Miracles in Our Time: Interreligious Dialogue and Alliance
A few infamous social media influencers who claim to be Catholic have decided to ignore the teachings of their own leaders and to ignore their own history. Instead, they are peddling antisemitic tropes and replacement theology that the Catholic Church officially disavowed in 1965. How will we remind them of this if we don’t even know such history? It is our duty as adults of any faith, but especially as Jews, to learn.
The story begins in 1881 in a village in Italy called Sotto il Monte where Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli is born into a farming family. By 1934 he is appointed Apostolic Delegate (nuncio) to Turkey and Greece and Archbishop of Bulgaria, and in these positions he rescued an untold number of Jews during the Holocaust. While the reigning Pope did nothing to help the Jews, Cardinal Roncalli, acting on his own initiative, distributed hundreds of false baptismal certificates, personally appealed to the king of Bulgaria to save the country’s Jews, and granted immigration certificates to refugees en route to the Holy Land. By 1958, Roncalli had become Pope John XXIII, and the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Jewish people changed dramatically. When historian and Holocaust survivor Jules Isaac met with Pope John XXIII and presented his research on antisemitism within Church doctrine, the Pope declared his intention to confront and improve Catholic-Jewish relations. This indeed became Pope John XXIII’s legacy, even though he died shortly before the document was officially ratified.
On October 28, 1965, his successor Pope Paul VI proclaimed Nostra Aetate during the 2nd Vatican Council. This document has profound implications in how Catholics and Jews view and interact with each other today that we should never take for granted. Nostra Aetate (“in our time”), highlighted that we each are children of God and rejected antisemitism of any form. It affirmed Judaism’s eternal covenant with God and highlighted shared spiritual and moral values among us all. This direct quote from the document, which seeks to repudiate many centuries of Catholicism claiming to have taken the place of Judaism as the apple of God’s eye is worth re-reading many times over until the meaning sinks in – “God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues.” God’s relationship with the Jewish people not only remains intact, it is held dear, beloved, and the promises God made to the Jews remain just as valid.
In October of 2025, the Miami and Broward chapters of American Jewish Committee joined with St. Thomas University, the Archdiocese of Miami and national Catholic leaders to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. Similar events occurred across the globe. I was honored to participate in this event that highlights respectful inter-religious dialogue and cultivation of friendships across divides as a panelist discussing my participation in the “Religion for Good” cohort. Sharing my thoughts on stage with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, and Rabbi Mario Rojzman, among the many distinguished guests in the sold-out crowd was an evening I’ll remember forever as one marked with gratitude, joy, and hope for the future. Respectful dialogue that acknowledges differences and aims for understanding rather than agreement, is the antidote to an increasingly divided world obsessed with virtue signaling that is as far from true virtue as it could possibly be.
Less than a week later, at the Jewish National Fund–USA Global Conference, I again witnessed the fruits of interreligious dialogue. These relationships with non-Jewish Zionists have formed essential allies in confronting today’s widespread antisemitism and its modern expression: anti-Zionism.
Bob Lembke, the national chair of the event, was raised Catholic and received a standing ovation as he spoke to the crowd, “Israel embodies radical hope… Israel is the first line of defense of Judeo-Christian principles that underlay western democracy. You do not stand alone.” We heard from Australian TV presenter and journalist Erin Molan, who went to Israel shortly after 10/7 to witness the truth and faced enormous backlash for sharing her thoughts on her program, yet bravely declared “it is not just your fight. It is a fight for peace and freedom on behalf of all of us in the world…It is my immense privilege to fight alongside your people.” Pastor Dumisani Washington spoke of Black Christian historical ties to Jews and the genocide of Christians in Africa by radical Islamists. Federal Judge Roy Altman mesmerized the room as he told stories about his experience in Israel walking the Pilgrim’s road by Siloam pool, and the Sea of Galilea by the Mount of the Beatitudes with faithful Christians. We heard from Iranian Judoka world champion Saeid Mollaei who defected from Iran after not being allowed to compete with Israel, who is now friends with his Israeli opponent Sagi Muki and speaks about the indoctrination of hatred in Iran. Syrian American journalist Hayvi Bouzo spoke of how her mother told her as a child about the persecution of the Jews of Aleppo. That pushed her to seek truth even in a regime dedicated to propaganda and scapegoating Israel for all its own failings.
Their words echoed those I heard just days earlier from Loay Alshareef, who spoke at a local event about growing up as a Salafi Muslim in Saudi Arabia, surrounded by anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda. Only when he happened to live with a Jewish family as part of a French immersion program in Paris did he begin to question what he had been taught. Loay decided to study both Jewish history and the history of Islam and how the two are inextricably linked. He has since dedicated his life, in the face of great personal danger, to advocate for coexistence between the Arab world and Israel. Witnessing this brilliant man seamlessly go from quoting the Quran in Arabic, and the Torah in perfect Hebrew, was truly a glimpse into what could be if the Abraham Accords continue opening opportunities for peace. He encouraged us to learn our history and our Torah to better share it with the world, and to travel to places like the United Arab Emirates and witness a brighter future firsthand.
In a world that seems to be unraveling on all ends, one in which antisemitism is increasingly in vogue, it is precisely the people who are not Jewish who stand by us that give me hope. At the closing session of JNF’s Global Conference, British author Douglas Murray explained as only he can, that societies that hate themselves desecrate their own history and destroy themselves from within. That is what explains the strange marriage of Leftism, Islamism, and now, the “woke-right”, a marriage that is also a slow and painful suicide of Western values. Instead of resigning ourselves to this fate, Douglas urged us to “reeducate the youth that we have the greatest story to tell and greatest heroes to revere. We should not be tearing them down, we should not be destroying our history, we should build on what our past gave us.” Douglas beseeched us not to go back to pre-October 7th, a time when we were tearing ourselves apart, and instead urged unity. Leave it to the non-Jew to inspire Jews to “connect more deeply with your faith and tradition,” as Douglas reminded us that “the fact that many hostages came home is evidence that miracles still happen in the modern era.”
The modern-day prophet Douglas Murray is absolutely right – miracles do happen. Moments like these of interreligious dialogue, of alliance between religions, they are miraculous. Let us be the ones who create more of these miracles in our daily lives.
