For the fifth year, in June 2004, the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding (CCJU) hosted its annual Institute for Seminarians and Rabbinical Students. Thirty-two future religious leaders from seminaries across the United States convened at Sacred Heart University for the three-day event. The purpose of the Institute is to introduce tomorrow's religious leaders to the growing interreligious dialogue between Judaism and Christianity. By coming together for joint study and the sharing of religious traditions, participants are furnished with key experiences to pursue an active participation in Christian-Jewish understanding.

As in previous years, the CCJU provided the students with lodging at Sacred Heart University's Angelo Roncalli Hall, named for the Italian bishop who would become Pope John XXIII in 1959, and with kosher meals throughout the Institute. Participants came from St. Joseph's Seminary in

Yonkers (Jeffrey Maurer, Arthur Rojas), Mundelein Seminary in Illinois (Walter Stumpf ), the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, NY (Larry Moldo, Terry Greenstein), the Jewish

Theological Seminary in New York (Bryan Bramly, Geoffrey Claussen, Lauren Kurland, Yvonne Youngberg), St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore (Matthew Frisoni, Matthew Grey, Joseph O'Connor, James Sorra), Sacred Heart School of Theology in Wisconsin (Glen Szczechowski, David Reed), the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Pennsylvania (Susan Zengerle), the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles (Daniel Cohen, Susan Leider, Rachel Bat-Or), the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles (Michael Barclay,Guy Greene), the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, NY (Michael Gelfant, Donelson Thevenin), Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, MA (Ed McAuley), Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles (Eric Berk), Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Illinois (Michelle Warriner Bolt, Leigh VanderMeer), St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, NY (Brent Gilbert), the Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Illinois (Jeff Clinger, Laura Crites), and the North Park Theology Seminary in Chicago (Rob Lyke, Angie Lyke).

Day 1

The first session of the Institute was a discussion with Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, of the Center for Leadership and Learning (CLAL) in New York.Rabbi Blanchard's presentation centered on the ethical, intellectual and religious imperatives that lie behind Jewish- Christian dialogue. The interactive discussion began with the participants sharing their own positive and negative experiences in dialogue situations. The rewards of dialogue seemed at first to be self-evident, but Rabbi Blanchard and the participants began to acknowledge and discover that above all, dialogue is not easy.

One student said, “In my first steps in dialogue I began to feel shame at the knowledge of how the mishandling of my faith has impacted the other.” Another remarked, “The question of salvation often brings us to what appears to be an absolutely unbridgeable impasse.”

Taking his theme as the interplay of positive and negative dialogue experiences, Rabbi Blanchard continued, “This experience that brings us closer together, also in the same moment reveals to us that we are not the same. That paradox, of course, is the paradox of all forms of human intimacy. The moment you start to risk yourself, and risking other things in dialogue, that is the moment when you encounter the agony and the ecstasy. The moment when you've crossed what you thought to be an uncrossable bridge, you discover that you have to turn around and walk back again. This is not easy.”

Why would one engage in the rigors of dialogue? Rabbi Blanchard first discussed what he called a fundamental ethical imperative: “It comes from the fact that we live in a world where people understand reality in many different ways, yet we share mutual concerns and must work toward each other's benefit. By not understanding each other, we will do each other and ourselves real damage. We have to talk to each other. This imperative is a starting point, based on hope.”

A second imperative, to pursue knowledge about and from other people for the sake of the knowledge itself, is an intellectual imperative. “What would life be like if people had no genuine interest or curiosity in the world? If you acknowledge and prefer that the pursuit of understanding is natural to human beings, then you have a good reason for engaging in dialogue, across any boundary you can find.”

Another imperative to engage in dialogue is a faith conviction in the inherent goodness of the world. "The alternative is to hold a view of the universe primarily as a dangerous place, where the only way to get through it is to hunker down, find what you need, and not move at all. There is some truth in this, because we are all aware of certain dangers. But although the world may be a narrow and precarious bridge, the key is not to be afraid to fall.” This commitment to the positive possibilities in life is often grounded in a theological statement, which is more than intellectual, Rabbi Blanchard contended.

Day II

The first session of the second day was a presentation by Dr. Eugene Fisher, of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Dr. Fisher's talk, “Interreligious Relations and Dialogue,” recounted in broad fashion the changing dynamics in the often strained and sometimes violent history of Christian-Jewish relations. Six “eras” were discussed, beginning with the first 50 years after the death of Jesus, and ending in our post-Holocaust era. In the first period, Dr. Fisher explained, there was very little consensus on the status of the Nazarene or early Christian movement within Judaism. Matters of law and the conversion of Gentiles were only very slowly and meticulously worked out, and it took decades before there was in fact a “Christian community” that was in any way distinct from the other sects and traditions within Judaism. “These were Jews living in the face of what they considered to be a very new experience,” Dr. Fisher said.

Even well into the second era, the relationship to Judaism that Christians maintained was often ambiguous, with some stressing continuity between the two faiths, and others, such as Marcion, unsuccessfully agitating for the removal of the Hebrew Bible from the canon of Christian Scriptures. Dr. Fisher maintained that, “Over the centuries, Jews and Christians have rarely been separated by a tremendous wall, but rather, the boundaries have been very permeable. We have learned from each other.”

The period from Constantine to the 11th century saw an  explosion of Christian influence in the cultural and political arenas, but during which there was no consistent pattern of persecution against Jews. The Jewish people were, by and large, ignored or even accepted in this period. “This period, a whole millennium, leads me to question those who think Auschwitz was inevitable from John's Gospel. One can see how anti-Semitism developed, but it is not an inevitable logic of the New Testament, or even the majority of the early fathers of the Church, that we see persecutions, massacres, and certainly not racial genocide against the Jews.”

The fourth stage, from the beginning of the Crusades in 1096 to the eve of the Enlightenment, saw the vast majority of religious persecutions by Christians against Jews. One group of Crusaders invented the idea that Jews were “infidels in their midst. Forced conversion began, against the norms of canon law and the right of Jews to exist as Jews.” In the 12th century, the infamous blood libel charges first surfaced in England, resulting in the expulsion of Jews in Western Europe. Up to the 15th century, the situation worsened, with the emergence of ghettos, violent reactions to passion plays, and many other violent manifestations of Christian anti-Judaism.

The Enlightenment, by negating the common ancestry of humanity in Adam and Eve, paved the way for racialism to develop. Dr. Fisher said, “The significant European ‘other,' to whom the new racial theories could be applied, was the Jewish people. Out of the pseudo-scientific racial theories of the Enlightenment comes modern racial anti-Semitism. If it had not been for the teachings of contempt over the previous centuries of Christianity, there is no way the Jews could have been pinpointed in this modern racist way by the mid-19th century.”

After discussing the Holocaust and its perpetrators, Dr. Fisher spoke on the sixth era, an age of renewal of which we are in the midst. The doctrinal developments of the Second Vatican

Council, as well as Mel Gibson's controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ, were examined in the context of the responsibilities of the Catholic Church to make amends and teshuvah toward its elder brothers and sisters in faith, the Jewish people.

In the afternoon session, Dr. Judith Banki, a veteran scholar of Jewish-Christian relations, and Mr. Saul Kagan, of the Claims Conference, gave presentations. Dr. Banki's “Landmarks and Landmines: Recent History of Jews and Christians,” focused chiefly on the positive developments and setbacks in the reform of Catholic teachings and catechetical materials regarding the Jewish people. She began by discussing the differences between the historical memories of Christians and Jews. “It was the suffering and persecution endured by Catholics, not that imposed by Catholics, that was stressed and emphasized by Catholic education before the Second Vatican Council. We know now that the true story is far more complex, more textured.”

In the 1950s, Dr.Banki became involved in a series of studies that examined Catholic educational materials and curricula. Dr. Banki and her colleagues found that “the materials frequently stated accusations of collective guilt and assertions that Jews are a people accursed and rejected by God, as did the idea that the Jewish people willfully and culpably blinded themselves to Jesus' significance. As an example of the animus, in a Spanish text we found the following absurd teaching: ‘The first eleven of the apostles were born in Galilee. The last, Judas, was a Jew.' I don't quote these texts to make us cringe, but to remind us how far we have come.”

Some of the landmarks of progress were discussed, including Nostra Aetate and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the personal witness of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II, several study papers by bishops' committees that denounced prejudices, and liturgical reforms which followed the Council that eradicated anti-Jewish animus from the Catholic Liturgy and holiday celebrations.

Mr. Saul Kagan, the next speaker, discussed the Holocaust, and the creation of an organization “broad and representative enough to negotiate with the German government on behalf of the Jewish people” to procure a small measure of compensation for injuries inflicted on individual Jews by the Nazi government. This organization, for which Mr. Kagan serves as Special Consultant, is called the Claims Conference, and was honored at the 2004 annual CCJU Nostra Aetate Awards Dinner, December 1, 2004.

“I am very much aware,” Mr. Kagan said, “that the survivors of the Holocaust will not be with us much longer to tell their story, and the meaning of their experiences. I look around this table, and I say to myself, I hope I have succeeded in urging you to carry the human significance of the Shoah forward, and I believe this will be the case.”

Mr. Kagan quoted the Christian theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was killed for plotting against Hitler: “In 1933 when the Nazis imprisoned the communists, I was silent; I was not a communist. In 1938 when they came for the Jews, I was silent; I was not a Jew. And then they came for me.” Mr. Kagan continued, “The Righteous Among the Nations are those non-Jews who saved and protected Jews at the risk of their own lives. Sixteen or seventeen thousand names are present on the Yad Vashem memorial, and to me and to us collectively, these people are very special. I do not know if I would have acted as they did. In the darkest moments, there were people who had the courage, the humanity, and the decency to go above and beyond to protect another human being. We have to carry this message forward.”

Mr. Kagan's talk was followed by visits to a local church and synagogue, namely St. Augustine's Cathedral in Bridgeport and Congregation Beth El of Fairfield. Monsignor Kevin Wallin and Rabbi Leon Waldman conducted the tours, during which the participants learned about the architectural and typical worship experiences in the other's tradition.

After dinner, the students reconvened for a joint Scripture study session with Michael Peppard and Joshua Burns, doctoral candidates at Yale University School of Divinity. Issues discussed included the translation of texts, the reasons for the differences between the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament, and the ways in which both traditions read their Scriptures. After the presentation, the students were given texts and gathered into smaller groups for intensive discussions about the meanings of the texts.

Day III

The third day began with Dr. David Coppola of the CCJU leading a discussion on “Prayer and Liturgy: Implications for Interreligious Dialogue.” Discussion focused on the place of prayer and liturgy and remaining faithful to one's tradition, while also working together for social justice. Materials from the CCJU conference, “What Do We Want the Other to Teach About Our Prayer and Liturgy” (Rome, March 13-15, 2002) were distributed and proved to be helpful starting points for discussion. Tensions such as praying together versus coming together to pray, appropriate times for interreligious prayer and worship, problematic texts or prayers, naming G-d without sacrificing one's beliefs, powerful symbols such as the cross or other sanctuary features, the integrity of forms versus syncretism, and the place of those in leadership were discussed as were the principal holidays and festivals for each religious tradition.

The Leir Foundation in Ridgefield, Connecticut, a benefactor of the Center, hosted the students for a closing luncheon at the Leir House, its headquarters in Ridgefield. Founded by the late Henry Leir, the Leir Foundation has made possible many of the Center's programs over the years. The students enjoyed lunch at the Leir House, as well as closing remarks by Dr. Anthony Cernera, president of Sacred Heart University, and Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz.

Arrangements for continuing conversation on the issues discussed at the Institute were made, and the students departed for their homes and seminaries in the afternoon. One Christian participant said that he was surprised that the program offered such authentic dialogue. He said, “I learned a great deal. Meeting, interacting and discussing issues between Catholics, Protestants and Jews was very beneficial. I have made a commitment for the future to be active in developing interfaith programs and being proactive in developing friendships with those of other religions.” Another Jewish participant agreed, “It was a positive experience, an opportunity to meet the best and brightest future leaders of the various communities. I leave with a greater sense of the possibilities and limitations for inter-faith cooperation and dialogue.” A Jewish seminarian summed the conference up by saying, “This conference was phenomenal. It legitimized and made safe the process of talking to each other. I learned so much about other faiths and appreciated the opportunity to discuss professional aspects of my work with Christians.” Another student concurred, “This program is a simple one — to see the face of God in people of another faith tradition by dialoguing openly and honestly about important questions, and through the sharing of stories and experiences, and the discovery of friendship and affection in the process — allowing one's faith to be challenged and expanded.”