The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has honored the spiritual leader of global Orthodox Christianity with the Human Dignity Award, in part for his advancement of Orthodox-Jewish relations.
Patriarch Bartholomew, who is the leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians, was also given the award for his “exceptional commitment to interreligious coexistence, and his “singular care for humanity and the environment.”
“It is a privilege and an honor to receive, from the hands of such esteemed friends, this Human Dignity Award of the American Jewish Committee,” said Patriarch Bartholomew.
“The Patriarch has been the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity since 1991 and an exemplar of religious leadership for people of all faiths,” said the American Jewish Committee in a statement.
Patriarch Bartholomew expressed “deepest gratitude for this expression of love and care, not only towards our humble person, but also towards what the Ecumenical Patriarchate stands for: dialogue, reconciliation and the fight against religious extremism, hatred and anti-Semitism.”
He added: “To fight anti-Semitism, hatred, and discrimination of all kinds, we all need to be involved.”
The Orthodox leader said that the “role of education and family is very important indeed” but that religious communities must take an active role in “eradicating racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism.”
The AJC, which has long worked to foster interreligious relations, began its relationship with the Orthodox Church in New York 50 years ago, and was a founding member of the formal dialogue between Orthodox Christian and world Jewish leadership launched in March 1977, in Lucerne, Switzerland.
“Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America have been partners in our core commitments to defeat anti-Semitism in all its renascent forms and to support the State of Israel’s quest for security and peace among the community of nations,” said AJC President Harriet Schleifer.
AJC delegations have met with Bartholomew over the past 30 years in many places, including Jerusalem, Washington, Rome, Thessaloniki, New York, and Istanbul, home of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
“We at AJC have been the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s partners not only in advancing Orthodox-Jewish relations, but also in assuring religious freedom for all, especially in Turkey, home to the Patriarchate, and throughout the Middle East, where Christianity was born and is now threatened,” said Rabbi Marans.
Bartholomew commended AJC for “advancing interfaith cooperation and understanding, especially among the Jewish and Christian Orthodox traditions.”
AJC’s Human Dignity Award is a facsimile leaf of Genesis chapter 1 in the Kennicott Bible, the lavishly illuminated Hebrew Bible that survived from medieval Spain, before the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Combining Jewish, Christian, and Islamic artistic motifs, the Kennicott Bible captures the spirit of interreligious relations which Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew exemplifies.
“The opening of the Hebrew Bible has been at the core of the Patriarch’s commitment to human dignity, which Jewish tradition calls Kevod Habriyot, respect for God’s creations, human beings – created b’tzelem Elohim, in God’s image - and Earth, l’avdah u-l’shamrah, to cultivate it and protect it,” said Marans.