07.08.2013
A significant inter–faith encounter in the context of the Jewish Gathering, Dublin, July 2013
Dr Susan Hood, RCB Library
In terms of relationship building and new understandings between people who are different, not least members of the different faiths in Ireland, as elsewhere, it is often the things unseen rather than those in the limelight that can have unmeasured significance.
So it was at the end of the week–long Jewish Gathering organised by a Committee of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, chaired by Mr Maurice Cohen, that included a series of events culminating at the normal Shabbat service on Friday July 26 at Terenure Synagogue, where the Rabbi Zalman Lent and the Dublin Hebrew Congregation were joined by many international visitors who returned to Ireland for the Gathering, including Rabbi David Rosen, a former Chief Rabbi of Ireland and pioneer of inter–faith dialogue.
Alongside them as special invitees for the evening were the two Primates of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, and the Most Revd Richard Clarke, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, with Archbishop Charles Brown Apostolic Nuncio, the Most Revd Michael Jackson, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Revd John Finlay former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Revd Ken Lindsey former President of the Methodist Church, and the Revd Alan Martin, of the Presbyterian Church.
Following the service in the Shul everyone proceeded to the Samuel Tacca Hall for the weekly Shabbat meal where the Service of Kiddush (grace before meals) was said before the shared food was enjoyed by all. It was indeed a moving occasion, at which Dr Rosen spoke about the ever closer relations that had developed between Christians and Jews over the past 30 years since he had been Chief Rabbi in Ireland, and a particular honour for the community to demonstrate the high regard with which the community are held by the main Christian churches in Ireland. He made specific reference to the international dialogues with Anglicans and Roman Catholics and their importance in contemporary Jewish self–understanding. Archbishop Michael Jackson co–chairs the Anglican–Jewish Commission on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
After sundown, in accordance with Jewish traditions, no machinery or devices may be worked, and so the historic event was not captured on film, but history was most certainly made with the collective presence of the Christian representatives in the Shul, which has never happened before in Ireland. There have been recent precedents abroad, however. In May 2008, during the Irish Church leaders visit to the Holy Land, Cardinal Brady, Revd Finlay, the then Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, and Revd Roy Cooper, then President of the Methodist Church attended Friday prayers at the Kehilat Kol HaNeshama Synagogue in Jerusalem and afterwards shared a meal together in the home of Rabbi Levi Weiman–Kelman and his family.
In 2010, the Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders of Ireland held a day of dialogue at Farmleigh House, during which they were hosted for a shared meal at Aras an Uachtarain by then President Mary McAleese. The recent invitation of the Jewish community to the leaders of the Churches and the resulting quiet and humble encounter that took place in Dublin recently was another significant step along the road of building bridges.