INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHRISTIANS AND JEWS

E-Bulletin # 10

In this e-bulletin

2009 ICCJ conference in Berlin

Fribourg 2008, preparing Berlin

Season’s greetings

Upcoming events

ICCJ, the International Council of Christians and Jews

a global network that

• builds Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Christian-Muslim 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.

2009 ICCJ conference in Berlin 

The annual international ICCJ conference in 2009 will be held in Berlin. Like the 2008 Jerusalem conference, this meeting will also be dedicated to one of the five projects the ICCJ has on its agenda. This year the project ‘Re-assessment of Jewish-Christian Dialogue’ will be the main focus. The conference therefore will place ICCJ’s efforts and achievements in a rich historical perspective.

Already during World War II first contacts between the American and British Councils of Christians and Jews took place, aiming at the establishment of an international council of Christians and Jews. The 1946 Oxford conference explicitly pressed for such an international body, a fully understandable desire after the Nazi atrocities had become known. A first conference to this end was the 1947 Seelisberg conference, well known for the so-called ‘Ten points of Seelisberg’ an appeal to the Christian churches. In 1948 a first ICCJ constitution was accepted by its members in Fribourg, Switzerland, and marked the start of the ICCJ history.
More than sixty years later, in 2009, seventy years after the outbreak of World War II, the time has come for a future-oriented, new declaration on Jewish-Christian dialogue in the years to come. We will not re-write the ‘Ten points of Seelisberg’. We do not have the right to do so because the situation then was totally different. On a continent ruined by the war, morally devastated by what had happened, appealing to the Christian churches was the right thing to do. In our time Jews and Christians have become partners in dialogue and will call together not only on Christian churches but on Jewish communities as well. And Christians and Jews together will invite their fellow believers and all people of good will to share their common responsibilities.
The new ICCJ document will consist of “calls”, followed by a longer narrative, putting these calls in a theological and historical frame. The document will be published in German and English. Translations in other languages no doubt will follow as well as educational materials to provide the tools to everybody who wants to use this declaration in his/her work.

You are most welcome to join ICCJ in this historical meeting where we will celebrate the publication of the document. The conference will be co-hosted by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and will be held at the Academy of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Tiergartenstraße, Berlin) from Sunday, July 5, with registration starting late afternoon until the evening of Wednesday, July 8. The ICCJ Annual General meeting will take place on Thursday, July 9 at the conference venue.
Registration will be possible at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in due time. More detailed information will be available in our next E-bulletin.

Fribourg 2008, preparing Berlin

To discuss the draft 2009 Berlin document an expert conference was held at Fribourg University in Switzerland. In this E-bulletin we insert a few lines from the more extensive report ICCJ consultant Ruth Weyl wrote on the Fribourg conference in the ICCJ Newsletter to be published by the end of this month.

“To strengthen the document due to be finally published at the ICCJ 2009 Berlin conference a consultative group of 30 experts met in Fribourg, Switzerland, hosted and joined by fifteen members of the Theological Faculty of Fribourg University where the first international conference of Christians and Jews had convened in1948. There was a further visual reminder facing us of the complex 20th century history: Next to the staircase ascending to the beautiful main Senate hall we saw a plaque commemorating the fact that Chaim Weizmann, the first President of the State of Israel, had obtained his chemistry doctorate at Fribourg University in 1899.
Participants were welcomed by Prof.Guido Vergauwen, Rector of Fribourg University and by Prof Martin Klöckener, Dean of the University’s Theological Faculty referring to the fact that in addition to the 1948 conference the ICCJ was hosted by the University at its 1987 conference to explore Overcoming Prejudice – an Educational Challenge Forty Years after Issuing the Ten Points of Seelisberg when memorably Judith Banki – a member also of the present group of experts – warned Jews against thinking that Christianity was irretrievably anti-Jewish and of blaming Christians today for the sins of their forefather. While the past cannot be forgotten, it has to be faced and overcome. Jews need Christians to work together to eradicate the inherited prejudices which still permeate our cultural heritage.

Preceding particularly assigned workshops three challenging plenary lectures were presented whose emphases will help the drafting committee in formulating the new theses guiding dialogue in the years to come.”At the 2008 ICCJ Annual General Meeting, held in Jerusalem, a new Executive Board was elected. Dr. Deborah (Debbie) Weissman unanimously was elected ICCJ President for a three year term. ICCJ E-bulletin asked Dr. Weissman to introduce herself.

Season’s Greetings

Upcoming events 

December 7-8, 2008 Visit of the General Secretary to the Annual Conference of the American ICCJ member organisation, the Council of Centres on Jewish-Christian Relations
February 15-17, 2009. Meeting of the ICCJ Executive Board at the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem
May 26-28, 2009. Conference in Arad, Romania, to strengthen the ICCJ member organisations in Central and Eastern Europe and to explore the possible foundation of an ICCJ member organisation in Romania
End of MAY 2009 (!) ICCJ seminar in Jerusalem on the interreligious dialogue in the context of the Middle East conflict
July 5-July 8, 2009 ICCJ conference in Berlin, Germany. The project on re-assessment of Jewish-Christian dialogue and its future will be central during the 2009 annual conference.
July 9, 2009 ICCJ Annual membership meeting in Berlin, Germany