Massada shall not fall

LESS than a month ago, we reported that the future looked bleak for Adelaide’s only Jewish school. Strapped for cash, Massada College was on the brink of closure. This week, however, we’re delighted to reveal that the school has been handed a financial lifeline and will now be in a position to throw open its doors for pupils in the coming academic year.

Of course, the importance of any educational institution stretches far beyond the mere facts and figures it imparts to its students. A hub of the community, the role a school plays in instilling a sense of identity, commitment and belonging in young minds -– particularly within Australian Jewry -– was underlined in last year’s Gen 08 Jewish Population Study.

In that respect, Massada is aptly named. For the desert fortress, Massada, which served as a refuge for those resisting the Roman occupation of Judea symbolises the preservation of the Jewish faith and Jewish values against the onslaught of assimilation.

Today, of course, Israeli soldiers swear an oath on the site pledging “Massada shall not fall again” -– a commitment to Jewish identity echoed by the school’s saviour in its hour of need, Joseph Gutnick. His support for the establishment and investment in the continuity of the community, alongside all those who gave so generously in the school’s hour of need, deserve our praise.

Ultimately, of course, steps will have to be taken to ensure Massada’s long-term survival and it’s to be hoped that with some foresight and planning such an outcome can be achieved without the powers-that-be having to go cap-in-hand to the community yet again.

Benedict XVI’s cardinal sins

HE has been to shul more often than many Jews, last year he prayed for peace at the Western Wall and a week from Sunday, he’s heading to synagogue once again.

When it comes to making all the right interfaith moves, one would be hard pushed to find fault with the extraordinary effort put into befriending Jews by Pope Benedict XVI, except … except, every gesture he seems to have made in recent years has been offset by what the Jewish community would consider a cardinal sin, if you’ll excuse the papal pun.

Time and again, Benedict’s clerical errors have sparked unholy rows that have marred relations with the Vatican, relations that seemed stronger than ever under his predecessor John Paul II.

Ultimately, of course, he’s not our pope, and it’s not for us to dictate how he should run his church. Indeed, some of his actions might even resonate with trends in our own faith. The re-introduction of the Tridentine Mass and the rehabilitation of fundamentalist clerics are, after all, all about keeping more conservative elements of the Catholic world within the fold.

It’s an issue confronting various religions. Let’s be honest, the Vatican is far from the only faith hub having to deal with a lurch to the religious right.

The problem is, however, where these particular measures take him: a mass that urges the conversion of Jews and offering to rehabilitate a Holocaust-denying bishop. Add to that the papal blessing ahead of Durban II while the rest of the civilised world were urging caution against an anti-Semitic hate-fest, and another bizarre incident last year in which a Vatican official denied that Benedict had ever been a member of the Hitler Youth.

“Never, never, never”, Federico Lombardi proclaimed, before subsequently admitting that maybe “never” was something of an overstatement.

And then there’s the business of the beatification of Pius XII. Again, it’s up to the Holy See to decide who is fit for sainthood. It’s not as if we recognise saints anyway.

But the fact that the church is laying the groundwork for bestowing its ultimate honour on a figure whose wartime record is so mired in controversy suggests that, while no malice may be intended, once again the full implications of its deeds aren’t being thought out beforehand.

In the words of world-renowned interfaith advocate Rabbi David Rosen, himself a papal knight, “This papacy has excelled in diplomatic insensitivity. It has excelled at a lack of consultation and consideration for the ramifications of its actions.”

Quite how the situation will play out when Benedict XVI heads to synagogue on Sunday week remains to be seen. But if it’s any consolation for him, he’s certainly not the first person to go to a shul after sparking a broyges with the rest of the congregation.