The life of Pope John Paul II and how it intertwined with the Jewish people is the subject of an exhibition, "A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People," opening at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 12 and running until Jan. 4, 2009.

The exhibition takes its name from the pope's 1993 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. On that anniversary, he remarked:

"As Christians and Jews, following the example of the faith of Abraham, we are called to be a blessing to the world. This is the common task awaiting us. It is therefore necessary for us, Christians and Jews, to first be a blessing to one another."

With large panels, text, photographs, artifacts and audiovisual recordings, the 6,000-square-foot exhibition depicts how Pope John Paul II sought to improve the dialogue between Catholics and the Jews --- and how his early life shaped that vision of harmony and friendship. From Los Angeles, the exhibition will travel to Kansas City, Reading, Pa., and the Holocaust Museum of Houston.

"The exhibition invites you to look at the way the world unfolded from the perspective of one man and how this one man from humble beginnings, from his small village, would one day become pope," says James Buchanan of Xavier University in Cincinnati that created the exhibition along with Cincinnati's Hillel Student Jewish Center and the Shtetl Foundation in 2000.

Describing the exhibition as "dense and working on many levels," Buchanan, along with other organizers, traveled extensively to Poland and Rome gathering artifacts and interviews. In fact, they were granted the only interview so far with Jerzy Kluger, the pope's long-lost Jewish childhood friend who was reunited with the pope during Vatican II and who was later given the first papal audience.

Indeed, the early life of Karol Wojtyla, his associations and enduring friendships with many Jews who lived in Wadowice, Poland in the early 1930s, shaped him personally and spiritually for his later role as pope, says Robert Kirschner, museum director for the Skirball.

"He lost all his family when he was such a young man and with the German occupation of Poland, he experienced disaster for his country," says Kirschner. "It's easy to see how the priesthood appealed to him, how he was looking for a family to love and how he ended up embracing the whole world."

In addition to John Paul II's youth, the exhibition traces his rise within the church and how his ministry and later papacy broke historic ground as he sought to heal thousands of years of painful history between Catholics and Jews.

The exhibition displays photographs and video clips of John Paul II warmly shaking hands with Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome in 1986 (John Paul was the first pope to enter a synagogue). In addition, the pope gained the respect of the Jewish community and the world when he officially recognized and visited the State of Israel, and formally repented for the church's past treatment of the Jewish people.

"This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for Jews and Catholics to be with one another," says Father Alexei Smith, director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Los Angeles Archdiocese who assisted the Skirball with preliminary work for the exhibition. "I can't imagine any Catholic or Jewish person seeing this and not be moved."

While the exhibition is a historical look back, organizers also want visitors to be personally inspired to continue to live out the message of John Paul II today. "We all can't be popes affecting change on the global stage," says Buchanan. "But we have our own lives and our own 'others' whom we marginalized and keep at a distance. How can we reconcile ourselves to them? How do we reach out in friendship?"

Perhaps the most touching elements of the exhibition come at the end: Guests are invited to write down prayers and insert them in the cracks of a replica of the Wailing Wall. Later, these prayers will be taken by hand and placed at the original Wailing Wall.

And finally, a brass copy of John Paul II's open hand is displayed for guests to touch. "This exhibition isn't just an academic undertaking, we want visitors to feel personally connected to what they experienced here," says Kirschner. "Putting your hand with the pope's is a way to honor his vision of respect and dignity for all peoples."

"A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People," runs through Jan. 4, 2009 at the Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. Museum hours: Tues.-Fri. noon-5 p.m; Sat.-Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; extended hours on Thursdays until 9 p.m.; closed Mondays. Museum admission: $10 general; $7 seniors, full-time students, and children 12 and older; $5 children 2-12. For information, call (310) 440-4500 or visit www.skirball.org. Father Alexei Smith will give a tour of the exhibition from a Catholic perspective on Dec. 10 at 1:30 p.m. For reservations, contact the Skirball. In addition, Father Smith is available to lead groups that wish to tour the exhibition. Contact him directly at (310) 322-1892