, said more Christians than ever were coming to Jerusalem to read the Bible with Jewish friends to “discover the significance of Jewish history.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.