Interfaith Dialogue
Cohen is active in interfaith dialogue. He was awarded Israel's Sovlanut award (tolerance) in 1991. He serves as a chief of the senior council for dialogue between the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Vatican, and recently became Chair of the council for dialogue between Judaism and Islam; he acts as an emissary of the Israel Chief Rabbinate to interfaith meetings and is currently on the Board of World Religious Leaders for The Elijah Interfaith Institute.
In October 2008, Rabbi Cohen was invited by Pope Benedictus XVI, to lecture before the International Catholic Church Synod in Rome, that is the supreme body of the Catholic Church, where he presented the Jewish view of the place of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in the Jewish religion and liturgy. He used the occasion to oppose plans to beatify Pope Pius XII.
On January 28, 2009, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel broke off official ties with the Vatican indefinitely in protest over the Pope's decision to lift the excommunication of controversial bishop Richard Williamson, a member of the Society of Saint Pius X. Shear Yashuv Cohen, chairman of the Rabbinate's commission, told The Jerusalem Post that he expected Williamson to publicly retract his statements before meetings could be renewed.
Cohen later reconciled with Pope Benedict in March 2009.
Cohen led the Jewish delegation of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to the ninth meeting of the Commission for Dialogue between Jews and Catholics in Rome from January 17–20, 2010. He also chaired the Jewish delegation in the 11th Bilateral Commission meeting in March 2012.
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Famous quotes containing the word dialogue:
“When we understand that man is the only animal who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand the essence of love. Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being.”
—Ernest Becker (1924–1974)