Rabbi: Pope’s words on Israel ‘a historic danger’
December remarks from Pope Francis have raised concern in Israel
A prominent rabbi said in an open letter published Thursday that Pope Francis' recent remarks about Israel's conduct in Gaza represented "a historic danger.”
In his letter to the pope, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weisz, a member of the Council of the Israeli Chief rabbinate, argued that recent papal statements had “revived the darkest patterns of Catholic Church history—patterns that for centuries transformed false accusations into violence against the Jewish people.”
The letter, published Jan. 9 by the Jewish News Syndicate under the headline “I accuse: An open letter to Pope Francis,” underlined the strains in Catholic-Jewish relations amid the Israel-Hamas war.
The letter came after the pope said in his Dec. 21 address to the Roman Curia that the deaths of children amid bombings in Gaza were “cruelty.” The pope’s comment has been taken by some in Israel as an allegation that the Israeli military is deliberately targeting children.
During his Dec. 21 remarks, the pope also lamented that Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, had not been allowed into Gaza the day before, despite an apparent promise from Israeli authorities.
Pizzaballa was allowed into Gaza the following day, December 22.
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In Israel, the pontiff’s Dec. 21 remarks drew sharp criticism.
On Christmas Eve, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar summoned the apostolic nuncio to Israel, Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, to express his “strong displeasure” at the pope’s remarks.
And in Jan. 9 letter, Weisz accused the pope of displaying “stark bias” since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, which killed nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians.
The rabbi claimed the pope had “repeatedly drawn a false moral equivalence between a democratic nation defending its citizens and terrorists who perpetrated the most barbaric massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
“Every casualty in this war is a tragedy, but the responsibility lies squarely with Hamas, who intentionally maximize civilian casualties for propaganda purposes. Your silence on these tactics, coupled with your persistent portrayal of Israel as an aggressor, sends destructive ripples across the global consciousness at a speed and scale unimaginable to your predecessors,” he wrote.
Estimates of the death toll in Gaza vary, but a study published Jan. 9 in The Lancet concluded there were 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury in the Gaza Strip between Oct. 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024.
Pope Francis is known to be in regular, even daily contact with the only Catholic parish in Gaza, where hundreds of people have sought refuge.
Weisz became the first U.K. rabbi appointed to the Council of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate in 2018. The council assists the two chief rabbis of Israel, one of whom is Ashkenazi and another who is Sephardi.
He was born and raised in Manchester, England, where he was the rabbi of the Whitefield community before moving to Israel in the 1980s.
In his letter, the rabbi also questioned the Holy See’s friendly relations with Iran, which has engaged in direct confrontations with Israel since the Oct. 7 terror attack.
“Every handshake, every meeting is photographed, videoed and disseminated worldwide within minutes,” he said.
“By meeting with representatives of a government that openly calls for Israel’s annihilation while failing to challenge their grotesque appropriation of Jesus in their campaign against Israel and the West, you have lent papal authority to modern antisemitism.”
Observers have suggested that Vatican-Jewish relations are at a historic low point since the Second Vatican Council, and the situation has been particularly delicate since the pope’s comments in his address to the Curia.
On Christmas Eve, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli accused the Vatican of spreading “modern blood libels” in an address to the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
“It is deeply disheartening to see the pope – leader of an institution that was silent during the Holocaust – now promoting modern blood libels against the Jewish state,” Chikli added.
Just a week later, on New Year’s Eve, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations penned a letter that called the pope’s rhetoric on Gaza “incendiary.”
The very next day, the Jewish News Syndicate published a column which accused Pope Francis of holding a “double standard, especially when contrasted with [the Vatican’s] relative silence on other human rights abuses.”
For his part, in what seemed to be an attempt to reduce tensions, the pope strongly condemned the global surge in antisemitism in his ‘state of the world’ speech on Jan. 9.
“The growing expressions of antisemitism, which I strongly condemn, and which affect an increasing number of Jewish communities around the world, are a source of deep concern,” the pope said.
However, Weisz wrote that the Vatican’s relationship with the Jewish community is at one of its lowest points since Vatican Council II.
“The progress achieved under Pope John XXIII toward healing Catholic-Jewish relations is being systematically undermined by your pontificate. Through your vast digital pulpit, the church has become a global megaphone for those who weaponize antisemitism under the guise of supporting the oppressed,” he argued.
“Israel’s existence represents not just survival, but revival, a living refutation of the notion that Jews must accept persecution as their fate. Yet your words, amplified by modern technology, threaten this hard-won sovereignty with unprecedented reach and influence,” Weisz added.
Weisz closed the letter by calling the pope to “recognize the awesome responsibility that comes with your unparalleled global reach. Your every word shapes opinions and actions worldwide with historic speed and scale.”
“The world needs your moral leadership now more than ever, leadership worthy of your unprecedented influence. The path forward requires adherence to truth and justice, not the amplification of ancient prejudices through modern means,” he concluded.
I think the letter is proceeding on an unstated assumption that it is antisemitic to criticize Israel’s conduct in the war. I’m not sure that position can be maintained. Perhaps the Pope’s remarks are unfair or misinformed, but I think calling them antisemitic is wrong unless we are to understand that the modern nation of Israel represents Judaism and that any criticism of Israel is, therefore, antisemitic per se. I’m not sure that’s a position that can be maintained or would be maintained by other Jewish people. Nobody insists, for example, that this letter is engaging in anti-Catholic bias by criticizing the Vatican despite the Vatican being the head of the Faith.
And I also think the letter is completely wrong to say that meeting with Iranian representatives is antisemitic. Many nations have Iranian embassies. Are we to understand each of these countries as antisemitic? It strikes me as absurd to make blood libels the equivalent to meeting diplomatic representatives.
My ancestors died in the Holocaust, so I am not insensitive to the rising problem of anti-Semitism. Nor, indeed, is the Pope. But treating all criticism of the modern nation-state of Israel's changing governments, such governments' changing policies, and in particular the well-documented war crimes committed by soldiers and the current government in Gaza does not help prevent anti-Semitism, but indeed actively encourages and spreads it. Pope Francis is among the most personally philosemitic Popes in history, but his defense of civilians in Gaza reflects little more than basic moral conscience. It is in full continuity with the positions and teaching of his predecessors, and will be vindicated by reality, God, and, I hope, history.