Pope to visit his 1st U.S. synagogue

Pope Benedict XVI will visit his first American synagogue two hours before the start of Passover on April 18, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced yesterday.

The 20-minute visit will be to one of New York’s most historic synagogues, overseen by its spiritual leader of 46 years: Rabbi Arthur Schneier, 78, a leader in the worldwide campaign to free Soviet Jews in the 1960s and 1970s. The only other synagogue Benedict has visited as pope was in Cologne, Germany, in August 2005.

The meeting will be at Park East Synagogue, a Byzantine-style edifice on 163 E. 67th St. on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The pope will arrive at 5:20 p.m., be serenaded by children belonging to the 1,000-family Orthodox synagogue and be greeted by a party of synagogue officials and other national Jewish leaders.

“This is a historic first,” Mr. Schneier said yesterday. “I will just give a very warm welcome. This is on the eve of Passover, our festival of freedom. Thank God we live in a country where believers of all faiths can practice in freedom. The pope is concerned, like I am, with countries where people cannot practice their faith.”

The pope will meet in the main sanctuary of the 120-year-old building, set with dome-like cupolas, each surmounted by a slender shaft supporting a Star of David. Two circular stained-glass windows grace the interior: One to the front in pink, blue and silver and the other in the rear wall, facing the street.

Although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) just announced the visit yesterday, 12 days before the pope arrives in the U.S., Mr. Schneier said arrangements had “been in the works for quite a few weeks.” As to why: “I just thought I’d extend the invitation.”

His synagogue is only a few doors down from the heavily guarded Russian mission to the United Nations. It is 20 blocks from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on East 87th Street, where the pope will end his day in a meeting with 300 leaders from various Christian traditions.

For the Vienna-born rabbi, a Holocaust survivor, the papal drop-in will be his third encounter in as many days. The rabbi also will meet the pope during an April 16 White House reception, and he will be among 50 Jews at a papal meeting of 300 interfaith leaders April 17 at the John Paul II Center in Northeast.

The USCCB also announced yesterday the pope will meet privately with the 50 Jewish leaders after the interfaith gathering. Relations between Jews and the Vatican have been strained in recent months after the Vatican approved a Good Friday prayer in its Tridentine Mass that called for the conversion of Jews.

“We heard the pope wanted to give us a Passover message,” said Rabbi Joel Myers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly in New York, which represents the Conservative movement in Judaism.

“It’s a kind and sensitive gesture. The Jewish relationship with the Catholic Church is really quite good. My hope is that relations with other denominations would be as good,” said Mr. Myers, who will attend the interfaith meeting at the John Paul II Center.

He guessed the meeting at Park East is for the benefit of New York rabbis who wanted to meet with the pope in Washington but were too swamped with days of pre-Passover preparations to make the trip.

“There is a sensitivity to the fact that this visit, so close to Passover, was precluding certain rabbinical leadership from attending,” he said. Passover starts just after 7:30 p.m. on April 18.