The Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding (CCJU) of Sacred Heart University hosted its seventh annual 
Institute for Seminarians and Rabbinical Students, June 12-14, 2006. Thirty future religious leaders from Jewish and Christian communities nationwide came together for three days of study, prayer, and dialogue. Participants from a broad range of Judaism and Christianity took part in the Institute, adding to the depth and breadth of the experience.
The purpose of the Institute is to introduce future religious leaders to the growing interreligious dialogue between Judaism and Christianity. By coming together for joint study and the sharing of religious traditions, the students are furnished with important experiences with which to pursue Christian-Jewish understanding in their future work.
As in previous years, the CCJU provided the participants with all of the essential reading materials, lodging at Sacred Heart University’s Jean Donovan Hall and shared kosher meals throughout the event.
Participants came from Academy for Jewish Religion, Riverdale, NY (Sharon Ballan, Linda Cahn, Margaret Klein, Michael Kohn); Blessed John XXII, Weston, MA (Carmen Buono); Diocese of Bridgeport, CT (Bruce Roby); Drew University Theological School, Madison, NJ (Margaret Cook, Daniel Gepford, Robert Kerston); Institute of Traditional Judaism, Teaneck, NJ (Eugene Shafir, Geoffrey Solomon); Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, NY (Avi Olitzky); Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, IL (Jennifer Hanus, Stoney Weiszmann, Miho Yasukawa, Ken Narum); Meadville Lombard Seminary, Chicago, IL (Robert Dillon, Patty Hanneman); Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, MD (Jesse Bolger, Robert Romano); Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, PA (Donna Kirshbaum); Sacred Heart School of Theology, Hales Corners, WI (Gerald Burns, Todd Strange); St. Francis Seminary, St. Francis, WI (Carmelo Giuffrre, Juan Dario Lara); St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY (Brendan Gormley, Jean-Paul Soler); University of Judaism, Los Angeles, CA (Gabbi Field); Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, New York, NY (Benjamin Berger, David Jonas).
Day 1
After being welcomed and settling into their rooms, the participants attended an orientation session with Dr. David L. Coppola, Associate Executive Director of the CCJU and a welcome by Dr. Anthony J. Cernera, president of Sacred Heart University. Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard, from the Center for Leadership and Learning (CLAL) in New York, followed with a keynote presentation and reflected on the considerations towards a theology of interreligious dialogue.
Rabbi Blanchard began with pragmatic and strategic concerns such as promoting tolerance and understanding for the sake of harmonious communal living, cooperation, trade and the like. He said, “We share mutual concerns and must work toward each other’s benefit. Such considerations are part of any relationship and is a challenge to all forms of human relating and intimacy. As soon as two people or two groups enter into dialogue, they come closer together, while at the same time it becomes immediately apparent that there are real differences. . . . In a sense, the move towards unity has a counter movement of separation. For this reason, pragmatic concerns will not be sufficient in building trusting and deep relationships.”
A second consideration towards engaging in a theology of interreligious dialogue is the duty to reach out to others as a religious person. Rabbi Blanchard said, “Judaism and Christianity have at their core the duty to make a positive difference in the world, be a light to others, to reach out and help the needy, to speak with and teach those who seek wisdom.”
A third consideration in working towards a theology of interreligious dialogue is the bedrock affirmation found in the Book of Genesis that all humans are created in the Divine image and are therefore of infinite value. “This means that we must show care, concern, and love to others—even those we do not like,” he said. And what naturally follows is that we must love our neighbor—not use them or exert power over them. Rabbi Blanchard said, “We are called to exemplify God’s love and care by loving our neighbor who is like you; that is, of infinite value and God’s creation. . . . Power and manipulation do not lead to love. God’s love does not eliminate diversity or beauty or humility.”
Rabbi Blanchard concluded the session with the encouragement to the participants to “speak in a way that reveals God and transforms the world. Interreligious dialogue has the ability to be a redemptive activity and can make the world better by feeding the hungry and caring for the poor. . . . Sometimes we will not be able to find common language, but the commitments to our religious convictions—where God is powerfully present—will help us to navigate such barriers.”
After dinner, the participants reconvened for a joint Scripture study session with Michael Peppard and Joshua Garroway, doctoral candidates at the Yale University. 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 participants were divided into smaller groups for intensive discussions about the meanings of some texts. The discussions were animated and went well into the evening. Several participants said several days could have been well-spent on just this activity.
One Christian participant remarked, “I am a little embarrassed to say this, but I had taken so much for granted about the Old Testament and my interpretation of it. This has opened my eyes to a new appreciation for the power of God’s Word in the Jewish community and for my ministry.” Another was surprised at the rigor and engagement with which rabbinic students study Torah. A Jewish participant was taken aback at the connections and allusions that Christians made to her Scriptures. She said, “At first I was a bit put off at what initially appeared to be my scriptures being usurped. By the end of the evening I was less defensive and struck by the faith and commitment that such interpretations could inspire in these Christians.”
Day II
The participants rose for breakfast and the first session of the second day with a presentation by Dr. Eugene Fisher, of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Dr. Fisher recounted in broad fashion the changing dynamics in the history of Christian-Jewish relations. Six broad time periods were discussed, beginning with the first 50 years after the death of Jesus, and ending in the post-Holocaust era. In the first period, Dr. Fisher explained, there was very little consensus about the nascent Christian movement within Judaism. Matters of law, communal identity, and the conversion of Gentiles were slowly worked out and took decades before there was a “Christian community” that was clearly distinct from other sects and traditions within Judaism.
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 seeking the removal of the Hebrew Bible from the canon of Christian Scriptures. Dr. Fisher maintained that, “Over the first ten centuries, Jews and Christians were rarely separated by a tremendous wall, but rather, the boundaries were very permeable. Much to the chagrin of John Chrysostom in the late 4th century, Christians were still going to synagogues, one example being in Antioch. . . . In short, the Jesus movement and central narrative of Christianity is Jewish and cannot be understood apart from Judaism. . . . For example, despite the minority (and misguided) opinion of the author of Hebrews, there was no question for St. Paul of God’s ongoing relationship with the Jews in the Letter to the Romans.
The period from Constantine to the 11th century saw an increase of Christian presence in the religious, cultural and political arenas, but during which there was no consistent pattern of persecution against Jews, contended Dr. Fisher. The Jewish people were, by and large, ignored or even accepted in this period. “This period leads me to believe that Auschwitz was not inevitable from John’s Gospel or Hebrews. One can see how anti-Semitism developed, but it’s not an inevitable logic of the New Testament, or even the early fathers of the Church, that we would see persecutions and 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 our midst,” as they pillaged the Rhineland and forced conversions or slaughtered Jews—against civil and canon law. In the 12th century, the infamous blood libel charge first surfaced in England, resulting in the first expulsion of Jews in Western Europe. Up to the 15th century, the situation worsened, with the emergence of ghettos, violent reactions to Good Friday services, passion plays, and many other violent manifestations of Christian anti-Judaism.
Dr. Fisher described the Enlightenment as good in many ways but also saw the rise of pseudo-scientific racial theories from which was spawned modern racial anti-Semitism. Teachings of contempt by Christianity over the previous centuries added to the separation and persecution of Jews.
After discussing some of the heroes and perpetrators of the Holocaust as well as the difficult position Pope Pius XII found himself in, Dr. Fisher spoke about the sixth era, an age of renewal in which we are in the midst. The doctrinal developments of the Second Vatican Council and many Protestant Christian Churches were discussed in the context of the possibility of dialogue to make teshuvah toward the Jewish people.
In the afternoon session, a veteran scholar of Jewish-Christian relations, Dr. Judith Banki of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding of New York City, led a presentation on “Landmarks and Landmines: Recent History of Jews and Christians,” and focused chiefly on the positive developments and setbacks in the reform of Catholic teachings and catechetical materials regarding the Jewish people.
Dr. Banki began by discussing the differences between the historical memories of Christians and Jews. She said, “There is a tendency on the part of the larger group, in this case Christians, to gloss over historical events that severely impacted the lives of Jews. The true story is far more complex and more textured than a simple reading of numbers.”
In the 1950s, Dr. Banki became involved in a series of studies that examined the Catholic educational materials and curricula, which would lead to important changes in this area. Dr. Banki and her colleague scholars were astonished to see how characters in the Old Testament were most often conceived of and portrayed as pre-Christian more than Jewish.
She said, “This and other perspectives were relatively unnoticed by many of my Christian counterparts and I was astonished at the degree of hostility in the texts. The image of Jesus as a faithful Jew was and is a hard pill for some Christians to swallow.”
Dr. Banki continued, “I began to see clearly what Jules Isaac would term the ‘teachings of contempt’—an overt displacement theology, false contrasts of God’s forgiveness (associated with Christianity) and vengeance (associated with Judaism), the accusation that the Jews had killed the Christian God (deicide), and how God had rejected the Jews. . . . Reading these things was a revelation and many Jews were convinced that such teachings contributed to half of the Jews of Europe being killed. I do not reflect on these things today to make us uncomfortable, but to remind us how far we have come.”
Some of the landmarks of progress were discussed, including Nostra Aetate (Declaration on Non-Christian Religions), Dignitatis Humanae, (Declaration on Religious Liberty), reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the personal witness of Pope John XXIII, several study papers by bishops’ committees that denounced prejudices, and liturgical reforms that followed the Council and eradicated anti-Jewish animus from the Catholic liturgy and holiday celebrations. She said, however, that much work still remains. “Landmines” of ignorance, fear, problematic texts—especially those that promoted violence, religious extremism resulting in terrorism, and the relationship of Christians and Jews to the State of Israel remain.
Dr. Banki concluded by saying, “I think that one over-arching issue is the tendency by many Christians to see Jews as theological abstractions rather than a living vital group in a valid and unbroken covenant with God. This is especially true with regard to the complex relationship Jews have with the State of Israel and even in our response to the Holocaust. Christians who engage in interreligious dialogue with Jews without knowing about the Holocaust are like civil rights activists without knowing about slavery. Nevertheless, we are on a path of reconciliation and cooperation that I would have never imagined 50 years ago, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of such an important effort.”
The second afternoon session at the Institute was led my Dr. Mary C. Boys, Skinner and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York. Dr. Boys said that she has seen a “gradual widening” of respect and understanding between Christians and Jews. She said, “Nostra Aetate is a watershed document because it has allowed us to talk across the table of our differences as colleagues, not adversaries. . . and the challenge is to make this task central to parish life.” She pointed out to the participants a recent publication by Kessler and Wenborn, A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2005) as an excellent resource and also marks a coming of age for Jewish-Christian understanding.
Dr. Boys said that there remains an inadequate theology of Judaism by Christianity and by delving into difficult reflections, both communities will be strengthened. History will always be on the table for discussion and will always influence the ways that each tradition sees theology, but it is always better to hear what you are teaching by having the other in the room.
When asked how to begin a dialogue, Dr. Boys suggested to first build bonds of trust by creating space for friendship and appreciating the beauty of each tradition. She said, “Dialogue is not a method or strategy but is a way of life that is shared between people of faith who have made important commitments. Each tradition has something valuable to contribute to the world.” For example, Dr. Boys pointed to the 2001 document published by the Pontifical Biblical Commission, “The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible,” which says that the Jewish Scriptures can and should be read on their own terms. She said, “Teachers and preachers have to really think about what this document means. It is a remarkable step forward in Biblical theology, and by extension, homiletics. The Jewish Scriptures stand on their own for the Jewish people today.”
After trust is built, Dr. Boys recommended a second step in dialogue as awakening people to the issues for collaboration and inviting joint participation in social justice and study whenever appropriate. She cautioned that there is a built-in asymmetry between Jews and Christians in size, history and even self-identification. For example, Jews are a people, culture and a religion, and Christians are identified by baptism into a religion. Therefore, issues connected to the role of Israel, the land, or the peace of Jerusalem take on enormous significance to Jewish identity. Similarly, mission, salvation, forgiveness, or atheism are issues of great interest for Christianity. It is a special challenge for scholars and religious leaders to help people hold complex ideas together without seeking to artificially separate them into binary oppositions or water down the depth of each tradition.
On the second evening of the program, participants were hosted by two communities in Greenwich, Connecticut, namely Temple Sholom and St. Michael’s Church. The seminarians were able to visit each other’s places of worship and ask questions. Cantor Shira Adler, from Temple Sholom gave the group a tour of the synagogue and its facilities explaining the importance of Torah study, education, tikkun olam, and music. Rev. Michael Moynihan, pastor of St. Michael’s Parish, offered a short explanation of the church including the significance of statues, the cross and the altar. For many of the participants it was the first time they had been in another faith’s place of worship.
Afterwards, the group was hosted by Fr. Moynihan to dinner where stories and enjoyment prevailed. Rev. Mark Scarlata, Associate Pastor of Stanwich Congregational Church in Greenwich also joined the group and offered his perspective on interfaith relations and encouraged the participants to seek interfaith dialogue out as a priority in their ministries and lives. He said, “My ministry has been enriched more than I could have ever imagined by the faith and support of others. My friendship with religious leaders of other faiths has been a great consolation in times of difficulty as well as celebration in times of blessing.”
Day III
After breakfast and much continued conversation about the previous days’ experiences, the group convened for the final session. Dr. David Coppola of the CCJU led a discussion on “Prayer and Liturgy: Implications for Interreligious Dialogue.” This discussion focused on the place of prayer and liturgy and remaining faithful to one’s tradition while also working together for social justice. Issues such as praying together versus coming together to pray, problematic texts or prayers, naming G-d (or not), symbols such as the cross or other sanctuary features, and the integrity of forms versus syncretism were discussed as were the principal holidays and festivals for each religious tradition.
One student described the Institute as “one of the best programs that I have had the pleasure to be involved in. It was eye- and thought- and faith-provoking.” Another said, “This opened so many possibilities for interfaith dialogue back home by getting raw, yet educated opinions. I would say it challenged me both to know much more about the other and to be able to more clearly describe my own faith.”
A Jewish participant wrote, “I learned so much more than I could have possibly anticipated, and about issues that I had not even given any thought to. My debt to the CCJU for expanding my knowledge base, not to mention my ‘anxiety base’ as well as my fund of hope, is great indeed. In addition, I met many wonderful people there and am even in the process of setting up a once-a-month long distance hevruta [study pair] with a fellow participant, a newly minted Lutheran minister! We expect to study both Christian and Jewish texts during our phone calls.” A Christian participant agreed, “This program provided me with the unique and special opportunity to talk with Jewish men and women preparing to become religious leaders. I am grateful for the experience I had and I look forward to the day when I will join a group of religious leaders in my own community.”
One of the most important programs offered by the Center, the Institute seeks to foster a deep commitment to interreligious understanding among the religious leaders of the future. The program is offered at no cost to its participants, with lodging, kosher meals, and all travel expenses paid for by the generous benefactors of the Center. More than 200 students have participated in the Institute in the past seven years, 90 of whom have since been ordained.
The next Institute is scheduled for May 29-31, 2007, at Sacred Heart University. For more information or to register, please contact the Center at 203-365-7592 or email Dr. David Coppola at coppolad@sacredheart.edu.
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