"Your prophets are our prophets." Speech of Patriarch Alexy II, delivered in New York at a meeting with rabbis (13.11.1991)

Dear brothers, I wish you a sholom in the name of the God of love and peace! God. of our fathers, who manifested Himself to His saint Moses in the burning bush, in the flame of a burning thorn bush, and said: "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." He is the Eternal God and Father of all, and we are all brothers, for we are all children of his Old Covenant at Sinai, which in the New Testament, as we Christians believe, is renewed by Christ. These two testaments are two stages of one and the same divine-human religion, two moments of one and the same divine-human process. In this process of establishing God's covenant with man, Israel became God's chosen people, to whom the laws and prophets were entrusted. And through him the incarnate Son of God received His "humanity" from the Most-Pure Virgin Mary. "This blood relationship is not interrupted and does not cease even after the Nativity of Christ... And therefore we, Christians, must feel and experience this kinship as a touch of the incomprehensible mystery of God's providence." This was very well expressed by the outstanding hierarch and theologian of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) of Kherson and Odessa, in a sermon delivered in Odessa more than a hundred years ago.

The main idea of this sermon is the closest kinship between the Old Testament and New Testament religions. The unity of Judaism and Christianity has a real basis for spiritual and natural kinship and positive religious processes. We are one with the Jews, not rejecting Christianity, not contrary to Christianity, but in the name and by virtue of Christianity, and the Jews are one with us not in spite of Judaism, but in the name and by virtue of true Judaism. We are separated from the Jews because we are not yet "fully Christians," and the Jews are separated from us because they are "not fully Jews." For the fullness of Christianity embraces Judaism as well, and the fullness of Judaism is Christianity.

Archbishop Nicholas (Ziorov) addressed the Jews in the same spirit at the beginning of this century. "The Jewish people are close to us in faith. Your law is our law, your prophets are our prophets. The Ten Commandments of Moses oblige Christians as well as Jews. We wish to live with you always in peace and harmony, so that there are no misunderstandings, enmity and hatred between us."

Unfortunately, today, in a difficult time for our society, anti-Semitic sentiments manifest themselves in our lives quite often. These sentiments, which are prevalent among extreme extremists, right-wing chauvinist groups, have a breeding ground; a general crisis, the growth of national isolation... The task of the Russian Church is to help our people overcome the alo of isolation, ethnic enmity, and narrow egoistic national chauvinism. In this difficult but entourage for all of us, we hope for the understanding and help of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Together, we will build a new society – democratic, free, open, from which no one would want to leave anymore and where Jews would live confidently and peacefully, in an atmosphere of friendship, creative cooperation and brotherhood of the children of one God – the Father of all, the God of your fathers and ours.

On the iconostasis of our Russian church in Jerusalem are inscribed the words of the Psalmist: "Ask for peace to Jerusalem." This is what we all need now – both yours and our people, and other nations, for just as our God is the one Father of all people, so the world is from Him, one and indivisible for all His children.

Moscow News. 26.1.1992

"We beg you to listen!" Open letter to Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia (18.2.1993)

Your Holiness, Concern for the good of the Fatherland and the well-being of the Church, for the preservation of church peace, the inviolability of canonical laws and the integrity™ of the apostolic doctrine compels us to address you with this letter. In the present cruel time of turmoil, we will be able to jointly resist satanic attempts to destroy Holy Russia, only by uniting around our primordial shrines, kindling in our souls holy zeal "for God." To linger in indifferent waiting is immoral and criminal) "God is betrayed by silence," says the wisdom of the Holy Fathers. Let it not be so! May we, through our lack of faith and faint-heartedness, not find ourselves among the traitors to our Lord and Saviour!

Your Holiness, we ask you to clarify our perplexities and save us from the temptations that arise among the Orthodox people because of the oddities of the internal and inter-confessional policy pursued on your behalf. Unfortunately, events give rise to the assumption that certain forces seek to use your name in their own interests, which by no means always coincide with the interests of Russia and the Russian Church. Here are just a few examples from the recent past.

During your official visit to the United States, the program of your events included a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community in America. At this meeting with the rabbis, you gave a speech, the text of which was then given to Rabbi Arthur Schneider, a representative of the Jewish side. This speech was widely commented on in the foreign press, and when published in Russia by the "Jewish Newspaper" and "Moscow News", it caused a real shock among the Orthodox...

This speech caused terrible damage to the authority of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Within the Church, a whole stream of "non-commemorating" priests and priests was formed, who formally remained in the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, but who ceased to commemorate your name during divine services. In fact, the Church was put on the brink of schism, and only the mercy of God and the boundless patience and spiritual intelligence of our people made it possible to avoid a deepening of the crisis...

How consistent are the assertions that "the fullness of Christianity embraces Judaism," the appeals to the rabbis to help the Russian Orthodox Church fight against "ethnic chauvinism," the invitations to "the unity of Judaism with Christianity... on the real ground of spiritual and natural kinship and positive spiritual interests"?

..."If you respect everything Jewish, then what do you have in common with us?" asked John Chrysostom more than a millennium and a half ago. This greatest saint, a teacher of the Church, now reverently revered by the entire Orthodox world, unequivocally warned: "When you learn that someone is Judaizing, stop him, announce him, so that you yourself will not be condemned together with him." As they say, there is nothing to add.