The Anti-Defamation League’s National Director Abraham Foxman has expressed great appreciation for Pope Benedict XVI’s support for Jews and Israel following the surprise announcement that the Pope is resigning at the end of the month.

Foxman had five audiences with the Pope during his nearly eight years as pontiff, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He said in a statement issued on Tuesday: “Benedict XVI has profoundly bolstered the positive trajectory of Catholic-Jewish relations launched by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

“Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, worked closely with John Paul during his 26-year papacy, developing a historic new relationship between Catholic[s] and Jews as ‘loving brothers and sisters’ after centuries of tragedy.

“In his tenure as Pope, Benedict pledged that he would always stand with the Jewish people against anti-Semitism. He strongly condemned Holocaust denial. He made it a point early in his papacy to visit Israel, going to Yad Vashem and the Western Wall, thus cementing the historic act of his predecessor for future generations and strengthening the relationship between Israel and the Vatican. He became the first pope to visit a synagogue in the United States. And he also visited the synagogue in Rome, institutionalizing these visits.

“Pope Benedict XVI reconfirmed the official Catholic position that God’s covenant with the Jewish people at Sinai endures and is irrevocable.”

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism.

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