Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity and the National Jewish Scholars Project of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies
Dabru Emet and The National Jewish Scholars Project (NJSP) of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies represent the first comprehensive effort by a diverse and highly distinguished group of Jewish scholars and rabbinic leaders to develop educational resources that enhance Jewish identity through engagement with Christians and Christianity. While the primary avenue to Jewish renewal entails the age-old ability to find within the Jewish tradition the wisdom to face today's changing realities, the NJSP represents an innovative educational strategy to deepen Jewish commitment in a religiously plural world. Nothing less than the wellbeing of the Jewish community is in the balance.
Background:
Over the past few decades there has been a dramatic and unprecedented shift in Jewish and Christian relations. Throughout the nearly two millennia of Jewish exile, Christian theologians and clergy have tended to characterize Judaism as a failed religion or, at best, a religion that prepared the way for Christianity and that is completed in and replaced by Christianity. In the four decades since the Holocaust, however, there have been significant changes in the Christian world. Both individual theologians and, then, an increasing number of official Church bodies, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, have made public statements of their remorse about Christian mistreatment of Jews and Judaism over the last two millennia. They have declared, furthermore, that Christian theologies, liturgies, and bible teachings can and must be reformed so that they acknowledge God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people and celebrate the contribution of Judaism to world civilization and to Christian faith itself. The authors of Dabru Emet believe it is high time to acknowledge these recent changes in Christianity and to examine their implications for Jewish life in the Western world.
Most Jews today live as a minority in America and the West, both of which are still overwhelmingly Christian. Jews who learn the languages and beliefs of their Christian neighbors will be able to understand the meaning of what they are saying: about what modern society should become, and about the place of the Jewish people itself in that society. They will know how to judge what forms of Christianity are friendly to them and what forms are not, and what forms of Christian belief merit their public support, and what forms do not. It is also important to acknowledge the efforts of those Christians who have sacrificed aspects of their work and of their lives to combat Christian anti-Judaism and to promote forms of Christian practice that affirm Jewish life and belief. Jews ought to know enough about Christian beliefs that they can explain their own Jewish goals and ideals for society in terms their Christian neighbors will understand.
The most important reason for Jews to learn about Christians and Christianity is that through engaging the other, Jews will learn about themselves, deep lessons that they may not be able to learn in any other way.
For the past hundreds of years, when Jews have been taught about Christian belief, it has been primarily in non-Jewish terms. During the years of their residence in Christian Europe, Jews learned about Christianity only through the untranslated terms of a Christianity that separated itself from its Jewish roots. Then, during the years that followed Emancipation, Jews learned about Christianity through the equally non-Jewish terms of secular European thought, which often treated Christianity as a "universal" religion, as opposed to the particularity or "tribalism" of Judaism.
It is time for Jews to learn about Christianity in Jewish terms: to rediscover the basic categories of rabbinic Judaism and to hear what the basic categories of Christian belief sound like when they are taught in terms of this rabbinic Judaism. This is to hear Christianity in our terms and therefore understand it deeply, perhaps for the first time. It is also to see Judaism from a new perspective that can provide insight that strengthens and enriches Jewish identity.
If Christianity is changing in these years after the Holocaust, Judaism is changing as well. During the past two hundred years, Judaism has suffered from an increasing inner division, separating the realms of science and reason on the hand and faith and tradition on the other. It is as if the Jewish religion itself spoke of an unbridgeable gulf between the human and the divine. The authors of Dabru Emet however, are animated by a different vision. The Judaism they encounter in the Bible, Talmud and our other classic sources has always emphasized the partnership of humanity and God. They want to help Jews rediscover the power of the classical sources of Judaism to heal the divisions from which we suffer today: between human reason and Jewish faith, as well as between Judaism and Christianity.
The publication of this statement marks only the beginning of an effort that may engage Jews and Christians for years to come. The goals are
- to help Jews relearn the vocabulary of their own faith and then, within this vocabulary, to help them recognize and understand the main tenets of their neighbors’ faiths.
- to acknowledge and aid in the complementary efforts of Christian scholars and leaders to teach Christians the main tenets of Judaism
- to rediscover the significance of Judaism for Christianity
- to deepen the relationship that enables Jewish and Christians to be partners in the ultimate work of redeeming a troubled world.
The Plan:
The National Jewish Scholars Project will generate a new conversation within the Jewish community and between Jews and Christians. It consists of four inter-related parts:
- Dabru Emet
: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity, written by distinguished Jewish scholars and endorsed by leading rabbis and academics representing a cross-section of the Jewish community.- A volume of essays, Christianity in Jewish Terms, edited by Tikva Frymer-kensky, David Novak, Peter Ochs, Michael Signer and David Sandmel (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), has been written by preeminent Jewish and Christian scholars for a broad general reading audience. It provides the intellectual, philosophical, and theological foundation for the entire project (For more information, go to www.westviewpress.com/christianityinjewishterms)
- A learning resource
, scheduled for publication in later this Fall, provides materials and activities that make the contents of the statement and the scholarly book accessible to diverse audiences including clergy, seminary students, interfaith families, and the public – Christian as well as Jewish. It will be immediately used by Hillel International at a representative group of American universities.- A coordinated program of outreach and dissemination
, beginning in Fall 2000. Among the initiatives planned are a series of educational forums in major American cities, programs for interfaith groups, public partnerships with synagogues, national organizations, and other institutions, and finally broad dissemination via religious publications and an interactive Internet presence.
The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies (ICJS), founded in 1987, is a national leader in the development of pioneering educational programs. Through its work with scholars, clergy, educators, lay leaders, and students from seminaries to high schools, the ICJS has acquired the expertise to invigorate communities with the best and boldest of scholarship. The ICJS understands the complexities of disarming religious hostilities, particularly the centuries old teaching of contempt by Christians for Judaism. The ICJS also knows how to advance deeper commitments to one’s own tradition through the encounter with the other. It is this experience and expertise that has qualified the ICJS to develop the NJSP and to take the next critical steps to implement its national outreach.
If you think your community would be interested in working with the ICJS to engage Jews and Christians in the study of these materials, please contact Rabbi David Fox Sandmel, 410-523-7227 or arian@icjs.org.
Who We Are :: What We Do :: Events Calendar
Clergy and Educators :: Scholars' Corner :: Newsletter
Information Resources :: Get Involved :: Home
- The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies
1316 Park Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217
410.523.7227 / fax: 410.523.0636
email: Info@icjs.org
