Jews need to form stronger ties to the Catholic Church to ensure their survival, according to former Mayor Ed Koch.
“We’re 13 million Jews in the whole world — less than one-tenth of 1 percent,” said Koch, while being honored by the Beit Morasha of Jerusalem public- policy organization in Manhattan Wednesday night.
“And we need allies. The best ally we can have is the Catholic Church. Oh, you can go back in history when they were not great allies. But they proved to be. It started with Pope John XXIII and Pope [John] Paul II. We have to reach out to them.”
The former mayor didn’t stop there.
He criticized Orthodox Jews for refusing to step foot in a Catholic church.
“It’s ridiculous, ridculous,” Koch declared. “What we have to do is reach out in friendship.”
Koch was a friend of the late John Cardinal O’Connor, and has stayed friendly with his successors.