Billed as a “historic meeting” of Jewish and Catholic leaders, the World Symposium of Cardinals and Rabbis: An Alliance of Hope, which begins today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage at Manhattan, will bring together rabbis, cardinals, and bishops from around the world to address issues of mutual concern and to increase cooperation between the faiths.

The two-day symposium is sponsored by the New York-based World Jewish Congress. Rabbis from the congress, including its chairman, Israel Singer, will be joined by a Catholic delegation that includes members of the College of Cardinals and the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Walter Cardinal Kasper. In addition to promoting ecumenism within Christianity, the council is responsible for representing the Vatican on matters pertaining to Catholic-Jewish relations.

Rabbi Singer said the conference was born out of Catholics’ and Jews’ shared desire “to mutually respect each other.” He said the kind of cooperation the conference represents was previously “unheard of.” Until 40 years ago, he said, Catholics and Jews spent much of their time “beating each other up.” The nature of Catholic-Jewish meetings in the past, he said, “was to get together so we could throw press releases at each other.”

“Now,we’re trying to find ways to help each other, and other people,” the rabbi said. Rabbi Singer cited as an example a Catholic-Jewish effort undertaken last year to help starving Argentineans afflicted by their country’s recent economic collapse. Rabbi Singer credited Pope John Paul II with much of the rapprochement that allowed for the Argentina program, and for today’s conference.

As the pope’s recent ill health has raised concerns about the continuation of his legacy – including the church’s overtures toward Jews – Rabbi Singer said: “We’re trying to make sure that in the twilight of John Paul II’s papacy … his influence will be so strong that it will go beyond this papacy, beyond the effect of one man.”

Because of his outreach to Jews, including trips to Israel and other Jewish centers and his willingness to remove Carmelite nuns from Auschwitz in response to survivors’ concerns about any religious presence at the death camp, John Paul II “changed the history of the church’s relationship with Jews,” Rabbi Singer said.The rabbi added that he was pleased so many church leaders would be participating in the conference, suggesting a willingness among Catholics to continue the pope’s work encouraging greater cooperation with Jews.

While at past Catholic-Jewish conferences “secular Reform” rabbis constituted the Jewish representation, Rabbi Singer said, many of the main speakers at this meeting will be Orthodox rabbis, indicating a deeper Jewish commitment to improving relations with the Catholic Church. Among the issues the two faiths can cooperate on, Rabbi Singer said, are confronting secularism in Europe and America, combating AIDS in Africa, addressing the closing of parochial schools in America, engaging moderate Muslims in the fight against terrorism and extremism, and countering anti-Zionism, including campaigns to divest from Israel.

While the Catholic church has “had a turnaround of 180 degrees” on the question of Israel, Rabbi Singer said, “liberal Protestants” calling for divestment are behaving in a manner that’s both impolitic and “unchristian.” He said the entire conference was “something other religions could learn from, progressive Protestants included.”

Divestment is one of several issues to be addressed in discussions during the meeting. The conference will also include trips to Jewish schools, rabbinic seminaries, and Jewish community centers at Manhattan and Brooklyn.