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The Amitié Judéo-chrétienne of France after Fifty Years... Encouraging a New Generation
Nolet, Bénédicte

More than a year ago in Paris several members of the Amitié Judéo-Chrétienne of France, including Colette Kessler and Bruno Charmet, agreed that the 50th anniversary celebration of the organization would feature a one-day event dedicated to young people. After long and careful preparation the event took place on March 22, 1998. Since a week prior to the event the secretary’s office had received only a few applications, they considered cancelling at least some of the presentations (those of Rabbis Gilles Bernheim and Gabriel Farhi, Father Jean Dujardin’s, Sister Bénédicte’s of the Sisters of Sion...?) In the end they decided to remain optimistic.

The morning of Sunday, March 22 seventy young Jews and Christians gathered. Every effort had been made to balance input with conviviality: conferences would alternate with small group thematic sessions; there would be Israeli singing and dancing as well as a delicious kosher meal. All would take place in a nice and easily accessible location. I personally had no knowledge about this event until one of the Sisters of Sion asked me, that very morning, to bring back some pictures for her. Captivated by what was taking place, I put aside my plans for the day and remained at the event until the evening - without any regrets. I was impressed particularly by the quality of the speeches; the young people who had gathered were obviously very taken by them.

As a Christian I have long had an interest in the dialogue between Jews and Christians. It is like a call, a need for learning the truth about my Christian identity. Four years of theology have made me thirst for this even more. I have been a student chaplain in Paris since last October. In February I decided, as part of my responsibilities, to suggest that the students also consider this experience. The event on March 22 enabled me, in just a few hours, not only to meet Vanessa, a Jewish student willing to welcome any student interested in visiting her community’s synagogue and learning about Judaism, but also to meet her rabbi, to feel encouraged and guided in my own initiative, and to feel, by what I was sensing around me, that my wish could become a reality.

Before long I was invited to participate in the Shabbat celebration at the liberal synagogue on Cavaillet Street. Not wanting to have our Christian youth attend in a superficial manner, I wanted their visit to the synagogue to be part of a larger initiative of their own Church. Therefore approximately a dozen of us gathered in a neighboring parish to read together excerpts from Nostra Aetate and from some of the other documents which followed its publication. Then Vanessa gave us a few pointers about the celebration in which we were about to participate. After this we went to the synagogue - an experience which was a delight for all the participants. Vanessa suggested that we might also take a guided tour of the synagogue, experience a Yom HaShoah service, etc. She herself accepted an invitation from a young Christian woman to join her for the Palm Sunday service and was surprised to discover the many elements of her own tradition which had been integrated by Christians.

In the following weeks a small group of students, two Jews and three Christians, met to consider how to continue this work which had been begun. They decided to meet monthly during the upcoming year. The first year focused on a better understanding of each other’s religious celebrations by means of several presentations by different members of the group. Other young people will be invited in the future, with an effort to maintain an equal number of Jews and Christians and not exceed twenty members in all. They would also like to be in charge of organizing an annual one-day event, like the March 22 gathering, which would be led by the same type of “experienced mountain climbers.” Colette Kessler, Michel Elbaz (Jewish) and I (Christian) have been requested to be part of this team. Our general intent will be (with God’s blessing) to move forward “slowly but surely.”

Why invite young Jews and Christians to open up to each other? On several occasions I have heard a rabbi or a priest object to this by saying that they should start by going deeper into their own faith. My experience, though brief, has taught me the following:

1. Some young people, especially Christians, accept being part of a meeting between Jews and Christians even though they do not particularly practice their own religion. They claim they would not have responded to any other kind of invitation on the part of the Church. It is only when they see their Church opening up in dialogue with its “neighbor” that they feel it starts to become a credible institution. Since dialogue represents the kind of entry point they are looking for, why don’t we give it to them?

2. On the part of Jews as well as Christians I see young men and women wanting to go deeper into their own faith, using the dialogue as a starting point. In such an environment they feel responsible for representing and speaking about their faith. The many significant questions they are called upon to answer, some of which they had never thought about before, are like “fish hooks” leading them to search deep inside themselves for answers. I have seen some of them taking advantage of their vacation time to read, to take Bible classes, or learn the Hebrew they had neglected since the Talmud Torah.

3. One of my motivations as a student chaplain came from seeing students concentrating only on their own narrow world, enmeshed in unchallenging internal debates. Being opened to the differences and similarities of others leads many of them to experience a common concern about the major issues and ethical questions confronting the world today. When the students are forthcoming with each other in such meetings they usually come to the realization that they have common responsibilities.

4. After having been warmly welcomed by a Jewish community to a Shabbat celebration some Christian students discussed how their awareness had been developed. They saw that the words of the psalms which they use in their liturgy didn’t come out of nowhere. They realized how much they owe to a people who have managed to preserve their most intimate history.

5. My last point is a personal one. I realize that in the context of dialogue I cannot imagine finding answers solely within myself or by myself. I can only depend upon God: “I will lead those who seek in a way they don’t know...” The dialogue inevitably leads to an unsettling for those who strive to walk humbly alongside their God.

Who was talking about beginning by going deeper into one’s own faith? My own opinion is that an important condition is always: to remain in the capable hands of “good mountain climbers” as was the case on March 22. Thank you to the organizers and the speakers!


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* Bénédicte Nolet is doing Masters studies in Biblical Theology at l’Institut Catholique in Paris. She is responsible for pastoral life in a secondary school in suburban Paris. Bénédicte’s report has been translated from French