AJC Interreligious Affairs Director Honored In Poland For His Work In Catholic - Jewish Relations

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 2 January 1997

In recognition of his efforts to foster improved relations between Catholics and Jews and to build bridges of mutual respect and understanding between the two communities, the Interreligious Affairs Director of the American Jewish Committee will receive the Figure of Reconciliation Award from the Polish Council of Christians and Jews.

Rabbi A. James Rudin will be honored in Poland at the Golden Hall of Warsaw University on Tuesday, January 7, 1997. Making the award presentation to Rabbi Rudin will be the Rev. Waldemar Chrostowski, the Director of the Warsaw-based Institute of Catholic - Jewish Dialogue and a Co-Chair of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews. Dr. Stanislaw Krajewski of Warsaw is also a Co-Chair of the Council.

Since 1989, Rabbi Rudin has developed and instituted a unique series of innovative and pioneering joint programs with the Roman Catholic Episcopate (the Bishops' Conference) of Poland. These programs have included exchange visits between the Rabbi and the Archbishop of Gniezno, Henryk Muszynski, who was also the first President of the Episcopate's Commission for Dialogue with Judaism. Rabbi Rudin has addressed this Commission in Warsaw numerous times, and Archbishop Muszynski spoke at AJC'S 1990 Annual Meeting in New York City.

In addition, through Rabbi Rudin's efforts, an annual exchange program, begun in 1993, has brought Polish Catholic scholars to the United States to lecture at rabbinical schools and other institutions of higher learning. Reciprocally, American Jewish scholars have lectured at various Catholic seminaries, universities and colleges, and academies of religious studies in Poland.

Rabbi Rudin also played a key role in resolving the Auschwitz Convent crisis. He is an active member of the Board of the Interreligious Study Center that is located at Auschwitz, and he was instrumental in working to resolve the tensions that were created by the 1991 visit to the U.S. of Josef Cardinal Glemp, the Primate of Poland.

The Rabbi has met with Pope John Paul II on seven different occasions; four times at the Vatican and the remainder in the United States. He has led two AJC leadership delegations to the Vatican, in 1990 and again in 1995. In 1994, Rabbi Rudin was an honored guest at the historic Vatican Concert that commemorated the Holocaust.

At the upcoming award ceremony in Warsaw, a first-of-its-kind Polish language Bibliography containing all relevant documents, books, articles and declarations dealing with Catholic - Jewish relations from 1945 through 1995 will be released. The publication is a joint effort of the Institute of Catholic - Jewish Dialogue and the American Jewish Committee. It will be distributed for use in seminaries, colleges, and universities throughout Poland, the United States, and in other countries around the world that have a significant Polish speaking population. Rabbi Rudin and Father Chrostowski have written introductions for the Bibliography.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org