Bruno Hussar

Bruno Hussar was born in 1911 in Cairo

Hussar was born André in Egypt in 1911 to a Hungarian Jewish father and a French Jewish mother, both assimilated. He grew up speaking several languages and called himself a man with four identities. After finishing the Italian School in Cairo, he moved with his family to Paris.

In France he studied engineering and converted to Catholicism during his studies. He became a French citizen in 1937. Refusing to hide his Jewish origins, he had to flee Nazi-occupied France, and after the war he studied philosophy at a seminary in Grenoble.

He joined the Dominican order, took the name Bruno and was ordained a priest in 1950. In 1953 he came to Jerusalem to set up a center for the study of Judaism, and in 1954 he helped found a community of Hebrew-speaking Catholics. He also served as a priest in Jaffa.

In 1959 he opened St. Isaiah House in Jerusalem to promote dialogue between Christians and Jews. He took part in the work of the Second Vatican Council on Jewish and Catholic relations. He became an Israeli citizen in 1966.

In 1970 he and several friends founded Neve Shalom near Latrun, on land of the Latrun Abbey. He died in 1996 and was buried with a Christian requiem mass and the Jewish Kaddish.