Pope St. John Paul II and antisemitism

As the Polish pope taught, it is our civic duty to our fellow citizens of the stock of Abraham, who, not without difficulty, have nonetheless been fully participant in the American democratic experiment for centuries, as witnessed by George Washington’s 1790 “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island,” in which the first president affirmed (in a reference to Micah 4:4) that, in the new nation, “every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” And for the Christians among us, it is our religious duty to those whom John Paul II called, at the Grand Synagogue of Rome, our “elder brothers” in faith.