A recent article told the story of the death of Eva Fleischner, a Jewish-Catholic scholar who escaped Hitler’s Nazi horrors with her parents from her native Austria. Mary Boys, who wrote the article, tells about an amazing woman, whom I would like to introduce and highlight in these few thoughts. I never met Eva Fleishner, although I had heard of her. She taught for years at Montclair State University and made her mark, not only on her students, but on people across the globe.
Fleischner escaped from Austria when she was thirteen, as she traveled first to England and then to the US in 1943. After college, she worked for a publishing company. 1949 turned out to be a pivotal year for her. Boys begins the article in a way that explains it. “When Eva Fleischner left Boston for France in 1949 as a Fulbright scholar, she was engaged to be married. When her fiancé arrived in Paris to join her, she had changed her mind. Something deeper was beckoning: ‘If I had to pick one word for what had happened to me, it would be 'God.'” Perhaps you smiled at that comment, just as I did.
I can only imagine the raised eyebrows if someone asked me what happened to me and I replied, “God happened to me!” That would take some explaining. And I think that is exactly what the rest of Fleishner’s life was: an explanation of God happening in the world. Let’s allow her journey to inform our own journeys.
It was that year in Paris studying medieval philosophy that enabled her to discover “things I had been searching for all my life without knowing it.” I can resonate with this idea. As I think back, particularly to my early college days, I realize I was searching for something that I could not pinpoint. I thought it might be the answer to career or something of that sort, but it was a deeper question than that. It was an existential question about the meaning of life. Career has a bearing on that deeper question, but the question about life is different than simply career.
After her year in Paris, she returned to southern Ohio and the Grail Institute. This Institute was founded in 1952 was designed to deal with church renewal and women in the Christian Church and the feminist movement. I have been to Grailville a number of times and honor the ongoing work of that important ministry even long after Vatican II and the feminist movement of the 60s. There is still work to do!
This is how Fleischner described her experience at Grailville. "It was through the Grail that I found purpose and meaning in life … and with a whole new commitment which I didn’t know was possible before." This is a powerful sentence, in part, because it communicates to us what Fleischner discovered was the reason for the rest of her life. She embraced and lived out this new commitment. We can say that commitment now connects with career. In a sense, we all want to discover that in our own way for our own lives. I am still working on it!
One of things I most admire about Fleischner is how she reconnected with her Jewish tradition. She knew her father had become Catholic in his youth. His family had been Jewish, but being Jewish was perilous in Hitler’s time. In fact, having converted to Christianity would not have saved him, because Hitler did not consider this to be “real.” Fleischner reconnected with her roots mostly through her studies.
One does not have to go into much detail study in Christian history to bump into anti-Semitic comments and perspectives. Even the New Testament contains verses that are problematic. Fleischner spent much of her time dealing with this issue within Catholicism and the larger Christian body. It is an ongoing issue. I share her consternation that too many Christians have a “we are superior” to Judaism attitude. I always thought this was ironic, since Jesus was a Jew and there is little evidence that he ever was anything but a Jew.
I have my own interesting stories of working with Jewish communities, but this is about Fleischner. She has helped me know how to deal more effectively with a shadow side in Christianity. And hearing about her recent death makes me thankful for people like her, who affirm our interfaith work to build bridges, instead of walls. And her witness encourages us all to continue with ecumenical and interfaith work.
Being spiritual is not a contest. There does not have to be winners and losers. In the eyes of God, I do believe we can all win. My guess is God values and appreciate the diversity that is the human family. Any of us who live in an urban area already have religious diversity built into the fabric of our society. Our call as spiritual women and men is to be thankful for the goodness of God and to incarnate that goodness in our lives.
We are to practice being good---good to ourselves, to others and to our planet. If we can do that, we will be honored, as is Eva Fleischner is, for our goodness and people will share memories of goodness.
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