Jacob’s Younger Brother – Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II

A new chapter in Jewish–Christian relations opened in the second half of the twentieth century when the Second Vatican Council exonerated Jews from the accusation of deicide and declared that the Jewish people had never been rejected by God. In a few carefully phrased statements, two millennia of deep hostility were swept into the trash heap of history. But old animosities die hard. Catholic officials and theologians soon found that changing their attitude toward Jews could threaten the foundations of Christian tradition. For their part, many Jews perceived the new Catholic line as a Church effort to shore up support amid atheist and secular advances. Christian Rutishauser, Karma Ben-Johanan and Elad Lapidot discuss these questions around Ben Johanan’s new book, Jacob’s Younger Brother – Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II (2022).