The Jewish Cardinal

At the end of every school year, I tell the students in our schools a story about a young boy (Shlomo), who goes around asking animals if he can still be Jewish over the summer. Of course, he discovers that he can -- even when there’s no religious school. This past week, Jean-Marie Lustiger, the French Cardinal, died at the age of 80. That in itself would be newsworthy…the fact that he was born Jewish, his mother perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and he converted to Christianity when a boy hiding from the Nazis with a non-Jewish family, made it all the more so.

The question of whether one remains a Jew throughout his/her life even after conversion is a controversial one. Tradition maintains that all a person has to do is say that s/he is Jewish, and the conversion is null and void. Others believe that it is what one does in their lives that makes them Jewish.  Wherever you come out on this spectrum, he strange set of circumstances that put a born Jew in the seat of Cardinal of France brings about ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, we can dismiss the person altogether and say that they converted and are completely out of the Jewish realm, or, as I heard a couple people say, we can be proud of the accomplishments of this person who is connected to all Jews from birth.

Throughout his life as a Catholic Priest, the rabbis of France looked down upon his conversion to Christianity. A former chief rabbi of Paris, Meyer Jays said “a Jew becoming a Christian does not take up authentic Judaism, but turns his back to it.” The Cardinal, however, once said “I was born Jewish, and so I remain, even if that is unacceptable for many. For me, the vocation of Israel is bringing light to the goyim. That is my hope, and I believe that Christianity is the means for achieving it.”

Certainly, Christians and Jews alike can claim Jean-Marie as one of their own in some way. And a man who devoted his life to spirituality and helping make the world a better place falls in line with both religions traditions. There could be no mistaking the conflict of spirit that must have accompanied the Cardinal his whole life, when at his funeral at Notre Dame Cathedral, the memorial service began with the Kaddish.

Rabbi Jonathan Aaron

Comments

[Dalia Nikravesh]

Thank you Rabbi Aaron, for keeping our minds open and for giving us something to ponder. Very interesting to me; think I will do some research into his life...Dalia

[Thomas Welbers]

Thank you for this wonderful tribute to the late Cardinal Lustiger, who died August 5, 2007. May we today continue the legacy of so many people of faith to affirm God's love beyond the limitations of exclusivity.