Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Declaration Dabru Emet

Heschel’s ground-breaking lecture “No Religion Is an Island” of 1965 contains almost all the ideas that are offered in the unprecedented Jewish declaration on Christianity “Dabru emet” of 2000, written by four authors and signed first by over 160, and ultimately by well over 200 (including the present author). This fact seems to have been unnoticed. It means that Heschel’s lecture, or more generally his attitude, can be seen as a major source of the declaration, in which Christianity is treated as an equal and valuable partner despite the theological differences and difficult historical heritage.