In a development sure to be welcomed by the Jewish community, Pope Benedict has added a stop during his New York leg and will visit the Park East synagogue, long headed by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor and champion of interreligious dialogue. The visit to the synagogue will take place on the afternoon of April 18, the day Benedict arrives in New York. The event will likely go a ways towards easing Benedict’s often problematic relationship with the Jewish community. Benedict’s election was welcomed by the Jewish community, which rightly saw Joseph Ratzinger’s brief service as a teenager in a German anti-aircraft battery and his enrollment in the Hitler Youth (he attended one meeting, when he was 14) as non-issues. But Benedict has been surprisingly flat-footed when it comes to engaging the Jewish community as Pope. His address at Auschwitz during a 2006 trip to Poland barely mentioned the Holocaust, and said nothing of anti-Semitism. And he has done little to use his unique view and experience of European history and German history to help battle a resurgent anti-Semitism. He also reinstituted a controversial Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews that had been the spark and symbol of anti-Jewish violence for centuries, and later released an edited version that did not assuage many in the Jewish community.

Initial plans for Benedict’s visit were for a visit with Jewish groups in New York on Friday evening, yet did not take into account that the sabbath begins Friday at sundown. Moreover, the first night of Passover is the following night, Saturday evening. Until now, Benedict was to meet with Jewish leaders only in Washington, in a rather pro forma meetign with leaders of other faiths. That didn’t please Jewish leaders much, and this development seems like a way to address the problem.
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