Photos: Darrell Owens Photography

By Steve Hunegs
Executive Director

November 12, 2025

JCRC was proud to partner with the Catholic community to celebrate and commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate—the seminal Vatican document which fundamentally and theologically reset Catholic-Jewish relations. 

Twenty years after the end of World War ll and the Shoah, The Nostra Aetate instructed the entire Catholic world: 

1) Jews were not collectively responsible for the death of Jesus;
2) antisemitism is a sin against God; and 
3) the Jewish covenantal relationship with God continues astride the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus. 

The profound improvement of the Catholic-Jewish interfaith relationship in the past six decades is anchored in the Nostra Aetate—as reflected most profoundly in the statements and actions of all Popes since John Paul ll.

Thank you to our partners in learning and teaching about the Nostra Aetate: Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies and the Encountering Judaism Initiative (Department of Theology) at the University of St. Thomas; the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at Saint John’s University; Benilde St. Margaret’s; and the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Our joint scholar-in-resident from November 2-5 was Rabbi Abraham Skorka who was a dear friend of Pope Francis dating back to their days together as religious leaders in Buenos Aires. Then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka, among other things, wrote a book together: On Heaven and Earth.

Our collective philosophical expression of the importance of celebrating the Nostra Aetate was our November 2 StarTribune commentary.

These joint activities brought our piece and project to life:

Rabbi Skorka gave talks about the history of the Nostra Aetate and his relationship with Pope Francis to plenary sessions at Saint John’s University and the University of St. Thomas as well as dinners with faculty members from both universities. Benilde St. Margaret’s hosted Rabbi Skorka for an all school assembly for 1100 students at the high school. JCRC’s celebratory dinner at Adath Jeshurun featured a keynote speech by Rabbi Skorka and a reply from Archbishop Bernard Hebda. The JCRC announced a gift at the dinner from the Minnesota Private Business Council and its CEO Jim Schultz to JCRC and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minnesota to strengthen security for the Catholic and Jewish communities.

You can read more about our partnership from Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who spoke at the dinner, in his reflection following the event. 

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at the invitation of our board member Stephen Rosenthal, Ethan Roberts represented JCRC for South Dakota’s 60th anniversary commemoration of Nostra Atatae. He was joined at the podium by Bishop Donald DeGrood and his principal deputy, Chancellor Chris Burgwald. 

To continue supporting our interfaith work, please consider donating to JCRC for Give To The Max Day. 

This blog post was the featured staff column for the November 2025 Gesher (‘Bridge’ in Hebrew) – JCRC’s monthly email newsletter.
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