PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Bishop Robert Brennan and Cardinal Timothy Dolan were part of an interfaith leadership group that recently met with survivors of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, offering support and hearing the survivors’ accounts from that tragic day.
In conversation with meeting participants, the word that kept coming up was “solidarity.” Bishop Brennan said being in solidarity with the Jewish community through this trying time is what Catholic social teaching calls for.
“Solidarity is a cornerstone of Catholic social teaching,” Bishop Brennan told The Tablet. “That we stand with one another created in the image and likeness of God.” Bishop Brennan added that “his heart goes out” to all of the people in Israel who suffered from the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, and to those in New York City who were also deeply affected.
The survivors present at the Dec. 7 meeting included Liora Elion and her 15-year-old granddaughters Gali Elion and Mika Liz. Leora’s son and Gali’s father, Tal Elion, was killed during the attack while leading the kibbutz’s defense team.
The trio survived almost 34 hours barricaded in a safe room near their home at Kibbutz Kfar Aza — a community about a mile from the border with Gaza — as Hamas terrorists tried to break in, with the sounds of gunfire and other atrocities being committed ringing out around them.
Gali proved an unsung hero through the attack, using her cell phone to warn other people of the attack, and let the Israeli Defense Forces know the locations of other families in the area.
In a statement to The Tablet, Liora said the meeting with different faith leaders was “very significant and important” to her. It’s something she had looked forward to since she arrived in the United States 11 days prior.
“By virtue of being a peace activist and advocate of humane values, I saw this meeting as a model for how religions should conduct themselves for the benefit of all human beings,” Liora said. “I believe that here in Israel, too, it will be possible, one day, for each to have a separate spiritual life on the one hand, but also to offer joint prayers that bring healing to the world, on the other hand.”
Bishop Brennan called their testimony “very powerful,” and “heart-wrenching.” He said he was struck by the courage they exhibited not only through the Oct. 7 attack, but in the meeting that day by just being able to recount what they went through.
“We stand in solidarity with one another, generally speaking, but when you put a face on it, when you’re talking face to face, eye to eye, and you’re listening to people who’ve suffered that day, who were there, who experienced the horror, it brings it all home even more,” Bishop Brennan said. “To get the first-hand account is really a wakeup call.”
Rabbi Michael S. Miller, president and CEO emeritus of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, who helped arrange the meeting, told The Tablet the meeting was significant because the faith leaders could provide comfort to the three women, and hear for themselves the stories of what they endured. He, too, noted the importance of solidarity.
“We are very grateful for other faith groups identifying with the pain that the Jewish community is feeling today,” Rabbi Miller explained. “We also know that there has been a marked rise in acts of antisemitism in New York and in America and around the world and so members of the Jewish community can feel quite alone.
“So having a faith group such as the Catholic faith reach out to share with us, to feel the pain of members of the Jewish faith today because of what took place on Oct. 7 is exceptionally meaningful,” Rabbi Miller said.
The visit was organized by the Commission of Religious Leaders (CORL), which Cardinal Dolan is chairman of, in conjunction with the The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Fund for Victims of Terror. The group meets about three times a year to discuss a number of different issues in society, including migration, prison reform, homelessness, and gun violence.
Other leaders at the meeting were: Rev. Dr. A.R. Bernard, president of CORL; Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, vice president of CORL; Rev. Dr. Que English, director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department and Health and Human Services; Bishop Victor Brown, senior pastor of Mt. Sinai United Christian Church; Rev. Herbert Daughtry, the national presiding minister emeritus of The House of the Lord Churches; Elder David Buckner of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Rev. Jacques DeGraff.
Antisemitism has increased in the United States since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents nationwide, reported that between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7 there were a total of 2,031 antisemitic incidents, up from 465 incidents during the same period last year.
Bishop Brennan said the number of antisemitic incidents last year is “disturbing,” let alone the figures from the last few months. To make a difference, Bishop Brennan said Catholics simply can just be attentive to their neighbors and “be unequivocal in our condemnation of antisemitism, of any kind of prejudice, racism.”
