US Jewish groups mourn pope’s death

The American Jewish Committee and Union for Reform Judaism mourn the death of Pope Francis.

AJC highlights Francis’s ties with Jewish communities, and his visits to Israel, the Great Synagogue in Rome, and Auschwitz. The group’s representatives met Francis regularly.

“Francis also repeatedly condemned antisemitism and characterized it as both a sin against God and unchristian,” AJC says.

The group touches on controversy surrounding Francis’s response to the war in Gaza.

“While Israel’s defensive fight for survival after the horrific massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023, yielded both papal empathy and criticism, significant Jewish disappointments with this and other matters were navigated in the spirit of six decades of the post-Nostra Aetate relationship,” the statement says, referring to a 1965 church declaration regarding the church’s relationship with Judaism and other religions.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism, who met Francis in 2017, applauds Francis’s work countering issues such as climate change and laws against homosexuality.

Jacobs also lauds Francis’s interfaith work.

“The relationship between the Catholic and Jewish communities flourished under Pope Francis’ guidance. He honored the shared heritage of our faiths and took meaningful steps to heal historical wounds, reinforcing a path toward mutual respect and collaboration,” Jacobs says. “We especially appreciated Pope Francis’s consistent calls for dialogue and mutual respect between Israelis and Palestinians.”