SYMBOLS – “Palestinian” baby Jesus in Vatican Nativity unsettles Italian Jews 

The Italian Jewish community has expressed dismay and unease following Pope Francis’ decision to display a Nativity scene in the Vatican featuring the infant Jesus resting on a cloth evocative of the Palestinian keffiyeh. This is not new within ecclesiastical contexts, but the latest instance is seen as “particularly troubling” because “the protagonist is the Pope” and it comes “at a time when we are facing challenges on many fronts in our relations,” said Giuseppe Momigliano, Chief Rabbi of Genoa and Religious affairs officer for the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI).
Representing Jesus with the keffiyeh, Rabbi Momigliano argued, is “another step to strip him of his historical identity of belonging,” a move that undermines interfaith dialogue and “does not help to stop antisemitism.” He also criticized portraying the keffiyeh as a symbol of universal suffering: “At best, it represents the suffering of only one side; it is unilateral.”
This controversy arises as preparations are underway for the annual Day for deepening and developing Catholic-Jewish dialogue on January 17, which this year focuses on the Jubilee in the two religious traditions. “As Italian rabbis, we need to reflect on how best to approach this occasion,” Rabbi Momigliano stated. “The dialogue channel with the Italian Episcopal Conference remains open, although certain attitudes taken by the Pope do not contribute—whether explicit or symbolic.”
“Dismay” is the word used by Marco Cassuto Morselli, President of the Federation of Jewish-Christian Friendships in Italy. Cassuto Morselli noted his concern because “rediscovering the Jewishness of Jesus is one of the great innovations of Jewish-Christian dialogue” in recent years. The Jewishness of Jesus, for example, is highlighted in the “Sixteen notes for understanding Judaism,” jointly prepared by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) and the UCEI, and referenced during the recent Jewish-Christian Colloquium in Camaldoli.
Cassuto Morselli also pointed to the 1985 Vatican document Sussidi (Guidelines) for the correct presentation of Jews and Judaism in Catholic teaching and preaching, which states, “Jesus is Jewish and remains so forever.” The Catholic Church saw the need to make this point because, as the CEI-UCEI materials explain, “for centuries, Jesus was dejudaized, Hellenized, Latinized, Europeanized, and dehistoricized, prompting the recent need to return him to his origins.” These origins, he concluded, are now being called into question once again, “in the shadow of the keffiyeh.”
 
Adam Smulevich