In Nostra Aetate, Vatican II’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions”, the Church abandoned centuries of Christian hostility to Judaism. The Church professed the Jewish roots of Christianity. The document expresses this twice with arboreal imagery. It acknowledges “the bond by which the people of the new covenant are spiritually joined with the stalk of Abraham”. It also states that the Church “is nourished from the root of the good olive tree onto which have been grafted the branches of the wild olive tree of the gentiles”. The olive tree is Judaism, the branches Christianity.Peter Schäfer, Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University, complicates the relatio