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A word of explanation
Mgr. Dr. A.C. Ramselaar | Dr. W.P. Eckert, O.P. | Dr. C.A. Rijk

On October 28th;'19654.during the fourth session of Vatican Council II in Rome, the solemn;, romulgation of the Declaration on the Relationship of the Church towards non-Christian religions was made. This was an event of great historic importance for Jewish-Christian relations and for the whole life of the Church.

On the occasion of this promulgation an informal meeting was held in Rome on November 12, 1965, which was attended by persons from different countries who had been working for the furthering of Jewish-Christian understanding. In a way, it was a continuation and' an4mlargement of the contact made in meetings at Apeldoorn, Holland (1953 and 1960). 'Among the participants were Mgr. F.P. LEIPZIG (Baker, USA), Mgr. ELCHINGER (Strasbourg, France) and Mgr. S. MENDES ARCEO (Guernavaca, Mexico).

A conclusion from this meeting was the resolution to further the Jewish-Christian encounter. The participants decided that it would be useful and stimulating to keep abreast of the important events that indicate development of mutual Jewish-Christian understanding in different countries of-the world, to follow the results of the Council Declaration, to'eee the reactions, the-difficulties and also-the new possibilities. In this way we would become more aware of the evolution of the question in other Christian Churches and in Judaism, and ultimately obtain a survey of the whole movement of Jewish-Christian relations.

The above-mentioned meeting set up an international service, SIDIC (Service International de Documentation judeo-Chr4tienne) for this purpose. Mgr. A.C. RAMSELAAR (Utrecht, Holland), Dr. W.P. ECKERT, O.P. (Cologne, Germany) and Dr. C.A. RIJK (Rome, Italy), were chosen as members of the steering committee. At present information is collected by the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in Rome, where a staff of editors and collaborators is responsible for the selection and the arrangement of the material for publication. The goal of the bulletin is to inform the people working in the field of Jewish-Christian encounter of interesting and important events, facts, activities and publications.

Each issue of the SIDIC bulletin will deal with a chosen subject and will try to give a general survey and the developments of particular aspects of the Jewish-Christian question.
We sincerely hope that this effort will contribute to a deeper mutual knowledge, provide encouragement for the wavering and disappointed and create a new bond between writers and readers, between editors and contributors, between Jews and Christians.