Nothing we do can ever make up for the horrors of the Holocaust or the persecution suffered by the Jewish people during the Christian era. Nevertheless, the many loving and imaginative gestures of Christians around the world during this year's season of Omer, traditionally a time of mourning for the Jewish people, ministered comfort. ‘It is a tremendous encouragement to know that someone somewhere is praying every day for Israel' was the comment of a retired Israeli diplomat after hearing about Operation Omer. Translated into several languages, the message of Operation Omer was preached from the pulpit, reported in the press as well as featuring on radio and television. Today we would like to thank everyone who prayed, fasted, visited synagogues, sent parcels to Holocaust survivors, wrote to newspapers, attended solidarity rallies, etc. as part of this initiative.

In Brazil a joint prayer service was arranged for Jews and Christians. First a Jewish rabbi prayed Psalm 121 in Hebrew for Israel's Arab population, then a Christian Arab did the same in Arabic for the Jewish people. Memorial services were held in France and Germany at the sites of deportations, concentration camps and Death Marches. A Catholic priest in Canada organized a music fest to raise funds for the Saskatoon Jewish community, whose library was severely damaged in a recent fire-bomb attack. One lady gave up television during Omer in order to have more time to pray for Israel. A busy farmer's wife committed herself to praying daily for Israel during Omer and afterwards. An elderly doctor in Germany observed Omer by calling one of his many Israeli friends every day.

At Beth Abraham, our Jerusalem guest house for Holocaust survivors, the phone did not stop ringing after television interviews and articles brought their work to the attention of the Israeli public. Looking for a place ‘where you can talk', Holocaust survivors would turn up on their doorstep: the man born in a concentration camp, a Jew from Beersheba, a radio personality trying to come to terms with his childhood as a second-generation Holocaust survivor. The Tel Aviv city council rang up to reserve places at the next house party for four couples. On top of their sufferings during the Shoah, they or their spouses now have to cope with blindness. All who came listened in amazement to the reports of Christians who had heard the summons to ‘weep with those who weep'.

In various cities Christians took to the streets to show solidarity with Israel. At a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, the son of a Holocaust survivor said, ‘Back then the Church was silent. So thank you for coming.' The Sydney rally was nearly over when our Australian sisters arrived with posters declaring ‘Israel, you are not alone.' The delay caused by a flat tire was used by God. The crowds of 10,000 clapped, cheered and wept unashamedly, parting like the red sea to make way. The Jewish speaker, at first taken aback, then exclaimed, ‘The Carmelites have come in support!' The call was taken up by a radio reporter for Kol Israel. That day when our sisters in Beth Abraham turned on the radio news, they heard, ‘The nuns have come, the nuns have come!' In Edmonton, Alberta, a self-made placard, reading, ‘Israel, you are not alone', mysteriously disappeared. Later our sister saw it displayed alongside the Israeli and Canadian flags at the speakers tribune. Friends had given a Jewish organizer permission to put it upfront. An identical banner in German had a similar impact at a Jewish event in Switzerland. A lady sitting on the platform came down to say, ‘You can't imagine how much the words on your banner mean to us.' At the Trafalgar Square rally in London our sisters, easily recognizable as Christians, were personally thanked by members of the Jewish community: ‘We are so alone. Everyone hates and despises us.'

On the Sunday before Yom HaShoah, Israel's Holocaust Day, the repentance service video Changing the Future by Confronting the Past was carried by the National Jewish Network in America. The next day the founder and programme director called our sisters in Phoenix, Arizona, to tell them about the overwhelming response. ‘And the calls are still coming in today. I'd say that we've had almost 100 phone calls. People are so moved …'

An honorary consul in Queensland contacted our Australian branch after the film was televised nationwide. ‘The very thought of your devotion to the cause is encouraging to say the least especially at this time of uncertainty and fear of the unknown future.' As a Jew whose parents escaped from Austria during the Shoah, he was speaking for many.

The video, dubbed in Portuguese, could be seen throughout Brazil. In Iceland viewers thanked the television station, saying they had wept throughout the showing of the Icelandic version. Alluding to the Netanya Passover Massacre, the programme director of a Christian station in Oslo wrote after the transmission of the Norwegian film: ‘In light of the recent events in Israel it can serve as a wake-up call for those who are still sleeping. The Church in Norway needs to wake up, repent and pray for forgiveness and mercy for Oslo and for our country. Through the Oslo Accords we carry heavy responsibility for what is now happening to the Jews in Israel. We are the ones who made it possible.'

The book Changing the Future by Confronting the Past: Talks and Testimonies is also having an impact on Jews and Christians alike. A Polish ex-POW commented, ‘It made me want to cry.' A Lithuanian diplomat stressed the importance of such materials in preventing hatred from springing up again. ‘The pain of the Holocaust is recognized,' wrote a Holocaust survivor. ‘In my sorrow the deeply moving repentance, expressed so beautifully at the convention, had a soothing, indeed, comforting effect.'

One of the most poignant responses to Operation Omer came from a Jewish leader in South Africa. ‘We were really moved to receive your Omer greetings on the eve of our Passover festival and to know that we are not alone.' She explained, ‘As a Jewish organization we are confronting global antisemitism that has not been as bad since the 1930s, with attacks on synagogues, schools, and cemeteries all around the world orchestrated by certain parties for political reasons. Even mediaeval untruths, regularly repudiated by Popes and bishops, that Christian blood was an ingredient in our matza, have been resuscitated and printed in the official Saudi newspapers in order to encourage such hatred.' Hours later the Netanya Passover Massacre struck. Among the victims were the elderly relatives of her in-laws. Too frail to climb the three flights to their son's apartment, the couple used to stay at a hotel in Netanya to participate in its annual Passover service. The wife was a survivor of Auschwitz with a tattooed number on her arm. Tragically, it was not the first time a Holocaust survivor died in the intifada.

Journalist Michael Freund observed, ‘After enduring 2000 years of suffering and persecution, the Jewish people finally returned to their national home, only to be greeted by still more hatred and bloodshed. We tried to leave the traumas of the Exile behind, but they have nefariously followed us home.' Yet Israel is the only place on earth that the Jewish people can call home.

‘We are so alone,' a prominent Jew commented to a group of welcoming sisters at our headquarters in Darmstadt. This is why he appreciated Christians supporting Israel's right of existence. Present at the May 10 solidarity rally in Frankfurt, he was particularly impressed by Sister Pista's brief words. Listening to a member of the war-time generation warn the next ‘gives me hope', he said. An Israeli author and journalist responded similarly to another stand for Israel during Omer: ‘However discouraged I may feel today about Israel's position in the world, including the Christian world, you give me renewed faith in the healing work between Christians and Jews which God has bequeathed to our generation. In the spiritual life, numbers don't matter, only the quality and devotion and persistence of those few who stand with God and truth, no matter what.'

Again, a warm thank-you to all who contributed towards Operation Omer to the glory of God. May He bless you.

The Sisters of Mary