A rabbi learns from a pope

The chief rabbi of Poland wrote a beautiful article for Ha'aretz recently: What I learned from Jean Paul II.

Here is a touching extract:

The end of Pope John Paul II's life, on April 2, 2005, was a very difficult time in Poland. The funeral was held on a Friday. My synagogue in Warsaw announced a memorial prayer for him at the start of Shabbat. As I approached the synagogue, I was shocked.

The line of those waiting to get inside was huge. Over 1,000 people attended - a few hundred were local Polish Jews, but the rest were Polish Catholics. Just think about it - hundreds of Catholics accepting that it was normal to share a prayer for the Pope in a synagogue in Poland! In that moment, I saw before my very eyes how Pope John Paul II had changed the world. How so much of what he practiced during his own life had truly inspired others to act similarly. For me, this is the ultimate tribute to the teachings and life of Pope John Paul II.