4th of April, 2026 / י״ז ניסן ה׳תשפ״ו

To His Excellency, Pope Leo XIV, Bishop of Rome

Greetings and blessings,

I write to you in my capacity as a member of the Interfaith Committee of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, a role devoted to fostering mutual respect and moral responsibility between faith communities.

It is in that spirit that I wish to address your recent Palm Sunday remarks, in which it was stated that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war,” accompanied by the words of the prophet Isaiah, “your hands are full of blood.” Your Palm Sunday remarks emphasized that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war and rejected the use of religion to justify violence.

These words carry immense moral weight. Precisely for that reason, they require careful application.

At this time, the State of Israel is not engaged in a war of choice. It is confronting an existential threat from forces that have openly declared their intention to destroy it, and which have actively pursued the means to do so, including the development of weapons capable of devastating entire populations.

In this context, even the ability to........

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