Pope’s German synagogue visit seen as positive interfaith sign

berlin | Pope Benedict XVI's visit to a German synagogue was replete with symbolism: most notably, the potential for positive relations between the country's Jewish community and a pope who served in the German army during World War II.

For Germany's Jewish community, which has tripled to more than 100,000 since 1989 with the arrival of former Soviet Jews, the live broadcast of Benedict's visit during World Youth Day in Germany served another purpose.

Millions of Germans tuning in to ARD-TV last week had a chance to look inside a German synagogue and hear an introduction to Judaism from a Cologne Jewish community board member, Michael Rado, as they waited for the pope to arrive.

They learned that Cologne is home to Germany's oldest Jewish community, with documents dating back to the fourth century. They heard that this synagogue was rebuilt in 1959, on the site where a synagogue erected in 1899 was destroyed during Kristallnacht on Nov. 9, 1938.

Then they witnessed the rabbi's warm welcome of Benedict, the moment of silence in which they remembered the Shoah and the procession to the bimah.

For the Catholic Church, the public-relations value against the backdrop of simmering anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Europe could not be underestimated.

But it could have been much different. For many Jews, the new pope embodied a Catholic conservatism that sees other faiths as secondary. The visit was seen as a positive step.

The event was a historic first: Never before had a pope officially visited a German synagogue. In fact, this was only the second time a pope has formally entered a Jewish house of worship; the late Pope John Paul II visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in April 1986.

After the ceremony, guests — members of the Cologne Jewish community — personally greeted the pope on the bimah, shook his hand and presented gifts, including a large shofar.