The Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center of International Relations at Yeshiva University held a symposium Monday at Park East Synagogue to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Nostra Aetate,” a groundbreaking Vatican document that transformed Catholic-Jewish relations. More formally known as “The Declaration on the Relation of the Church With Non-Christian Religions,” the name “Nostra Aetate” is Latin for “In Our Age,” which are the first words of the document. In affirming the common heritage of Catholics and Jews, rejecting the charge of deicide, and decrying anti-Semitism, the document set Catholic-Jewish relations on a new path.

Rabbi Arthur Scheier introduced the program. In his remarks at the symposium, the Holy See’s permanent observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, discussed increased dialogue between Jews and Catholics on cultural and humanitarian issues as well as the growth of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel.

Archbishop Migliore noted the words of Harold Tanner, who said while heading an American Jewish Committee delegation to the Vatican, “I believe it true to say that no Jewish community at any time and in any place has enjoyed the degree of warm friendship and collegial cooperation that we have enjoyed with the Catholic Church in America.”

In his opening remarks, the Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations, Daniel Gillerman, mentioned a historic agreement signed in 1993 that established full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. Noting that next year will mark the 13th anniversary of that momentous breakthrough, Mr. Gillerman turned to his fellow panelist and said, “I can warn you already, Archbishop, that we will probably get an invitation from Rabbi Schneier in a year’s time to celebrate the bar mitzvah” of that event. He told the audience to much merriment, “I’m inviting you all to the bar mitzvah.”

Ambassador Gillerman said, “We can and we must make this centuries-long relationship that has been solidified by ‘Nostra Aetate'” into a model that will show skeptics and extremists that “peace between religions is possible, and peace between people is desirable.” He said, “it can indeed be a lesson to everybody in our region on how you can build on a troubled past a very promising and hopeful future.”

Drew Christiansen, editor in chief of the weekly Catholic magazine, America, spoke last and discussed how a major practical effect of “Nostra Aetate” had been its impact on Catholic education. He said Catholic primary and secondary school textbooks, catechizing, preaching, and liturgy had taken into account the teaching of “Nostra Aetate.” Mr. Christiansen also noted the increased number of institutes for Catholic-Jewish relations that have been founded at the college level.

He said “Nostra Aetate” prepared the way for better relations by emphasizing the bond between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people. He said, “May God grant that it continue to flourish.”

Park East Synagogue cantor Azi Schwartz led a prayer for the victims of a terrorist bombing in Netanya that day and for all other victims of terror. A political scientist and the director of the Schneier Center for International Affairs, Ruth Bevan, closed the evening by mentioning an upcoming event with Richard Holbrooke. Among those in the audience were Dean Norman Adler of Yeshiva College and Queens College professor Tom Bird.

Earlier at the symposium, Archbishop Migliore reflected on an Israeli cartoon he had seen in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz at the end of the Papal visit to Israel in March 2000. In the drawing, Ezer Weizman, the former Israeli president, asks Pope John Paul II as he boards the plane home, “Why don’t you stay for Passover with us the day after tomorrow?”

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HISTORY NOT MEMORY The literary editor of the New Republic, Leon Wieseltier, spoke on “History, Not Memory” last week at the Center for Jewish History’s annual dinner. Mr. Wieseltier distinguished between history – an objective, collective notion of events – and memory, a subjective recollection of the past. He thus made a compelling case for the Center for Jewish History (not memory) as the place where the legacy of the Jewish people is found and preserved.

Guests toured recent additions to the center, starting with the Valentin M. Blavatnik Orientation Theater, designed by architect Bonnie Roche. With a capacity for about 20 to 40 people, this theater helps familiarize visitors with the center’s many resources; it can also be used for small lectures and special presentations. Downstairs, guests saw the Gruss Lipper Digital Laboratory, which is used to digitize archival collections.

gshapiro@nysun.com