This is one of those years in which the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, and Christmas, more or less coincide. And as we get ready for those celebrations it is worth thinking about the history of the relations between these two great faiths: Judaism and Christianity.

For all too long it was tense and sometimes tragic. Starting with the first crusade in 1096, Europe witnessed a long period in which Jews were accused by their Christian neighbours of almost every conceivable crime, from desecrating the host to poisoning wells, to spreading the plague. Each new claim led to massacres and pogroms, and yet today Jews and Christians meet as friends. By any historical measure, that is extraordinary.

England holds a special place in that story. In the Middle Ages it led the world in its hostility to Jews. The first blood libel took place in Norwich in 1144, and in 1290 England became the first country to expel its Jews. But by one of the great reversals of all time, in the seventeenth century it led the world in tolerance. Jews came back to Britain in 1656, and in a few weeks time will begin celebrating the 350th anniversary of that event.

Over the next two centuries, Jews slowly but surely were granted civil rights. And it was in 1942, in the midst of Europe’s darkest night, that an Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, and the Chief Rabbi, Joseph Hertz, came together to create the Council of Christians and Jews, which with rare courage fought the prejudices of the past and charted a new way together.

Today, the world is still scarred by ethnic and religious conflict, in the Middle East, Chechnya, Kashmir, and elsewhere; conflicts in which each of the warring parties claim that God is on their side, forgetting that the other side claims the same. These conflicts represent almost every possible permutation of clashing identities, with one exception. Jews and Christians. The world’s longest estrangement has become its newest and most unexpected friendship. And if that isn’t a sign of hope, I don’t know what is.

The greatest challenge of the 21st century is whether historic enemies can find ways of living peaceably together. The story of Jews and Christians these last sixty years tells us it can be done, and we now need to extend the hand of friendship to the many other faiths that make up our interconnected world. Hanukkah for Jews, Christmas for Christians, are stories of hope. May they give us the courage to turn enemies into friends.

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