ISRAEL – Yaron Sideman to be new Israeli Ambassador to the Vatican

In one of his recent public statements, Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See Raphael Schutz called for a “healing through dialogue” between Jerusalem and the Vatican to address the ongoing issues. Some of them have been unresolved for decades, while others have been triggered by the October 7 attack and the war in Gaza. Taking over from Schutz will be Yaron Sideman, the outgoing Consul General of Israel in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky and southern New Jersey.
Sideman, who studied Political Science, Psychology, and Philosophy at the universities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, has long served in the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He has previously overseen and directed relations between Israel and the U.S. Congress and was responsible for North American affairs at the Office for Diaspora and Interreligious Affairs. He also served as Consul for Public Affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York and has held other international roles, including as a political officer at the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria.
In 2023, Israel and the Vatican celebrated 30 years of diplomatic relations. The 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Nostra Aetate declaration, which marked the beginning of a new era in Jewish-Christian dialogue, will be observed in 2025. According to the newly appointed Vatican ambassador, this anniversary could provide an ideal “conceptual framework” to revisit the “fundamental notions” necessary for moving forward correctly.

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