Pope John Paul II worked to improve relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism. He built solid ties with the Jewish community in the hope of promoting Christian–Jewish reconciliation.
Youth experience
As a child, Karol Wojtyła had played sports with his many Jewish neighbours. He was one of the few popes to have grown up in a climate of flourishing Jewish culture, one of the key components of pre-war Kraków, his interest in Jewish life dated from early youth. He wrote and delivered a number of speeches on the subject of the Church's relationship with Jews, and often paid homage to the victims of the Holocaust in many nations.
In 1998 he issued "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah" which outlined his thinking on the Holocaust.
Visit to synagogue
He also became the first pope known to have made an official papal visit to a synagogue, when he visited the Great Synagogue of Rome on 13 April 1986.
The Pope has said that Jews are "our elder brothers." (see dual-covenant theology)
Auschwitz
He was the first pope to visit the former German Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, in 1979 and his visit to The Great Synagogue of Rome in April 1986 was the first known visit to a synagogue by a modern pope. He visited the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Israel in March 2000, and touched the holiest outward remaining shrine of the Jewish people, the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He placed in the Western Wall a prayer that read:
God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your name to the nations. We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who, in the course of history, have caused these children of yours to suffer.
Dual-covenant theology
John Paul II supported greater dialogue between Catholics and Jews, but did not explicitly support dual-covenant theology. On November 17, 1980, John Paul II delivered a speech in Mainz to Jewish communities in Germany in which he discussed his views of Catholic-Jewish relations. In it, John Paul II asserted that God's covenant with the Jewish people was never revoked. During the speech, John Paul II cited the Guidelines for the Implementation of the [Second Vatican] Council Declaration Nostra Aetate, claiming that Catholics "will endeavor to understand better all that in the Old Testament preserves a proper and perpetual value ..., since this value has not been obliterated by the further interpretation of the New Testament, which on the contrary gave the Older its most complete meaning, so that the New one receives from the Old light and explanation ."
Relations with Israel
In 1994, John Paul II established formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel, acknowledging its centrality in Jewish life and faith. In honour of this event, Pope John Paul II hosted The Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust. This concert, which was conceived and conducted by American Maestro Gilbert Levine, was attended by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, the President of Italy, and survivors of the Holocaust from around the world.
The Pope played a role in the 1990s peace negotiations in the hopes of finding a diplomatic solution between Israelis and Palestinians. However, the 1993 fundamental accord was not put into application during his papacy because of lingering problems over tax issues.
The issue of the Carmelite Nun convent at Auschwitz
Efforts at reconciliation took a step back when the Polish national Catholic bishops conferences supported the Carmelite Nuns in their attempt to establish a convent at the former World War II Nazi-run death camp located at Auschwitz, a very sensitive site in the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The proposed location of this convent provoked hostility from some sectors of the Jewish community to the idea of building the Catholic institution on the ground where mass genocide of Jews was carried out. Jewish groups believed that this was inappropriate, and some groups engaged in peaceful protest. The nuns at the convent accused Modern Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss, of Riverdale, Bronx, NY, of attempting to assault them.
The Vatican did not support this convent, but noted that since Vatican II each national bishop's conference had local autonomy. Rabbi León Klenicki, founding member of the Interfaith Theological Forum of the John Paul II Center in Washington, D.C., said:
Pius IX and Pius XII
Some Jews were also upset at the beatification of Pius IX in 2000 because of memories of the Mortara case. Relations also soured after the emerging problems over Pius XII at Yad Vashem.