Nostra Aetate (1965)

The Second Vatican Council’s declaration that transformed the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Jewish people.

Promulgated on October 28, 1965, Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”) is one of the shortest documents of the Second Vatican Council, and one of the most important. It rejected the charge that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for the death of Jesus, and it declared that the Church “decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

It opened a new era of dialogue between Catholics and Jews that continues today.

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