Catholic-Jewish Dialogue programs

By Renee Bialek, Program Director

Sunday, Feb. 23, 2:30 p.m. at Saint Williams Catholic Church

“The Assisi Underground” is a 1985 American-Italian film made for television, written and directed by Alexander Ramati. It is an adaptation of his 1978 novel, “The Assisi Underground: The Priest who Rescued Jews,” which is based on a true-life account by Father Rufino Niccacci of events surrounding the Assisi Network, an effort to hide 300 Jews in the town of Assisi, Italy during World War II. Watch the film together and stay for refreshments and discussion to follow.

Sunday, March 2, 2:30 p.m. at Jewish Federation of Greater Naples’ Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center

Read “The Sunflower: On the Possibility and Limits of Forgiveness” by Simon Wiesenthal in advance of this Readers & Thinkers Book Review, then come discuss it together over refreshments.

A Nazi soldier on his deathbed asks forgiveness from a Jew, in this case Wiesenthal, for horrendous atrocities he committed against Jews during the Holocaust. This presents a moral and ethical dilemma for Wiesenthal. After walking away from the soldier, he asks “What would you have done?”

“The Sunflower” presents responses to that question from clergy and spiritual leaders, Holocaust survivors, professors and historians. During the program we will discuss exactly that.

Please register for these free programs at www.jewishnaples.org.

The Catholic-Jewish Dialogue of Collier County is a subcommittee of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Jewish Federation of Greater Naples.