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Rabbi’s documentary highlights John Paul’s push for reconciliation
By Rebecca Bostic, rbostic@catholicsun.org
December 4, 2008
John Paul II was the first pope to enter a synagogue, recognize Israel as a state and express repentance for the Catholic Church’s past treatment of the Jewish people.
“A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People,” a documentary presented Nov. 20 at Xavier College Preparatory, highlights his efforts.
Rabbi Abie Ingber, creator of the documentary and founding director for Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier University in Ohio, presented background information after a partial viewing.
Ingber researched and documented the friendship between John Paul II and Jerzy Kluger, which began when the two were children in Wadowice, Poland. The relationship continued all the way to the Vatican.
The two men, separated by the German occupation of Poland during World War II, were reunited in the years prior to the election of Karol Wojtyla as pope.
Kluger and his family were John Paul II’s first papal audience and the pontiff continued a close personal and working relationship with his childhood friend thereafter.
Many stories are shared in the documentary — Kluger tells of the first time he entered a Catholic Church, to see his friend Karol, and the first time Wojtyla entered a synagogue as a young boy. He entered with his father as a sign of solidarity with the Jewish people as oppression began to enter their small Polish city.
“Well I think the whole story is amazing,” Paul Steingard, a practicing Jew, said of the presentation. “You can see how the friendship affected the pope and the future as he got older and developed a greater sphere of influence.”
Although Lyn Steingard, also a practicing Jew, was familiar with the pope’s work with the Jewish people prior to the talk, she was still impressed by the heartwarming story.
“You would hope that more people understand the theme of the evening which is unity among all people,” she said. “We really need it now more than ever.”
A traveling exhibit, which is currently stationed in Los Angeles, has made the message of the documentary more accessible.
Ingber and his associates had an audience with the late pontiff, explaining their documentary and hopes for a traveling exhibit. John Paul donated his cane, used when visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 2000, and other significant items related to his work with the Jewish community.
Lutheran Rev. Jan Flatten, director of the Arizona Ecumenical Council, served as master of ceremony over the event and was surprised to learn about the influential relationship between Kluger and Pope John Paul II.
“The significance was exactly what Rabbi Ingber said, that the necessary component is dialogue,” Flatten said. “Dialogue doesn’t mean just simply sitting down and having a nice conversation — it means talking about the hard things as well as the easy things. That is exactly what we need to do and that is what more of us should be about.”
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