Ashdod, one of the oldest cities in the world, and currently Israel’s largest port, will dedicate one of its streets to Angelo Roncalli, Pope John XXIII (1881-1963), in recognition of his work to save a large number of Jews during World War II.

The fifth largest city in Israel will also offer this recognition to another great rescuer of those persecuted by the Holocaust, Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947), a Swedish diplomat recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations,” since his work saved the lives of over one hundred thousand Jews.

The initiative of dedicating a street in the city to the Pope and to the Swedish philanthropist was promoted by Boris Giterman, acting mayor of Ashdod, in response to a request from the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, which is chaired by Eduardo Eurkenian and was founded by Baruch Tenembaum.

In an interview with Aleteia, Giterman explains how and why he decided to propose this recognition of the actions of Pope John XXIII, who began a new era of relations between Jews and Catholics when he convened the Second Vatican Council.

Why have you presented this proposal, which is so significant for Jewish-Christian relations?

My decisions generally have an emotional basis, since I am a human being. The Raoul Wallenberg Foundation’s proposal arrived just when Israel was celebrating the Holocaust Remembrance Day, so of course it moved me very deeply. An event in remembrance of the Holocaust was being held in the city of Ashdod on that same day, and I personally arrived with the proposal, which I presented to the city. The Holocaust always moves me deeply. I often visit Yad Vashem, the official Israeli memorial to victims of the Holocaust. In particular I am moved by the example of the rescuers who risked their lives to save the victims of the Holocaust. It is something that must be remembered and taught to the younger generations. The city of Ashdod is very involved in the task of education, especially as regards teaching students about the Holocaust. It is also involved in giving recognition to the rescuers. The city has many immigrants from the former Soviet Union and for this reason, a book was published in Russian about the Holocaust survivors from the Soviet Union. These were “adult children,” since they are people who experienced the Holocaust at a very young age, but the terrible situation made them adults.

What message does this Israeli city want to give to the world by honoring John XXIII in this way?

The city of Ashdod is made up of ninety communities from different places of origin, and the message of the mayor of the city of Ashdod is one of peace, tolerance, brotherhood and respect between all the communities. Therefore it is very important to honor the memory of those who saved Holocaust victims. Here in Ashdod, we realize that each community must preserve its own cultural heritage and respect it. With this gesture, we are spreading a message of love, hope, and peace. We hope other cities will also adopt it. In Ashdod, we say we hope we will always love our neighbor.

In Rome, it will most likely cause great satisfaction to see that a city in Israel has decided to honor the memory of Pope John XXIII. No doubt it will greatly please Pope Francis, who has shown a great closeness to the Jewish people during his ministry as archbishop in Argentina and now as bishop of Rome.

It would certainly be a great honor to visit the Vatican for this reason. To the extent of its ability, the city of Ashdod, contributes to Israel’s diplomatic relations with the world. We have agreements with sister cities in the former Soviet Union. Now we will visit Moscow and other smaller cities. For me it will be a great honor to do everything I can to help diplomatic relations and fellowship relations in the Jewish through the State of Israel, and with the Catholic world through the Vatican.

8:45 – 9:15 Gathering, registration, light refreshments

9:15 – 10:00 Opening Session

Chair: Mr. Yair Tzaban, Former Minister and MK – Opening remarks

Greetings:

Mr. Michael Mertes, State Secretary (ret.), Director Israel Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
H.B. Patriarch Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
Rabbi She’ar Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi Emeritus of Haifa
Ms. Colette Avital, Chairperson, Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel

Recorded greetings from the President of the State of Israel, Mr. Shimon Peres

Screening of excerpt from “I Am Joseph Your Brother”

10:00 – 11:30 Session I : Roncalli and the Shoah

Chair: Prof. Dan Michman, Yad Vashem and Bar Ilan University

Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. Dina Porat, Kantor Center, Tel Aviv University; Chief Historian, Yad Vashem

11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break

12:00 – 13:00 Session II: Roncalli and the Establishment of the State of Israel

Chair: Mr. Baruch Tenembaum, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

Mr. Yair Tzaban, Former Minister & MK
Prof. Uri Bialer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Paolo Zanini, University of Milan

13:00 – 14:00 Light lunch

14:00 – 16:00 Session III: John XXIII, Vatican II and Nostra Aetate

Chair: H.E. Cardinal Peter Turkson, Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace, Vatican

Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land
Prof. Alberto Melloni, FSCIRE
Ms. Claire Maligot, Paris IV University
Ms. Yisca Harani, Independent scholar, Expert on Christianity and Christian-Jewish relations

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break555

16:30 – 17:30 Session IV : The Legacy of John XXIII for Catholic-Jewish Relations – Europe & the World

Chair: Mr. Oded Wiener, Director-General, Chief Rabbinate of Israel

H.E. Cardinal Kurt Koch, Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Jewry, Vatican
Prof. Amos Luzzatto, Venice

17:30 – 18:00 Concluding Presentation

Rabbi Dr. David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, AJC

Simultaneous translation Hebrew-English-Hebrew was provided throughout the conference.

The event, organized by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, together with the American Jewish Council (Global Jewish Advocacy) – AJC and Yad Vashem, will take place in Jerusalem, on April 29^th, 2013, at the Konrad Adenauer Conference Center, “De Botton Auditorium”.

Mr Yair Zaban, a former Israeli Minister, will chair the whole event. Together with Mr Tenembaum, many distinguished personalities will participate in the conference, including scholars, representatives from the Vatican, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, heads of NGO’s, etc.

The day-long conference will be divided in four Sessions:

Session I – Roncalli and the Shoah, chaired by Prof. Dan Michman.

Session II – Roncalli and the Establishment of the State of Israel, chaired by Mr. Baruch Tenembaum.

Session III – John XXIII, Vatican II and Nostra Aetate, chaired by Cardinal Peter Turkson.

Session IV – The Legacy of John XXIII for Catholic-Jewish Relations – Europe and the World.

In representation of the IRWF, Mr Tenembaum will be accompanied by Pastor Annemarie Werner, head of the Vaterunse Evangelical Church and the IRWF Representative Office in Berlin, Dr. Yoav Tenembaum, Vice-President of the IRWF, Mr. Danny Rainer, head of the IRWF Representative Office in Berlin and Mr. Heroi Landsman, researcher and Ms. Evelyne Noama, office manager of the IRWF Representative office in Jerusalem.

The IRWF has also invited Ms Nieves Farina, Member of the Board of “Casa Argentina en Israel – Tierra Santa”, an interfaith NGO, affiliated with the IRWF and Rabbi Simon Mogilevsky – a distinguished Argentine Rabbi devoted to the interfaith dialogue and longtime member of Casa Argentina.

The IRWF extended a special invitation to Monsignor Loris Capovilla, former secretary of Pope John XXIII. Due to his advanced age, Mgr Capovilla cannot fly from Italy to Jerusalem but a special letter from him to the organizers and attendants of the Roncalli Conference will be read during the event.

The ceremony was organized by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Economic General Confederation of the Argentine Republic, presided by Ricardo Faerman.

Cardinal Kasper, accompanied by the leader of the MTDLM, Toti Flores, Faerman and Mrs. Susana Caramelo, member of the Executive Council of the IRWF, unveiled the a commemorative plaque of Monsignor Roncalli installed at the entrance of the classroom. The kindergarten is attended daily by sixty children of low-income families that work in the several workshops of the Wallenberg Center.

Toti Flores welcomed Cardinal Kasper who was warmly received by the children, who sang an allusive song composed for the occasion. Flores stressed the independent character of his movement, that does not receive subsides from the state of any kind. ”Work dignifies man, not privileges or hollow charities”, he said.

Cardinal Kasper transmited to the attendance greetings from Pope John Paul II and blessed not only the plaque but also the Kindergarten, along with the Bishop of Laferrere, Monsignor Juan Horacio Suárez.

In one of the most emotional moments of the ceremony, Mrs. Majo Faerman presented to the children three complete sets of winter cloths for each one of them.

The Cardinal was born in Heidenheim-Brenz, Germany, in 1933 and was ordained priest in 1957. Accomplished Theologian and author of many books and critical essays, Kasper studied at the University of Tübingen where he later became professor of Dogmatic Theology.

On October 3, 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, succeeding Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy. Cardinal Kasper also assumed as President of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

Monsignor Angelo Roncalli is a key figure in the modern history of Catholicism and the relations with Judaism. In 1958 he was appointed Pope with the name of John XXIII.

Long before, in 1944, he was responsible of organizing one of the largest rescue missions of Jews and other persecuted by Nazism during the Holocaust.

As Vatican Apostolic Delegate in Istanbul, he granted tens of thousands of false baptismal certificates to Jews condemned to a certain death in the extermination camps.

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The conference , in which participated philosophers, historians and scholars from all over the world, had as objective the commemoration of the life and work of whom is known as the ”Good Pope”.

His baptismal name was Angelo Giussepe Roncalli. He had been born in Bergamo, Italy, on 25 November 1881. He passed away during his pontiff, on 4 June 1963.

On the 40th anniversary of his death, history remembers him as one of the most renewing and powerful Popes, especially in the field of the interconfessional dialogue.

In the year 2000 the Wallenberg Foundation, created by the Argentine Baruch Tenembaum, who leads the interfaith dialogue in Latin America, decided to initiate the activities of the Angelo Roncalli International Committee. The ceremony, organized by the president of the Pontific Council ”Justice and Peace”, Archbishop Renato Martino, took place at the Legation of the Holy See to the UN. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, who attended the inaugural ceremony, approved the initiative with enthusiasm.

As Apostolic Delegate of the Vatican to Istanbul, Monsignor Roncalli saved the lives of thousands of Jews and other persecuted by Nazism.

Mr. Tenembaum had the honor of closing the conference by reading his presentation named ”The Hebrew world and Roncalli”.

Professor Alberto Melloni, of the University of Bologna and a renowned specialist on the life and deeds of the former Pope, opened the meeting with his conference ”Roncalli’s soul”. With the closure of the encounter he received from Tenembaum the Roncalli’s Commemorative Medal, a work of art specially coined by request of the IRWF and similar to the one received by Maria Nicoletta Gaida, President of the Dionysia Center, in October 2002 during the celebration of the ceremony ”Nostra Aetate”.

Among the many activities carried out to remember Angelo Roncalli it is worth mentioning the issue of a commemorative postal card launched by the Argentine Postal Service following an idea of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Roncalli Committee.

Rabbi Claudio Kupchik of the First Hebrew Congregation of Peekskill started the initiative of the street-naming, while also having in mind a symbolic value of the street – it runs from the First Hebrew building to the Holy Spirit Parish.

H.E. Mykhayil Javchak Champion, DD., MA Th.- Archbishop of New York, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Bishop Robert Brucato – Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, Fr. Thomas Kiely – Pastor of the Holy Spirit Parish, Rabbi Claudio J. Kupchik from the First Hebrew Congregation of Peekskill and Zvi Kichel from The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation participated in the Ceremony together with the Peekskill Mayor Ms. Mary F. Foster.

Ms. Rosen, the daughter of a survivor rescued by a Catholic priest joined other speakers. One unexpected speaker appeared in the event. Elizabeth Lubell approached the central stage as soon as she heard the name of Raoul Wallenberg mentioned. ”I was saved by Wallenberg!” she said. Rabbi Kupchik invited her to share her story, which she told, without any prior preparation. Ms. Lubell, as well as the crowd, was moved while telling her personal story of rescue.

The prestigious International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has formally asked Yad Vashem, the oldest and most widely known Holocaust Remembrance organization in Israel and the world, to recognize the now deceased Pontiff as a ”Righteous” individual. A ”Righteous Among the Nations” individual defines any non-Jewish person who helped rescue Jews during the Nazi genocide. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation has undertaken this initiative because it wishes to broadcast the deeds of Archbishop Giuseppe Roncalli, as Pope John XXIII was known before the Papacy, during his functioning as Nuncio in Istanbul, Turkey during World War II. He was instrumental in assisting both Monsignor Angelo Rotta and Raoul Wallenberg in their life saving endeavors. Once instated in the Papacy, Pope John XXIII began his fight to achieve reconciliation and was a key factor in convoking the momentous Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s, which drastically changed the Church’s relation to other world religions. For this reason he is considered by many to be the ”Good Pope”.

Various groups and individuals who share these goals attended the event. Prominent American-Jewish leader, Rabbi David Algaze lauded the IRWF and its initiator, Baruch Tenembaum. Rabbi Simón Moguilevsky, leader of the Argentine Jewish Community and well known in all corners of Latin America was present eulogizing the life of Pope John XXIII. He pointed out the Mural erected at the Central Cathedral of Buenos Aires, rendering homage to the victims of the Holocaust. This momentous and unprecedented expression of solidarity and understanding among Catholics and Jews was partially the dream child of the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Antonio Quarracino, a staunch believer in Pope John’s XXIII spirit of brotherhood and unity among all peoples.

Representing the Vatican was the Chief of the Papal Delegation to the U.N., Archbishop Renato Martino while Ambassador Samuel Sisso was there in the name of the Israeli government to accept the formal letter of Righteous acknowledgment directed to Yad Vashem. Mr. Tenembaum and Mr. Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, offered an artistic piece to another Papal representative, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. This sculpture will be taken by Cardinal Sodano and will be presented to the Vatican in honor of the Swedish diplomat (Raoul Wallenberg) and Pope John XXIII. Cardinal Sodano ended the get together by stating that these types of activities ”stimulate the spirit”. He concluded by expressing his sincere expectation that these initiatives, and hopefully future ones, will have the ultimate result of bringing traditionally divided people closer together in harmony and dialogue.

The postal piece was printed using the offset tecnique, in five colours; four in process plus a metalized ink. It´s dimensions are15,5 x 10,5 cms.

The initial issue comprised 8,000 units with a value of 75 cents each one.

Its design presents themes related to John XXIII and a sentence that refers to Peace. The map was printed in silver ink.

Roncalli was the Vatican Apostolic Delegate in Istanbul in l944 where he organized a safety net for Jews and others persecuted by the Nazis. Thanks to his actions, thousands of people condemned to death saved their lives. His work and achievements put him alongside other diplomatic saviors of the Holocaust such as Raoul Wallenberg (Sweden), Aristides de Sousa Mendes (Portugal), or Harry Bingham (United States).

In l958, he was appointed Pope and adopted the name John XXIII. He died on June 3, l963, following one of the most memorable papacies, in particular on the matter of the inter-confessional dialogue. In order to pay tribute to his memory and his humanitarian behavior, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation set up the International Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli Committee with the support of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State of the Vatican.