Jay Phillips Center for Jewish Christian Learning

Saint John's University and the University of St. Thomas, two premier Catholic institutions of higher learning in Minnesota, have played a leadership role in interfaith education. In 1996 these schools formed a partnership whereby each of their individual programs in Jewish-Christian understanding could be mutually enhanced.

In 1969, the illustrious philanthropist Jay Phillips had founded a Chair in Jewish Studies at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. the rabbis/scholars who served in that position over the years taught courses in Jewish religious thought to undergraduates and seminarians, hosted scholars as lecturers at the university, and participated in general campus life.

In 1985, upon his retirement as senior rabbi at Minneapolis' Temple Israel, Rabbi Max A. Shapiro became the founding director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Learning at St. Paul, Minnesota's College (now University) of St. Thomas. With the key assistance of Monsignor Terrence J. Murphy, college president, and the magnanimous support of the late Sidney R. Cohen and Thomas P. Coughlan, augmented by a cohort of generous benefactors, Rabbi Shapiro build a premier center. There the two faith communities learned from each other's heritages and ethical and religious views. Notable guest lecturers Elie Wiesel, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and Ambassador Abba Eban, along with many outstanding religious and communal leaders, have been guests of the center. In addition, the center sponsored community-wide adult education sessions, underwrote artistic projects that enabled the two religious communities to grow in mutual harmony, and undertook the annual publication of its lectures.

In 1996, under the guidance of Rabbi Shapiro, now director emeritus, and with the counsel of the founders of these two programs, the two universities partnered to merge these separate entities. The center personnel, Rabbi Barry D. Cytron, Dr. John C. Merkle, and Karen L. Schierman, staff and administer the various center projects on both campuses. These include an active lecture and dialogue series with noted academicians, hosting distinguished leaders like William Cardinal Keeler and the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler, and sponsoring noteworthy visiting authors. In addition to a full schedule of classes at both universities, the center hosts week-long interfaith study workshops and brings scholars-in-residence to Christian and Jewish organizations congregations, and to colleges and seminaries, across the twin Cities, as well as out-state Minnesota and Iowa. It supports significant work in Holocaust education, including sponsoring an annual trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and guest lectures and university courses on the Holocaust. The center makes extensive use of the Internet for circulation of its major addresses, and is affiliated with other centers devoted to Jewish-Christian relations, both throughout North America and in Europe.

Rabbi Barry D. Cytron, director of the Jay Phillips Center, is associate professor of theology at both Saint John's University and the University of St. Thomas. At Saint John's he occupies the Jay Phillips Chair in Jewish Studies. From 1972 until he assumed his current post in 1996, he served as a congregational rabbi, first at Tifferith Israel synagogue in Des Moines, Iowa (1972-1983) and then at Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minneapolis (1983-1996).

Rabbi Cytron holds both bachelors and masters degrees from Columbia University, ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. in 1996 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from his rabbinic alma mater. He teaches courses at Saint John's University, Luther Seminary, Macalester College, The Saint Paul Seminary and the University of St. Thomas.

Active in both communal and interfaith activities, he serves on the National Council of Synagogues and participates in its regular consultations with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. He has delivered papers twice at the national Workshop on Jewish-Christian Relations and at the Lilly/ADL Interfaith Symposium at Indiana University. Locally he is a member of the Bio-Ethics Committee f Methodist Hospital and the advisory committee of the Center for Bio-ethics at the University of Minnesota.

A regular contributor to the commentary section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, he is co-author with Earl Schwartz, of two books published by United Synagogue of conservative Judaism: When Life is in the Balance: Life and Death Decisions in Light of the Jewish Tradition (1986; 2nd ed., 1994) and Who Renews Creation (1995). In 1989, his retelling of the disastrous fire at the famed Seminary library, published as Fire! The Library is Burning (Lerner Books) was cited as one of the best children's books of the year. In 1993 he and his wife Phyllis collaborated in writing a young person's biography, Myriam Mendilow: Mother of Jerusalem (Lerner Books), that tells the story of the founders of Israel's renowned "Lifetime of the Aged." He is now completing Whose Death is it Anyway? to be published in the Lerner Pro/Con Series. It explores ethical questions at the end of life.

bdcytron@stthomas.edu

John C. Merkle, associate director of the Jay Phillips Center, is professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, where he has been teaching for twenty-nine years. He is a member and past chairperson of the Christian Scholars Group on Christian-Jewish Relations, a national organization of Catholic and Protestant biblical scholars, historians, and theologians who are engaged in the study of Judaism and of Christianity in relation to Judaism.

Dr. Merkle, who earned his Ph.D. at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, is the author of The Genesis of Faith: The Depth Theology of Abraham Joshua Heschel and the editor of Abraham Joshua Heschel: Exploring His Life and Thought, both published by Macmillan Publishing Company, and he is the editor of Faith Transformed: Christian Encounters with Jews and Judaism, published by The Liturgical Press in cooperation with the American Interfaith Institute. His many articles on Jewish theology and on Christian faith in relation to Judaism have been published in Europe, Latin America, and North America in both Jewish and Christian journals.

jmerkle@csbsju.edu

Karen L. Schierman, associate director of the Jay Phillips Center, works in the field of Jewish-Christian relations, Holocaust studies, and bibliodrama (contemporary midrash – a Jewish method of examining/exploring Scripture). She also directs the Bibliodrama Guild of the Jay Phillips Center. She received her undergraduate degrees in theology and in Spanish from the University of St. Thomas, a master’s degree in pastoral studies-spiritual development from the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, and a certificate in spiritual direction from the College of Saint Benedict.

Karen has served on a number of planning committees, including the National Planning Committee of the Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches (and is co-editor of its1996 Proceedings), is on the executive board of the Archdiocesan Commission on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs, the executive board of the Catholic Spirit Archdiocesan Newspaper and its editorial board, and on boards of Wisdom Ways Resource Center for Spirituality: A collaborative ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches, and the NE Minneapolis Interfaith Dialogue Project. She also is an Oblate of Saint Benedict at Saint Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minn.

Rabbi Amy Eilberg is the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish theological Seminary of America. Following ordination she found her vocation in Jewish healing work, serving as a chaplain and hospice chaplain before helping to found the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center and to launch the Jewish healing movement. She was a co-founder of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center where she directed the Center's Jewish Hospice Care Program, and served as founding co-director of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction. Nationally known as a leader of the Jewish healing movement, she lectures and writes on issues of healing, spirituality direction, and peace-making.

Rabbi Eilberg currently serves as a consultant to the Jay Phillips Center for interfaith dialogue projects in the Twin Cities. She teaches the art of compassionate listening in venues throughout the country, and is deeply engaged in efforts of peace and reconciliation in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as with issues of conflict within the Jewish community.