When Dr. Karma Ben-Johanan, an expert on Jewish-Christian relations, opened her email on February 2, 2024, she found a message she did not expect: a letter from Pope Francis, expressing his concern over the rise of antisemitism and his hope for peace in the Middle East.

Three months earlier, barely weeks after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, Ben-Johanan had been among the promoters of an appeal to the pope and the Catholic Church “to extend a hand in solidarity to the Jewish community throughout the world” by explicitly condemning the onslaught and rejecting the equivalence between the terror atrocities and Israel’s military response.

Almost two years after that exchange, Ben-Johanan, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Hartman Institute, is still not sure why Francis chose to address his response specifically to her, among the many signatories.