On the 13th April 1986, on the threshold of the Grand Synagogue in Rome, History was written. For the first time since Peter, a pope walked in a synagogue. Current Chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, wrote a speech in honour of the anniversary of the historical meeting between Pope Wojtyla and Rabbi Toaff, published on the occasion of the anniversary, on the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
\nThe rabbi lingered on the context in which the visit came about: \u201cThere had been terrorism, the pope himself had survived an assassination attempt, the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish world were difficult. From a doctrinal point of view, the openings brought by the council statement \u2018Nostra Aetate\u2019 in 1965, \u2018absolving\u2019 Jews from the deicide charge, had been followed by experts\u2019 committees put to work, changes in preaching and in priest\u2019s education\u201d. From a political point of view instead, \u201cthe coldness towards the Israeli state\u201d went on. \u201cIt would be acknowledged by the Vatican only in 1993\u201d.
\nThe proposal for a meeting came by the Catholics. According to his successor, it was both a surprise and a challenge to Rav Toaff. \u201cCompletely ignoring his Italian and Israeli colleagues, who would probably have created problems, Toaff looked for and then found influential support among the European rabbinate. At that point, Di Segni wrote, \u201cthe issues were organizational, diplomatic, and mediatic\u201d. The media were \u201cthe true interlocutors of the operation and the broadcaster of the message, which was very simply a message of embrace and reconciliation\u201d. About the sensational image of the two religious representatives dressed in white, smiling and hugging, the Chief Rabbi added: \u201cdoctrinal subtleties, committees\u2019 documents, the almost daily controversies disappeared\u201d. In that day though, words did matter. In that occasion the pope delivered his famous phrase designating Jews as \u201colder brothers\u201d. A phrase that, Rav Di Segni points out, \u201cat first glance instils love and respect\u201d, yet also some \u201cambiguous theological subtlety, because in the Bible, starting from Cain, older brothers are the evil ones and those who lose their birth right\u201d. In any case, the rabbi concludes, \u201ctime has passed with many innovations, but surely since that 13th April the relationship between the two worlds has radically changed\u201d.<\/p>\n