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With a rift between U.S. Jews and Presbyterians on the verge of splitting open, leaders of the two faiths say they have salvaged a fragile unity of purpose.

All sides in last week’s contentious debate — which involved Jewish groups and the authors of a controversial report on the Middle East — at the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly in Minneapolis agreed that the outcome was better than any side had expected.

The assembly voted July 9 to reject sanctions and divestment as a means of protesting Israel’s Jewish settlements in the West Bank and its blockade of the Gaza Strip. The body also voted down theological critiques of Zionism that Jewish groups said bordered on the anti-Semitic.

In place of those actions, the assembly revised the report’s recommendations and adopted an amended resolution that both camps applauded as evenhanded.

Ron Shive, who chaired the Middle East Study Committee, released a letter to the assembly prior to the vote urging endorsement of the changes that incorporated some of the concerns raised by Jewish groups.

“A week ago, it looked as if the [church] was going to enact a version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within its own body, so divided were we on all sides,” the letter began. “Today, we still have disagreements on items in the report, on methods we should pursue, on arguments we should make. But today, by God’s grace, we have discovered that together, we may actually be more faithful and effective in seeking peace with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis than separately.”

“By and large the outcome is a lot better than anticipated,” said Yitzhak Santis, director of the Middle East Project for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council. “Most Presbyterians … are not only fair-minded but actually support Israel and support a free, independent Palestinian state. They’re more interested in being peacemakers rather than prosecutors, whereas the anti-Israel activists are a small minority more interested in being prosecutors than peacemakers.”

Katharine Henderson, the president of the church’s Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, was key to facilitating the dialogue on the resolution. She said the Presbyterians who favored the Palestinian cause had been unaware that there are groups within the Jewish and Israeli communities that take Palestinian needs into consideration.

“I think that people came from very polarized places supporting the narrative that they had been persuaded by,” Henderson said. “There was a pro-Palestinian camp and a pro-Israel camp.”

She co-authored the letter Shive sent prior to the vote. The letter anticipated a more healthy dialogue — and the assembly resolution that eventually passed July 9 recognized both Israeli and Palestinian claims in the conflict.

Ethan Felson, the director of domestic concerns for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Jewish public policy umbrella organization, credited Hender-son for initiating the dialogue.

“Many people who are passionate on all sides live in echo chambers,” said Felson, who attended the assembly. “When you develop genuine relationships with people with contrasting views, oftentimes you recognize that it’s possible for our narratives to overlap rather than conflict.”

A coalition of 12 national Jewish groups signed a JCPA statement welcoming the rejections, but the Anti-Defamation League issued a separate statement. While the ADL applauded the assembly for “avert[ing] a rupture,” it slammed the conference’s recommendation that the U.S. government consider withholding aid as a means of pressuring Israel.

Still, Santis said the conference sent “a very strong message to the anti-Israel activists” — that it’s not only the Jewish community that is working against anti-Israel resolutions, but also some Christian groups.

Staff writer Dan Pine contributed to this report.

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