SWC News Update - Pope Francis I: Renewed Collaboration with Jewish Community

“In the Jewish community in Buenos Aires, the widely shared impression is that he’s very friendly, that the cardinal was determined to have a cordial relationship with the Jewish community” – Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, The Jewish Journal.
March 14, 2013
Pope Francis I Reaches Out to Italy’s Chief Rabbi
If the Jewish world was waiting for a sign from the new Pope Francis I regarding his relations with their community, it didn't take long.
In his first day as Pope today, Francis I wrote to the Chief Rabbi of the Rome Jewish Community, Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, inviting him to his Inauguration on March 19 , and expressing his hope of a renewed collaboration with the Jewish Community.

Why the new pope matters to Jews
By Rabbi Abraham Cooper
March 13, 2013

There are an estimated 2 billion Christians in the world led by a variety of religious leaders from Patriarchs to Metropolitans, and for many Protestant denominations, the World Council of Churches. Yet for World Jewry, there is but one Christian leader who has counted the most: The pope.
In the tumultuous 20th Century what popes said and did not say to and about Jews impacted directly on the destiny of the Jewish people.

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