Turning 50 years since its inception, the Fraternity’s Jubilee lecture series will explore the achievements of Jewish-Christian relations in Israel. Having been dedicated, for all those five decades, to the study of church and theology in the wake of Anti-Semitism and the false teachings of anti-Judaism, the Fraternity devotes this year’s study to the evaluation of the impact of such efforts.
Below you can find the titles of one of the lectures, with the possibility to hear a recording.
Two Communities: Franciscan Friars and Kehilat Zion “Sitting Together”
by Fr. Alberto Joan Pari ofm
Thus the first lecture was dedicated to the Franciscans’ cooperation with the Jewish community of “Kehilat Zion” in Jerusalem-Baka. Fr. Alberto Joan Pari is a Franciscan Friar of the Custody of the Holy Land and responsible for the dialogue and contact with the Israeli society, in particular with the Jewish communities. He is also a member of the Catholic Hebrew speaking community in Jerusalem. In these two capacities he is collaborating with the Synagogue Kehilat Zion of the Baka neighborhood in a variety of projects. This local endeavor will be the focus of his lecture.
We have a recording of the lecture, and of Psalm 42, sung in Hebrew by the lecturer.
Studying the New Testament as Witness for Broader Judaism: A Decade of Joint Ecole Biblique - Hebrew University Seminar
by Dr. Serge Ruzer, Senior Research Fellow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
At its 50th year of studying and evaluating the relations between Judaism and Christianity in Israel, the Ecumenical Fraternity explores in The Nathan Peter Levinson Memorial Lecture Series the achievements of Jewish and Christian relations in Israel.
The second lecture will be presented by Dr. Serge Ruzer, a long term friend of the Ecumenical Fraternity. Since 2000, Dr. Ruzer is the Assistant Director of the Chais Center for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University and Moscow State University. As a Research Fellow at the Hebrew University’s Department of Comparative Religion Serge Ruzer was the principal investigator of the Jerusalem Companion to the New Testament from Jewish Sources: “Sermon on the Mount” (2002-2005).
A decade ago, the Ecole Biblique and the Hebrew University began the project of “Reading the New Testament as Second Temple Jewish Literature.” Representing the Hebrew University, Dr. Ruzer is a principal member of that study. This joint academic research project on the New Testament in Israel will be the focus of the lecture. Serge Ruzer’s most recent publication, together with Yair Zakovitch: In the Beginning was the Word: Eight Conversations on the Fourth Gospel (Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2014) (in Hebrew).