A group dedicated to providing a cozy space for Jews converts to Catholicism has been inaugurated in Israel.
The Association of Hebrew Catholics celebrated its official launch with a Mass on August 8, the eve of the feast of its patron saint, Santa Edith Stein, who was a Jew converted to Catholicism.
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
The Sirocatolic exarca of Jerusalem, Bishop Yaacoub Camil Agram Antoine, was the host of the event and celebrated the mass that took place in the Sirocatolic Church of Saint Thomas in Jerusalem.
Some 30 people attended the event, according to CNA – Ewtn News – Yarden Zelivansky, Jewish convert to Catholicism and member of the Israel Defense Forces (FDI), who worked to take the Association of Catholic Hebrews to Israel.
Zelivansky expressed his hope that, as the group grows, the main events that plan throughout the year attract more people. “Here, in Israel, we have chosen San Ángelus de Jerusalem as a local patron, who was a Jew convert to faith and grew in Jerusalem,” said Zelivansky, highlighting the evangelizing trajectory of the Holy Carmelite with the local Jewish community.
“Almost all Hebrew-Catholic saints are Carmelites,” he added.
The Association of Catholic Hebrews was founded by the carmelite priest Father Elias Friedman, OCD, Jewish convert to Catholicism who lived in the Stella Maris monastery on Mount Carmelo in Haifa, Israel.
The group plans to organize numerous events, including the celebration of the festival of San Ángelus, as well as the observance of some of the main Jewish festivities. “We plan to see how we can celebrate (the Jewish festivities) in the light of Christ,” said Zelivansky.
“Many of us see in the Jewish liturgy and in the Jewish festivities, since they come from the Old Testament, very strong Christological elements,” continued the priest from Tel Aviv. “So we plan to celebrate all these festivities in a different way, that highlights Christ that is already in them, as we perceive it,” he said.
As a lay apostolate, the group will not establish parishes or facilitate the sacraments. The vicariate of Santiago el Justo, founded similarly for Hebrew -speaking Catholics and who is part of the Latin patriarchy of Jerusalem, is already in a position to do so.
“We are trying to create this space where we will focus more on Jewish culture, which may or may not be in Hebrew,” he said. “There are many people who arrived in the last years of the Soviet Union whose Jewish identity is very important for them, so we could end up organizing activities in Russian. Our approach is not linguistic, but cultural.”
In addition to having the support of Syrian patriarchy, Zelivansky met with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, and several other leaders of smaller religious communities within the Catholic Church, who, according to him, “have been very excited to see where this is directed.”
Since the majority of the group is canonically Latin, Zelivansky expressed his desire to have the approval of the patriarch. “I don’t think I met anyone not to be of Jewish origin to understand this issue so well,” Zelivansky said about Pizzaballa. During his meeting, he remembered having spoken with Pizzaballa about the group, theology, the current state of the Church and Pope Leo XIV.
“It was a wonderful conversation,” he recalled. “(Pizzaballa) is a lovely man, and it was a real pleasure to see how deeply he understands this issue.”
Reception in Israel
According to Zelivansky, the reactions to the Association of Hebrew Catholics will probably be diverse. “Like any other country in the region, Israel is composed of many different subcultures,” he said.
For example, he said, although secular Jews will probably remain indifferent, the religious Jewish community could disagree with the group, not because it is a Christian community, but for being a community of converts. However, he added that the objective of the association is not to evangelize, but to reach the Jews who have already become.
In short, what most excites Zelivansky is to see how Orthodox Christians of Jewish origin or the messianic Jews before the association will react.
“I think what many people do not appreciate is that, historically, Jews have rejected Christianity, not only for their theology, but for their culture,” he explained. “Because for the Jews, their inheritance and their culture are not just an ethnic issue.”
The Jews have often “rejected Christianity because they were forced to assimilate or were expected to do so when that happens,” he continued. “And it is unimaginable that they stop being Jews because it is their inheritance of God.”
“I think that being able to maintain that inheritance being orthodoxly Catholic, once the Church really knows how to facilitate that for the people of Israel, it will be a historical moment,” he said.
Origins
“The idea (of the association) is that in each culture that Catholicism, Christianity reached, faith was instilled in the culture in which it was,” said Zelivansky, pointing out the expressions of the various rites within the Church, which can be distinguished by their liturgies and musical expression.
However, he said, “during the vast majority of Christian history, the Jews who became simply did not have that opportunity for various reasons.” The Jews converted to Catholicism that lived in France, Italy or Germany were expected to “simply assimilate local culture.”
“Over time, some converts realized the need to create this space to see what the Jews could keep their Judaism as Catholics,” said Zelivansky. “And that’s what the (association) is about: to create that space where Jewish culture can be incorporated into faith, to church, and see how it translates into practice.”
Although Israel has the vicariate of Santiago el Justo, Zelivansky said that the demography of the ecclesial entity has changed over the years. The majority of their young people, he said, “are not Jews converts to faith, but are, for example, children of local immigrants and asylum seekers whose mother tongue is Hebrew, since they grew (in Israel).”
While the vicariate performs the necessary work, said Zelivansky, the association is more focused on attending to the Jews converts.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.
Low Elhabbal
Madalaine Elhabbal is a CNA journalist based in the Washington DC office in EWTN. He has published articles in Catholicvote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.