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FEB.
14, 2005
INTERFAITH
ISSUES
Jewish-Christian relations a year after 'The Passion'
STATE-BY-STATE
• The Anti-Defamation League
has 30 regional
offices. Check with local ADL officials for a breakdown on the number and
type of anti-Semitic incidents in your area, and for leads on interfaith initiatives.
• The American Jewish
Congress, a leading Jewish advocacy group dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism,
lists contacts
for its national and regional offices.
• The National Conference
for Community and Justice is an interfaith relations group with offices
across the country.
IN
THE NORTHEAST
• Rabbi Joseph Ehrenkranz directs the Center
for Christian-Jewish Understanding at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield,
Conn. It is a leading forum for dialogue and learning. Contact 203-365-7592,
ehrenkranzj@sacredheart.edu.
• The Christian
Scholars Group includes 20 Christian specialists in the Jewish and Christian
relationship whose collective work is supported by the Center for Christian-Jewish
Learning at Boston College. Contact through the center's associate director,
Ruth Langer, 617-552-8492, Ruth.Langer.1@bc.edu.
IN
THE EAST
• David Berger is a history professor at Brooklyn College and author
of a May 2004 essay in Commentary magazine titled "Jews, Christians
and 'The Passion.'" Berger argues that the movie sharpened old divisions,
created new ones and endangered decades of effort to build good will. Contact
718-951-5323, dberger@gc.cuny.edu.
• The Rev. William Harter is pastor of the Falling Springs Presbyterian
Church in Chambersburg, Pa., and a board member of the National
Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, an umbrella organization of
pro-Israel Christian groups. Contact 717-264-5715, pcffs@innernet.net.
• Phyllis Chesler of New York City is a prolific author and lecturer, an
emeritus professor of psychology and a longtime human-rights activist. She is
active in Jewish causes, and her latest book is The New Anti-Semitism: The
Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 2003). Contact
through her web site.
• The Pave
the Way Foundation is a New York-based organization dedicated to fostering
interreligious understanding. The foundation's president, Gary Krupp, organized
the January
2005 meeting at the Vatican between 160 Jewish leaders and the pope. The
foundation has a list
of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders involved in dialogue. Contact 212-629-0046,
pavetheway@optonline.net.
• Mark Weitzman is director of the Task
Force Against Hate in the New York office of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, which fights anti-Semitism. Contact 212-370-0320, taskforce@swcny.com.
IN
THE SOUTHEAST
• James M.
Barrens is executive director of the Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies at St.
Leo University in Florida. He is a veteran in the field of interrelations and
civic affairs with deep roots in both the Catholic and Jewish communities, and
he has been recognized by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the
Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Hadassah and Leadership Florida. Contact
352-588-8597, james.barrens@saintleo.edu.
• Frank E. Eakin Jr. is a professor of Jewish and Christian Studies at
the University of Richmond in Virginia.
He specializes in the impact of religion on cultural expression and is the author
of What Price Prejudice? Christian Anti-Semitism in America (Paulist
Press, 1998). Contact 804-289-8326, feakin@richmond.edu.
• Rabbi Marc Howard Wilson of Greenville, S.C., is founder of Jewish Chaplaincy
of the Upstate. He is an essayist who has written frequently about the controversy
over Mel Gibson's movie. He has a blog
with a link to his email, marcwilson1216@aol.com.
IN
THE SOUTH
• Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University's Divinity School is a professor
of New Testament studies and director of the Carpenter Program in Religion,
Gender and Sexuality. She saw an early version of the Mel Gibson script and
can comment on Christian-Jewish dynamics and representations of Jews by Christians
throughout the centuries. Contact 615-343-3967, Amy-Jill.Levine@vanderbilt.edu.
• Ben Witherington III is a professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological
Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. A prolific author and an ordained minister, Witherington
can talk about the historical tensions between Christians and Jews and current
cultural manifestations of those tensions. Contact 859-858-3581, ben_witherington@asburyseminary.edu.
IN
THE MIDWEST
• The Rev. John Pawlikowski is a professor of ethics at the Catholic Theological
Union in Chicago. He is a veteran of Christian-Jewish dialogue and author of
many books and essays on the topic, and he was a vocal critic of The Passion.
Contact 773-753-5353, jtmp@ctu.edu.
• The Rev. Stanley Davis Jr. is the executive
director of the Chicago and northern Illinois region of the National
Conference for Community and Justice, an interfaith relations group with
offices
across the country. The conference was formerly known as the National Conference
of Christians and Jews. Contact 312-236-9272, sdavisjr@nccj.org.
• David Blewett is executive director of the Ecumenical
Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies in Southfield, Mich. The center is
dedicated to fostering better relations between Christians and Jews. Contact
248-557-4522, j-cinstitute@msn.com.
• Rabbi Michael J. Cook teaches at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and
is author of the collection Images of Jesus in Medieval Art: Influence of
the Middle Ages on Contemporary Passion Plays (The Center for Jewish-Christian
Learning, 1995). He is an expert on Christian-Jewish relations. Cook prefers
to correspond by email, cookmj@aol.com.
IN
THE SOUTHWEST
• James R. "Jim" Sibley is coordinator for Jewish ministries
with the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board and the point man for
the Southern Baptist Convention on issues involving the SBC's often contentious
relationship with the Jewish community. Contact 214-818-1309, jsibley@namb.net.
• Thomas
Leininger is a professor of religious studies and head of the Catholic Studies
Department at Regis University, a Jesuit school in Denver. He can comment on
the use of Passion plays and their impact on Christian-Jewish relations. Contact
303-964-5082, tleining@regis.edu.
• Pamela M. Eisenbaum is an associate professor of Biblical studies and
Christian origins at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. She has written
widely about anti-Semitism in its historical contexts. Contact 303-765-3167,
peisenbaum@iliff.edu.
• Leonard Dinnerstein is a history professor at the University of Arizona
at Tucson. He is the author of Anti-Semitism in America (Oxford University
Press, 1995). Contact 520-626-9064, dinnerst@u.arizona.edu.
IN
THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Stephen T. Davis is a professor of the history of ancient
philosophy at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He contributed
an essay titled "Crucifying Jesus: Antisemitism and the Passion Story"
to the collection After 'The Passion' is Gone: American Religious Consequences
(AltaMira, 2004). Contact 909-607-2827, stephen.davis@claremontmckenna.edu.
• Gary Tobin is president of the San Francisco-based Institute
for Jewish & Community Research, which did a post-Passion survey that
he says indicates the film made viewers less likely to hold Jews responsible
for the death of Jesus. In a news
release, he also argues that the movie may have had a positive effect on
Jewish-Christian dialogue by prompting discussions. Contact 415-386-2604, GATobin@JewishResearch.org.
• Donald A. Hagner is a professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological
Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and an expert on Jewish-Christian relations and
the history of the two communities. Contact 626-584-5247, dhagner@fuller.edu.
• Rabbi Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, one of the foremost advocates for Jewish
causes and opponents of anti-Semitism. Hier was sharply critical of The Passion
and church responses to the movie. Contact 310-553-9036, information@wiesenthal.net.
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