Noticias

Chicago,  (Feb. 29, 2024) – The 27th Annual Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture will take place at North Shore Congregation Israel, 1185 Sheridan Rd., Glencoe, on Monday, March 4, 2024 from 7 – 8:15 p.m. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, will deliver opening remarks and Rabbi Wendi Geffen, senior rabbi at NSCI, will provide the introduction of speakers and serve as emcee. Professor Mary C. Boys, SNJM, of Union Theological Seminary in New York, will be the keynote speaker. The lecture is part of a longstanding series that maintains dialogue between Jewish and Catholic communities on the theological issues affecting their relationship.

The event is free and open to the public and guests can attend online or in-person. Registration is required and available here: https://www.nsci.org/event/BLS0324 

“The annual Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture offers Jewish and Catholic communities a valuable opportunity to both learn and foster relationships built on trust and mutual understanding,” said Cardinal Cupich. “Now, more than ever, we must spend time walking and demonstrating that only through dialogue and respect can we overcome conflict.”

The lecture will explore how and why early followers of Jesus lost sight of his Jewish identity and analyze the historical consequences of this loss for both Christians and Jews. In continuity with Joseph Cardinal Bernardin’s 1995 Jerusalem Lecture on antisemitism, it will then examine the necessity in our time of recovering a Jewish Jesus, including the obligation of Christians to learn anew about Judaism from Jews.

Boys is the Skinner and McAlpin professor of practical theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, as well as its former academic vice president and dean. She previously served as a professor at Boston College, and is the author of six books, including “Redeeming our Sacred Story: The Death of Jesus and Relations between Jews and Christians.” She is the recipient of honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, The Catholic Theological Union, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Gratz College and Misericordia University. Boys is the current chair of the Committee on Ethics, Religion and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A Seattle native, she has been a vowed member since 1968 of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a congregation of Roman Catholic women.

The Bernardin-Jerusalem Lecture series commemorates Cardinal Bernardin’s journey to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, accompanied by local Catholic and Jewish leaders. On March 23, 1995, Cardinal Bernardin delivered a lecture entitled “Anti-Semitism: The Historical Legacy and the Continuing Challenge for Christians,” in the Senate Hall at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The lecture was the centerpiece of his visit to Israel. Upon returning to the United States, Cardinal Bernardin established an annual lecture to continue the high level of conversation between Chicago’s Jewish and Catholic communities around the theological issues affecting their relationship. Each year’s lecture alternates between a Jewish/Catholic speaker and location.

The lecture is sponsored by: The Archdiocese of Chicago, AJC-Chicago, Anti-Defamation League, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago Board of Rabbis, DePaul University, JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.

For more information, please visit https://eia.archchicago.org. 

NOTE FOR MEDIA:

News media planning to attend the lecture must pre-register providing name, news outlet and equipment. No flash or camera sounds during the lecture. Identification will need to be provided to NSCI’s security staff to enter the building. To pre-register, please email Hila Ratzabi, director of Communications at NSCI, at [email protected].