Vicariate's History

The first days of the Work of Saint James are recorded in the journals kept by the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in Ein Karem, Jerusalem.

Brother Yohanan Elihai, pioneering member of the kehillot, was interviewed in the Sabbath edition, June 5, 2015, of “Mekor Rishon”.

Hillel Seidel, a childhood friend of Osvald Rufeisen, dedicated an important part of his book, Adam BeMivhan (A man tested), to a detailed account of the life of Rufeisen. The book can now be read on line.

On October 11, 2012, the Church celebrates the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Second Vatican Council.

Father David Neuhaus writes: On my recent trip to Paris, our friend Samy Auszenkier gave me the book of Peter Dembowski about the Catholic Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, which has recently been translated into French.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in Ein Karem brought out photo albums during the Easter week and remembered how the Hebrew speaking communities went out to participate in the solemn mass that Pope John Paul II celebrated in the Galilee in March 2000.

The project of translating the vocabulary of Christian faith into Hebrew is a fascinating story. Thanks to Brother Yohanan, we publish here another small chapter in this story concerning the meeting of Brother Yohanan Elihai, a pioneer in the translation project, and Avraham Even Shoshan, compiler of the complete dictionary of the Hebrew language.

Brother Yohanan Elihai, a member of the Jerusalem community, sent us a sound clip of the memorable conclusion to the thanksgiving speech of newly-ordained Bishop Jean-Baptiste Gourion, first bishop for the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community in Israel.