March 25, 2025 // Bishop

Catholics, Jews ‘Gather in Hope’

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

Interfaith Prayer Service Fosters Solidarity, Remembrance

Wearing a gray suit, polished black dress shoes, and a black yarmulke, Michael Rush strode to the ambo at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Fort Wayne and delivered one of the more powerful moments in an evening full of them.

Despite the pews being nearly filled for the Catholic-Jewish prayer service on Thursday, March 20, the crowd was silent as Rush read from Elie Wiesel’s classic book “Night,” a haunting autobiographical look at the author’s experience in the Nazi death camps during the Holocaust of World War II.

The prayer service was held in conjunction with a series of events centered around an exhibition of photographs being displayed at the University of Saint Francis entitled “Violins and Hope: From the Holocaust to Symphony Hall.” The exhibition highlighted the organization Violins of Hope, founded by Israeli violin maker Amnon Weinstein, who spent the last three decades of his life locating and restoring violins that were played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. The “Violins and Hope” exhibit, along with concerts and other events featuring rescued violins, gave Catholics in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend several opportunities to express solidarity with our Jewish neighbors and learn more about their heritage – and the horrors their ancestors faced during World War II.

Two of the violins restored by Weinstein were played at St. Vincent during the prayer service, with Rush’s recitation from Chapter 6 of Wiesel’s masterpiece serving to connect the violins themselves with the horrors of the past.

“Was it not dangerous to allow your vigilance to fail, even for a moment, when at any minute death could pounce upon you? I was thinking of this when I heard the sound of a violin,” Rush read, recounting the terror Wiesel experienced at both Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald before he was rescued by Allied soldiers (though not before his sister and both of his parents were murdered there, along with more than 1 million others at those particular death camps). “The sound of a violin, in this dark shed, where the dead were heaped on the living. What madman could be playing the violin here, at the brink of his own grave? Or was it really a hallucination? It must have been Juliek. He played a fragment from Beethoven’s concerto. I had never heard sounds so pure. In such a silence. How had he managed to free himself? To draw his body from under mine without my being aware of it? It was pitch dark. I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings – his lost hopes, his charred pact, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again. I shall never forget Juliek. How could I forget that concert, given to an audience of dying and dead men! To this day, whenever I hear Beethoven played, my eyes close, and out of the dark rises the sad, pale face of my Polish friend, as he said farewell on his violin to an audience of dying men.”

‘Uplifted in Prayer’

At the beginning of the prayer service, Bishop Rhoades welcomed those gathered from both faith traditions. He was joined by Rabbi Meir Bargeron of Congregation Achduth Vesholom, a community that has served the Jewish population in Fort Wayne for more than 175 years. Bishop Rhoades noted that it was “a great blessing” to have Rabbi Bargeron “and all our Jewish brothers and sisters” gathered in prayer at St. Vincent.

“As we pray together with the Violins of Hope, we are reminded … of the horrible tragedy of the Holocaust,” Bishop Rhoades said in his welcoming statement. “But we gather in hope because we know that together we can conquer hatred, and together we can help to build a civilization of love and peace, and that is what we pray for together this evening.”

Rabbi Bargeron thanked Bishop Rhoades and the clergy and staff of St. Vincent “for creating this special opportunity for the Jewish and Catholic communities to come together for an evening of music, prayer, memory, and inspiration. We will hear beautiful music that is played on instruments that build a bridge from this beautiful moment in this church to a very different time and a very different place. The instruments that we will hear tonight will connect us to the lives of those who were imprisoned and murdered during the Shoah, the Holocaust. We will be uplifted in prayer and blessing, and it is my hope that we will be each of us inspired to act to continue to repair our broken world – a world that is built in love, driven by our justice to ensure that nothing as horrifying and dehumanizing as the Shoah will ever happen again.”

‘Worthy of This Song’

Following the reading from “Night,” musicians Daniel Stein and Eunbee Lee played a stirring piece by Beethoven on the Violins of Hope as those in the nave of St. Vincent sat silent, reflecting on both the beauty of the music they were hearing and the words of the story they had just heard.

Rabbi Bargeron then spoke from the ambo and reflected on the powerful reading that shared just one of the millions of tragic stories from the Holocaust (or Shoah).

“Amidst the silence of exhaustion and despair, Juliek lifts his violin, and he plays Beethoven,” Rabbi Bargeron said. “In that moment, his music becomes an act of defiance, a declaration that even in a world of suffering, the human spirit endures. Juliek knew the danger of holding on to his violin, yet he carried it with him. And when he played, he was asserting that even in a place designed to strip people of their humanity … beauty, dignity, and faith could not be erased. The Nazis could break bodies, but they could not silence the soul.”

He continued: “But what does Juliek’s violin mean for us today? We are not in the barracks of Auschwitz, but we live in a world that still knows suffering, still knows hatred, still knows division. And Juliek’s violin calls to us – to each of us. In the face of darkness, what song will we play? What light will we bring? Too often, when we see suffering or injustice, we feel powerless. But Juliek reminds us that even in the most desperate moments, we have a choice. We can remain silent, or we can bring forth something beautiful: an act of kindness, a word of justice, a stand for what is right.

“As Jews and Catholics gather in prayer, we share a common calling: to be instruments of hope in a broken world,” Rabbi Bargeron concluded. “We do this when we stand up against antisemitism and all forms of hatred. We do this when we see the image of God in one another, choosing compassion over indifference. We do this when we commit to never forgetting the past and shaping a future built on dignity, respect, and peace. Juliek’s violin was fragile, but its music was stronger than despair. Tonight, let us carry that song forward. Let us ensure that hatred never has the final word. Let us choose to create beauty, to lift up the suffering, and to fill the world with acts of love and justice. May we be worthy of this song.”

‘Fix Our Hope in God’

In his own reflection, Bishop Rhoades reminded the interfaith audience that the Catholic Church is currently in the midst of celebrating a Holy Year – a tradition begun by the Jewish people and shared in the Old Testament.

“The central message of this Jubilee Year 2025 is hope,” Bishop Rhoades said. “It seems very appropriate that we gather with you, our Jewish brothers and sisters, to pray together at this service during this time when the Violins and Hope exhibition is here in Fort Wayne.  Both Judaism and Christianity are religions of hope. Pope Francis has reminded us Catholics that, in this world, we are pilgrims of hope. I would say to our Jewish brothers and sisters that we are pilgrims of hope together on our earthly journey.  We share a common spiritual heritage.  We are truly brothers and sisters, as Pope St. John Paul II famously said at the Rome synagogue in 1986. He spoke of the bond that the Church has with Judaism as follows: ‘The Jewish religion is not extrinsic to us, but in a certain way is intrinsic to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and sisters, and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers and sisters.’”

Bishop Rhoades noted that “as pilgrims of hope, we must stand in solidarity with each other” during the rise in both antisemitic and anti-Catholic activity. Bishop Rhoades noted that a recent report by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Religious Freedom Committee, which he chairs, highlighted the upsurge in antisemitism as “one of our top five areas of critical concern.”

“Despite all this,” Bishop Rhoades said, “we remain a people of hope, a hope which must be active, not passive – working together to promote justice, peace, respect for religious liberty, and for the dignity of every human person. As Catholics and Jews, we both consider Abraham as our father in faith and look to him as a model of hope. Tonight, we are gathered in prayer. Prayer nourishes our hope. The psalms which we both pray, with their concrete and varied language, teach us to fix our hope in God. May we walk together as pilgrims of hope with confidence in the goodness of the Lord whose steadfast love endures forever!”

Solidarity ‘Means a Lot’

Following the reflections from Rabbi Bargeron and Bishop Rhoades, the Temple Vocal Quartet sang the Jewish prayer for peace Oseh Shalom. Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning “peace.” But it is also “a word that connotes wholeness,” Rabbi Bargeron said. “When we pray Oseh Shalom, when we ask that the one who makes peace in heaven bring peace upon us, it speaks both to our particular hopes as Jews and to the universal human yearning for harmony in our world, and it underscores our foundational belief that we share … that every human being is made in the image of God.

“For Jews, Oseh Shalom is deeply embedded in our liturgy, reminding us that peace is not only a gift from God but a sacred responsibility that we share,” Rabbi Bargeron said. “And yet, its message transcends any one tradition. …  And so tonight, may we affirm our shared commitment to peace, not just as an abstract hope but as a call to action in our lives, our communities, and the world. May the one who creates peace on high bring peace to all of us.”

Following the service, Rabbi Bargeron told Today’s Catholic that he was thrilled to see the large crowd praying and worshipping together.

“The Violins of Hope give us a really important kind of point of departure to explore some very important questions – and in the language of music, which is something we can all access,” said Rabbi Bargeron, who added that he greatly appreciated Bishop Rhoades’ statements of solidarity given the shared struggles between Catholics and Jews – both historically and more recently.

“Our people – both Catholics and Jews – came from places where coming to America meant tremendous opportunity, and both of our people, in their early days in America, faced similar levels of discrimination,” Rabbi Bargeron said. “And while we like to think that things are better now, recent years have unleashed a lot of hatred. Sadly, we’re used to it. And it’s very troubling to see that it happens to other religious communities, particularly Catholics, because we share so much. The fact that we can talk about our similarities and our challenges together is important to us. Bishop Rhoades’ solidarity on this matter is important, and it means a lot.”

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic.