Leon Klenicki
Encyclopedia
Rabbi Leon Klenicki was an advocate for interfaith relations, particularly between Jews
and Catholics. He served as interfaith director of the Anti-Defamation League
. He also served as director of the Latin America
n office of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
.
, Argentina
to parents who had emigrated from Poland
in the 1920s. While attending the University of Buenos Aires
in 1959, Klenicki was awarded a scholarship to Hebrew Union College
in Cincinnati. He was graduated from the University of Cincinnati
with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and received a master's degree and rabbinical diploma marking his ordination in 1967 from Hebrew Union College
.
, at a conference of Jewish and Catholic leaders held in Bogotá
, Colombia
in 1968, the first official gathering of Jewish and Catholic leaders in Latin America, Rabbi Klenicki told the audience that nearly two thousand years of history had divided the two religions during which "cathedrals were raised to the sky while Jews had to go underground" while suffering persecution at the hands of Christians, but that "The time of hope has arrived. The task is hard, but not impossible".
Rabbi Klenicki was named as director of Jewish-Catholic relations in 1973 by the Anti-Defamation League
and was appointed as director of interfaith affairs in 1984 serving in that role until 2001.
, the Vatican
published We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah
in 1998, a document which condemned Nazi genocide and called for repentance from Catholics who had failed to intercede to stop it, urgeing Catholics to repent "of past errors and infidelities" and "renew the awareness of the Hebrew roots of their faith" while distinguishing between the Church's "anti-Judaism" as religious teaching and the murderous anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany
which it described as having "roots outside Christianity." Rabbi Klenicki called the document "a salad" which was important in describing the Holocaust and insisting that it never be forgotten, noting that "the deniers of the Holocaust in Europe now have to deal with the Vatican", but which missed an opportunity for "a reckoning of the soul" by the Vatican.
As director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League and its co-liaison to the Vatican, Rabbi Klenicki was an important voice of American Judaism over the four decades of improving Catholic-Jewish relations after the Second Vatican Council.
of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
recalled a 1987 meeting with Pope John Paul II attended by Catholic and Jewish leaders, in which Rabbi Klenicki "was able to express concerns very directly, without unnecessary rhetorical negatives" regarding the Pope's meeting with Kurt Waldheim
.
As part of his efforts at interfaith dialogue, Rabbi Klenicki assisted the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia
in preparing a booklet that explained Christian history and theology to Jews, and developed with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
a Passover
Haggadah
intended for use by Catholics participating with Jews at a seder
or who wanted to experience the seder as Jesus did.
In 2000, he was critical of the document Dominus Iesus
, and called it "a step backwards in the dialogue relationship".
at the Vatican in 2005, in the new pope's first meeting with Jewish leaders. In 2007, Rabbi Klenicki was named a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great
by Pope Benedict XVI, a recognition granted to Catholic men and women (and in rare cases, non-Catholics) in recognition of their service to the Church, unusual labors, support of the Holy See
, and the good example set in their communities and country.
, of cancer. He was survived by his wife, Myra Cohen Klenicki; two children from a marriage to Ana Dimsitz that ended in divorce; a grandson and a brother.
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Catholics. He served as interfaith director of the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
. He also served as director of the Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n office of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
World Union for Progressive Judaism
The World Union for Progressive Judaism describes itself as the "international umbrella organization for the Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist movements." This overall Jewish religious movement is based in about 40 countries with more than 1,000 affiliated synagogues...
.
Life and career
Klenicki was born on September 7, 1930 in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
to parents who had emigrated from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in the 1920s. While attending the University of Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 faculties, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos...
in 1959, Klenicki was awarded a scholarship to Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
in Cincinnati. He was graduated from the University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and received a master's degree and rabbinical diploma marking his ordination in 1967 from Hebrew Union College
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
.
Progressive Judaism
The theses he prepared for both his bachelor's degree and for his rabbinical degree were on the subject of interfaith dialogue. As the director of the Latin American office of the World Union for Progressive JudaismWorld Union for Progressive Judaism
The World Union for Progressive Judaism describes itself as the "international umbrella organization for the Reform, Liberal, Progressive and Reconstructionist movements." This overall Jewish religious movement is based in about 40 countries with more than 1,000 affiliated synagogues...
, at a conference of Jewish and Catholic leaders held in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
in 1968, the first official gathering of Jewish and Catholic leaders in Latin America, Rabbi Klenicki told the audience that nearly two thousand years of history had divided the two religions during which "cathedrals were raised to the sky while Jews had to go underground" while suffering persecution at the hands of Christians, but that "The time of hope has arrived. The task is hard, but not impossible".
Rabbi Klenicki was named as director of Jewish-Catholic relations in 1973 by the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
and was appointed as director of interfaith affairs in 1984 serving in that role until 2001.
Church repentance
Under Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
, the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
published We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah
We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah
We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah is a document published in 1998 by the Catholic Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, under the authority of Pope John Paul II. In this document the Vatican condemned Nazi genocide and called for repentance from Catholics who had failed to...
in 1998, a document which condemned Nazi genocide and called for repentance from Catholics who had failed to intercede to stop it, urgeing Catholics to repent "of past errors and infidelities" and "renew the awareness of the Hebrew roots of their faith" while distinguishing between the Church's "anti-Judaism" as religious teaching and the murderous anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
which it described as having "roots outside Christianity." Rabbi Klenicki called the document "a salad" which was important in describing the Holocaust and insisting that it never be forgotten, noting that "the deniers of the Holocaust in Europe now have to deal with the Vatican", but which missed an opportunity for "a reckoning of the soul" by the Vatican.
As director of interfaith affairs for the Anti-Defamation League and its co-liaison to the Vatican, Rabbi Klenicki was an important voice of American Judaism over the four decades of improving Catholic-Jewish relations after the Second Vatican Council.
Intercommunity issues
Eugene J. Fisher, then associate director of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious AffairsU.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs
The Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs is the principal ecumenical and interfaith organization of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops....
of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...
recalled a 1987 meeting with Pope John Paul II attended by Catholic and Jewish leaders, in which Rabbi Klenicki "was able to express concerns very directly, without unnecessary rhetorical negatives" regarding the Pope's meeting with Kurt Waldheim
Kurt Waldheim
Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...
.
As part of his efforts at interfaith dialogue, Rabbi Klenicki assisted the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in southeastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. It covers the City and County of Philadelphia as well as Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. The diocese was...
in preparing a booklet that explained Christian history and theology to Jews, and developed with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago
The Archdiocese of Chicago was established as a diocese in 1843 and as an Archdiocese in 1880. It serves more than 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties in Northeastern Illinois, a geographic area of 1,411 square miles. The Archdiocese is divided into six vicariates and 31 deaneries...
a Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
Haggadah
Haggadah of Pesach
The Haggadah is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. Reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the Scriptural commandment to each Jew to "tell your son" of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus in the Torah...
intended for use by Catholics participating with Jews at a seder
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
or who wanted to experience the seder as Jesus did.
In 2000, he was critical of the document Dominus Iesus
Dominus Iesus
Dominus Iesus is a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was approved in a Plenary meeting of the Congregation, and bears the signature of its then Prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and of its then Secretary, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, now...
, and called it "a step backwards in the dialogue relationship".
Order of Gregory the Great
Rabbi Klenicki met with Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
at the Vatican in 2005, in the new pope's first meeting with Jewish leaders. In 2007, Rabbi Klenicki was named a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great
Order of St. Gregory the Great
The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great , was established on September 1, 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election.It is one of the five orders of knighthood of the Holy See...
by Pope Benedict XVI, a recognition granted to Catholic men and women (and in rare cases, non-Catholics) in recognition of their service to the Church, unusual labors, support of the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, and the good example set in their communities and country.
Death
He died at age 78 on January 25, 2009 in Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New JerseyMonroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey
Monroe Township is a Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township population was 27,999. Monroe was incorporated as a township by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 9, 1838, from portions of South Amboy Township, based on the...
, of cancer. He was survived by his wife, Myra Cohen Klenicki; two children from a marriage to Ana Dimsitz that ended in divorce; a grandson and a brother.