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The Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions; Nostra Aetate,
promulgated on October 28, 1965, by the Second Vatican Council marked a special moment in the
history of the church and its relation to world religions.
For the Jewish observer, Vatican II was a unique religious event.
The work of the Council – “aggiornamento” as it was called by Pope John XXIII - undertook a
rethinking of Judaism and the Jewish people in Catholic theology. Negative Christian attitudes of
centuries, the teaching of contempt, the denial of Israel’s destiny and vocation, required a
reflection going beyond the theological triumphalism of the church fathers and the ideas of
medieval theologians.
Nostra Aetate was prepared and written by Catholic theologians and religious experts and directed
to the Catholic community. The original draft, and particularly the fourth section devoted to
Judaism, underwent changes after many discussions. The proposal called forth the expression of
profound differences among the bishops attending the council. Conservatively oriented clergy and
outside groups tried to obstruct consideration of Judaism altogether, using arguments familiar
from medieval disputations.
For some groups Nostra Aetate served as a pretext to criticize Vatican II and to allow nonreligious
organizations, the Arab League, and Arab diplomats, for instance, to attack the interreligious
dialogue and the State of Israel. A current of anti-Jewish theology was evident in articles and
books - underlining God’s rejection of Israel and Jewish involvement in the death of Jesus -
distributed openly or clandestinely among the council fathers.
Tense Negotiations
Dr. Joseph L. Lichten, director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith’s Department of
Intercultural Affairs, represented the organization in Rome during the days of the council and
played a central role. Lichten presented a study-survey conducted for the Anti-Defamation League
which pointed out the influence of the deicide charge on American Catholics:
“Perhaps as many as five million American Catholics, out of a total of forty-five million, see the
Jews as principally responsible for the death of Jesus, and they are led thereby to a negative
assessment of the contemporary Jew. The fact that those who believe and feel this way tend to go
to church more frequently, underscores the need for the Catholic Church to intensify its efforts if it
hopes to bring all Catholics to the principles of brotherhood which it espouses.”
Catholic leaders were so troubled by this startling revelation of Christian anti-Semitism that the
Dutch Documentation Center for the Council volunteered to publish the findings and distributed
them to every Council Father. On September 17, the findings were placed in the mailbox of each
Council father with a note by the Center Director expressing his hope that the document would
serve the council, the church, and the lapse between Jews and Christians.
The final council vote on the Declaration showed the church’s special concern for this document,
which was a turning point in Catholic understanding of Judaism and the Christian-Jewish
relationship. In the final ballot on the Declaration as a whole, 2221 voted yes, 88 voted no, and 3
votes were void.
Jewish Response
The initial reactions to Nostra Aetate within the Jewish community were mixed, ranging from total
negativism and prudent criticism to reserved acceptance and enthusiasm. Caution on Nostra Aetate
was recommended in the interreligious dialogue by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, one of the most
brilliant Jewish minds of the 20 th Century, in his essay “Confrontation.” He proposed discussions
on humanitarian and cultural endeavors and man’s moral values. His categorical resistance to
theological dialogue can be understood in historical terms. The medieval disputes and theological
confrontations commanded by Catholic religious leaders, obligated the rabbis to discuss the
concept of messiah, or the idea of trinity and defend the Jewish position, independent of a
Christian interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The discussions ended by forced conversion to
Catholicism or the expulsion of Jews from the city where those “conversations” took place.