In an act of friendship and solidarity just made for the holiday season, a Catholic church has presented Congregation Agudath Israel of West Essex with a gift of $1,000 to be used toward the synagogue’s renovation.

In a letter to Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Reverend Monsignor Ed Ciuba, pastor of the Notre Dame Roman Catholic Church of North Caldwell, said the donation was a gift from neighbor to neighbor.

“It is my hope that this gesture will underscore our common faith in the One and Holy God, and will continue the mutual respect that we have for our respective religious traditions,” Ciuba wrote. “We have been neighbors for many years. Members of our congregations mingle and interact with one another.

“May this small token of good will bear fruit in the ongoing relationships between our communities.”

Silverstein said he was surprised and not surprised by the gift.

“It was totally out of the blue,” said Silverstein. On the other hand, “These are real close friends of ours with whom we spend a lot of sacred time [together] in terms of community building and doing acts of goodness.”

Silverstein said his Conservative synagogue in Caldwell has had strong relationships with veteran local religious leaders, including Ciuba and Father Anthony Randazzo, associate pastor of Notre Dame. He called them “serious players in the interreligious drama.”

Silverstein listed several events Agudath Israel shared with local houses of worship, including a recent screening of the global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth at the Caldwell United Methodist Church, which attracted an audience of 200.

“We go to food banks and homeless shelters together. We have a study group that meets about twice a month dealing with shared perspectives on sacred texts. That’s the tip of the iceberg,” the rabbi said.

Silverstein and Randazzo serve on a panel at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown as “role models for this type of interreligious partnering.”

“We mix with one another; we have a great respect for the Jewish community,” said Ciuba. “We have mutual respect, best wishes for the future, and growth together as two communities that worship the same God, not only in the Caldwells, but historically: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also the God of Jesus Christ.”

So close is the relationship between Agudath Israel and Notre Dame, Silverstein said, that Ciuba and Randazzo — along with the Rev. Jeffrey Markay of Caldwell UMC — participated in the synagogue’s Oct. 22 ground-breaking ceremony. The renovation project — which, Silverstein estimated, will cost in excess of $10 million — is expected to be completed by early 2008 and will include a new sanctuary, a state-of-the-art nursery school, offices for the synagogue administration and nursery school, and increased parking facilities. An “adult activity wing” will house a library and media section, conference rooms, and an adult lounge.

Ciuba downplayed his church’s donation. “We didn’t think it was a great big deal that needs publicity,” he said. The leaders of Notre Dame thought “this would be a gesture for continued good relations together and to say ‘mazal tov.’

“In terms of the total project, it didn’t amount to very much, but we wanted to make the gesture.”