International Council of Christians and Jews

E-bulletin # 2

Content:

2007 ICCJ International conference Sydney Australia, 8 – 12 July

The ICCJ agenda 2007-2009

Peace through Dialogue

Latvia

Staff changes at the Martin Buber House

ICCJ, the International Council of Christians and Jews:

A global network that

• builds Jewish-Christian understanding;
• brings the religious and moral principles of these traditions to bear upon the problems of interfaith, inter-racial and international relations;
• strives to eradicate prejudice, discrimination and their consequences;
• promotes attitudes of tolerance and mutual respect.

2007 ICCJ International conference Sydney Australia, 8 – 12 July

For the first time the annual ICCJ international conference will take place in Australia. Venue will be the University of New South Wales in Sydney Kensington. Theme: Healing a broken world: the faiths working together. The conference will be officially opened by the Governor of New South Wales, Professor Marie Bashir. The official opening will take place on the evening of July 8 at the Eric Caspary Centre on the campus of the University of New South Wales. See photo. What follows then has been described by the Australian Council of Christians and Jews as a topic-crammed four day programme. If you want to be part of all this, you may find the details of the programme on www.ccjaustralia.org.

Women's conference preceding main conference

At the Eric Caspary Centre the ICCJ women´s conference will be held during the days preceding the main conferende. The women´s conference is organized by ICCJ´s Women´s Council, chaired by ICCJ Vice-President Director Gunnel Borgregard. Information on this conference will be gladly given by the members of the council, who can be reached via ICCJ headquarters in the Martin Buber House in Heppenheim, Germany. info@iccj-buberhouse.de. Tel:: + 49 6252 93120.

The ICCJ agenda 2007-2009

The Executive Board of the ICCJ agreed on the ICCJ agenda for the years 2007-2009. Five themes dominate the list of future activities:

1. Re-assessment of the Jewish-Christian dialogue. A stock-taking of what has been done and achieved since the end of World War II. How were the results received by Christians and Jews, what are the burning issues and how to deal with them?
2. The impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Jewish-Christian relations. This multi-layered topic should be explored under theological as well as political aspects.
3. Jewish-Christian relations and third world theology. With the help of global institutions as the World Council of Churches contact will be sought with scholars in Africa and Asia to intensify and extend existing dialogue projects and to find new perspectives.
4. The Central and Eastern European countries. A questionnaire has gone out to the ICCJ member organizations in six countries in the region and to a few dozen individuals in several more countries to convene an expert conference in November this year.
5. Trilateral dialogue. In the near future the ICCJ will establish a pilot group to investigate what the long standing Jewish-Christian dialogue can contribute to the growing contacts between the three so called Abrahamic religions.

On item ´a´ as well as on item ´b´ an internet forum soon will start. About fifteen experts will discuss openly the items and as many interested people as possible are invited to attend and to respond and take part in the discussion at those moments the moderator decides to. The Internet forum on item ´b´ is intended to prepare the 2008 ICCJ conference, most probably the be held in Israel and - if possible – the areas under Palestinian rule. Internet forum ´a´ will discuss the possibility to publish, more than 60 years after the Seelisberg declaration a new 10 points declaration. This time going out from Heppenheim, giving guidance to the Jewish-Christian dialogue in the next decade.

Peace through Dialogue

The ICCJ Interfaith Gold Medallion - Peace Through Dialogue has been awarded to Rabbi Avraham Soetendorp, Netherlands, one of the ‘hidden children’ during Nazi occupation, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to Jewish-Christian understanding and acknowledgement of the debt owed to Christians who saved the lives of Jewish children in courageous disregard of their own safety. The presentation of the award will take place later this year.

Latvia

The 2002 ICCJ annual conference in Riga, Latvia addressed perspectives of the Christian-Jewish dialogue in the Baltic countries in light of their respective histories. Latvia’s history, particularly that of its mainly Russian speaking Jewish community, the efforts to rebuild the country and its identity after Communist rule, has however hampered the development of the then Latvian CCJ.   

We are pleased therefore to report that recent efforts of the newly registered Christian-Jewish Dialogue Group in Latvia have led to a distinct revival. The still small but active group intends to hold a conference in the not too distant future.  Its first and foremost step has been the publication of a bi-lingual translation of numerous so far unavailable Jewish Christian dialogue documents for distribution among clergy, academics and the media. The cost of this publication totals €5,000.  The ICCJ will make a contribution towards this encouraging development. We would welcome contributions however small to ICCJ account 121350.

Staff changes at the Martin Buber House After more than 25 years of dedicated work as a secretary in the office of the International Council of Christians and Jews mrs Gerlinde Grundmann leaves the organization to enjoy her well deserved retirement. All those years Gerlinde Grundmann has been the voice of the Martin Buber House answering innumerable telephone calls and opening the house to thousands of people. Many friends and colleagues have met Mrs Grundmann during the ICCJ conferences all over the world. We are very grateful to her for everything she has done for the ICCJ. As successor to Mrs Grundmann the General Secretary appointed Ms Barbara Fruth from Ludwigshafen. Ms Fruth started working on May 19th. Many of you will have the opportunity to meet her in Heppenheim or elsewhere. The ICCJ is confident that with the employment of Ms Fruth the work of the ICCJ will continue on the quality level we are used to.