In a little more than 1,100 words, the Catholic Church issued a document 60 years ago that fundamentally changed the relationship between Catholics and Jews.

“In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions,” Pope Paul VI wrote. “Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect.”

That document, Nostra Aetate (Latin for “In Our Time”), issued as part of the Second Vatican Council, “totally reoriented the Catholic Church’s outlook toward other religions,” Philip Cunningham, director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholi

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