By Gretchen Keiser

"Shabbat Shalom," the special greeting of peace extended on the Jewish Sabbath, was offered to Jew and Catholic alike Nov. 4 as the two communities took part in a service at the Temple in Atlanta.

Despite a heavy rain and flashes of lighting, an estimated 800 to 900 people came to share in the traditional service beginning the Jewish Sabbath after sundown Friday evening. Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, was the guest speaker, noting the place of the Temple on Peachtree Street in Atlanta's history, its bombing during the early Civil Rights struggle in 1958, and the spiritual bonds in the Law and the Prophets that unite Jews and Christians.

Speaking on the eve of his six-month anniversary as the third archbishop of Atlanta, Archbishop Marino reiterated his installation greeting of "Shalom" to the Jewish community, and expressed hope that the two would be able to pursue jointly "works that build up our community and promote human dignity."

The Oct. 12, 1958 bombing of The Temple, recalled this year on its thirtieth anniversary, was a "terrible sacrifice endured by the members of The Temple," the archbishop said. Yet, "it stirred the conscience of the entrenched culture. In the future, Jews, blacks and Catholics all would invoke the memory of this bombing in their efforts to uproot prejudice and its violent consequences."

Touching upon the spiritual relationship between the Jewish and Christian faiths, the archbishop noted that the Christian tradition has its roots in the Law and the Prophets and the Church's daily Office draws extensively upon the Psalms. The Hebrew Scripture, or Old Testament, has not been superseded, he said; "it is always the true Word of God and belongs to the integrity of the Bible, the font of divine revelation."

"Jews are dear to God because of their fathers. Their election and mission has a permanent validity and they play a decisive role in the history of mankind," he said. Yet he also said that the Church proclaims the God she worships: "The God of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob ... the God of the suffering servant, the God for us uniquely, Jesus of Nazareth. He is the hidden Lord, the Lord of Israel, the Savior ... His love endures forever, who maintains his promise to the fathers in a continuous divine memorial, perpetually realizing it for his people and extending it to the Gentiles."

The archbishop also quoted from Pope John Paul II's comments in Vienna on faithfully remembering the extermination of six million Jews in the death camps of Nazism. In extracting from the pope's words he chose the section which spoke of the necessity for Christians to cooperate in joint studies of the significance of "Shoah," the holocaust, and working to ensure that such cannot happen again.

Rabbi Alvin M. Sugarman, senior rabbi of The Temple, said the congregation welcomed the archbishop's "message of faith" and the message that his presence, as much as his words, brought. The rabbi said he extended "hand and heart to you ... working toward the common good of our city" and pledged "with you, with ever-increasing fervor to hear the voice within us so often left unspoken. The voice that cries out: 'Please understand. We are all children of one God. We are indeed all brothers and sisters.'"

The Shabbat service included the lighting of Sabbath candles and the blessing of wine, accompanied by prayer and singing, led by cantorial soloist Deborah Benardot. Rabbi Sue Ann Wassermann, assistant rabbi, led responsorial prayer and the giving of Hebrew names to three children.

The Sabbath is the "most precious of days," said one prayer. "Those who keep the Sabbath and call it a delight shall rejoice in Your kingdom. All who hallow the seventh day shall be gladdened by Your goodness. This day is Israel's festival of the spirit, sanctified and blessed by You, the most precious of days, a symbol of the joy of creation."

A number of Catholics attended, including the third-grade class from St. Jude's school, who had written letters to The Temple on the 30^th anniversary of the bombing expressing their sorrow over this event. Christ the King, Sacred Heart and St. Jude's parishioners were mentioned as being present, as were others from the archdiocese who wanted to share in the interfaith prayer.

A Shabbat supper preceded the service and afterward a reception provided time for everyone to speak with the archbishop and the rabbis. Ron and Jill Watkins, whose 12-week-old son Aaron Alexander received his Hebrew name at the service, were delighted when the archbishop placed his zucchetto on the baby and posed for pictures with the four generations of the family who were there.

Rabbi Sugarman said he had asked the archbishop to come to The Temple at the time of his appointment to Atlanta, expressing his own desire to build more common endeavors and responding to the archbishop's and his mutual friendship with the president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Afterward the rabbi said that he was struck by the timing of the evening, five days before the 50^th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in which Nazi persecution of Jews became violently enflamed; and less than a months after the 30^th anniversary of The Temple bombing, an action triggered by the leadership of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild in the movement against racial segregation.

For a rabbi and the nation's first black archbishop to come together at such a time for prayer in The Temple seemed to Rabbi Sugarman to have "a beautiful poetic sense of justice."