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Rabbi to Review Jewish-Christian Relations

Professor of Jewish Studies David Fox Sandmel to explore unresolved issues in Heschel Lecture.

Elmhurst College will host David Fox Sandmel, scholar of Jewish studies and director of Lifelong Learning at Temple Sholom of Chicago, as he explores deep-rooted questions regarding the Jewish and Christian traditions at the 2009 Abraham Joshua Heschel Lecture.

Rabbi Sandmel will give his talk, “Unresolved Issues in Jewish-Christian Relations,” on Monday, November 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Founders Lounge of the College’s Frick Center, on the Elmhurst College campus (190 Prospect Ave., www.elmhurst.edu/campusmap). Admission is free and the public is welcome.

The Crown-Ryan Professor of Jewish Studies at the Catholic Theological Union, Rabbi Sandmel served as the Jewish Scholar at the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies in Baltimore from 1998-2001. There, he directed the National Jewish Scholars Project, a major initiative to promote a new discussion within the Jewish community and between Jews and Christians about the differences and similarities between the two traditions.

As part of the project, Rabbi Sandmel coordinated the publication of Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity, which generated international attention in the interfaith community.

He is the co-editor of Christianity in Jewish Terms (Westview, 2000) and the lead editor of Irreconcilable Differences? A Learning Resource for Jews and Christians (Westview Press, 2001), a study and discussion guide that focuses on core theological issues on the boundary between Judaism and Christianity.

Rabbi Sandmel has served at The Temple – Tifereth Israel in Cleveland and was the founding rabbi of Congregation Bet Ha’am in Portland, Maine. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies from Ohio State University and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He completed his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied the history and literature of Judaism and Christianity in the Greco-Roman world.

The annual Heschel Lecture at Elmhurst College is part of the College’s religious lecture series, including the al-Ghazali lecture, the Bernardin lecture, and the Niebuhr lecture. It is named for Abraham J. Heschel, an influential Jewish-American philosopher and theologian.

For further information call (630) 617-3390.