Cardinal Lustiger - "I Was Born Jewish, and Jewish I'll Remain"

As I study the Gospels in context I want to learn more of all things Jewish. Jesus and the first believers were Jewish. The first believers saw their faith as the way to be better Jewish believers. Some years later there developed the tragic parting of ways between the Christian and Jewish communities. The late Archbishop Jean-Marie Lustiger whose mother died at Auschwitz never understood or accepted the parting of ways. The August 5 issue of The Jewish Daily Forward reports: When Pope John Paul II named him archbishop of Paris, an astonished Lustiger told a reporter: “I have always considered myself Jewish, even if the rabbis do not agree with me. I was born Jewish, and Jewish I’ll remain.” Indeed, during his funeral service at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, one of his relatives recited the Kaddish, while the leaders of France’s Jewish community —including the chief rabbi —prayed by the side of his coffin. See http://forward.com/articles/160341/frances-jewish-archbishop/