The publication of Nostra Aetate in 1965 was a watershed event in the history of Catholic-Jewish
relations in particular and Christian-Jewish relations in general. A leading American rabbi involved in
inter-religious dialogue has called it “a Copernican revolution;” another rabbi, in Israel, “a sea change.”

A Catholic has written that”… the renewal catalyzed by Nostra Aetate can properly be described by the
Greek word metanoia (Hebrew teshuvah), meaning a complete “turning,” a total reorientation of attitude
or action.”