November 24, 2015

Catholic-Jewish theological exchange to hear rabbi on Vatican II

BY VICKI-ANN DOWNING

Providence College will explore the history of Catholic and Jewish relations since Vatican II with presentations on Monday, Nov. 30, featuring Rabbi Jack Bemporad, the founder and director of the nonprofit Center for Interreligious Understanding in Teaneck, N.J.

bemporad, rabbi
Rabbi Jack Bemporad

Rabbi Bemporad will be the featured speaker at PC’s Theological Exchange Between Catholics and Jews, established in 2009 as a forum for learning and dialogue. The focus of this year’s exchange is the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Catholic Church’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” published in 1965.

Rabbi Bemporad will join faculty from the Department of Theology in a discussion for students, “Christians and Jews in Our Age — A Conversation with Rabbi Jack Bemporad,” at 1 p.m. in the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies.

He also will present a lecture, “My Forty-Year Journey: A Rabbi Reflects on the Impact of Vatican II and Jewish-Catholic Reconciliation,” at 5 p.m. in Aquinas Hall Lounge.

The programs are sponsored by the theology department, the Center for Catholic and Dominican Studies, and the Office of Institutional Diversity.

Rabbi Bemporad founded the Center for Interreligious Understanding in 1992 to promote dialogue, respect, and theological understanding among people of all religious faiths. He also is the director of the John Paul II Center and professor of interreligious studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, and senior rabbinic scholar at Chavurah Beth Shalom synagogue in Alpine, N.J.

Rabbi Bemporad, who was ordained a rabbi in 1959, is a native of Italy. His family fled the fascist takeover prior to World War II and arrived in the United States when he was 5. He has dedicated his career to improving relations among Christians, Muslims, and Jews. He was one of the few Jewish leaders to have a personal audience with Pope John XXIII and had numerous audiences with Pope John Paul II.

Rabbi Bemporad holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Tulane University, a master’s degree in philosophy from Hebrew Union College, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Rome. He has taught at Southern Methodist University, the New School for Social Research, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Hebrew Union College.

He is the author of many books and articles, including Our Age: The Historic New Era of Christian-Jewish Understanding (New City Press, 1996). Most recently, he contributed the chapter, “Norms of War in Judaism,” for World Religions and Norms of War (United Nations University Press, 2009), and a memoir of the philosopher Hans Jonas in Giacobbe e l’Angelo (Jacob and the Angel), published in Rome in 2012.