Dr. I. Greenberg to Open Judeo-Christian THE
Lectures; Pope Pius Center's Work to Erase
Bias From Religious Texts Wins Praise
F or th
e ors
ft ti me in .Jewish
Christian relations in the Coded
States, the
Roman . a lo l i c
Center for the training of Chris-
tian educators on this continent
is sponsoring a series of lectures
by leading Jewish scholars on
Jews and Judaism.
Detroit's Pope Pius XII Re-
ligious Education Center, the
American branch of the Interna-
tional Lumen Vitae Catecheti•al
movement of Brussels, will open
the "Judeo-Christian S t u d i e
series 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at
Marygrove College, in coopera-
tion with the interreligious affairs
department of the American Jew-
ish Committee. Opening speaker
Will be Dr. Irving Greenberg, pro-
fessor of history at Yeshiva Uni-
versity, who will discuss "Scrip-
ture, Law and Authority in Ju-
daism."
John Cardinal Dearden, arch-
bishop of Detroit and president of
the National Conference of Catho-
lic Bishops, has endorsed the
Jewish-Christian lecture program,
calling it "a theological and cul-
tural high point in Detroit his-
tory."
The Pope Pius Center's direc-
tors, Sisters Johnice Cohan and
Elizabeth Fowkes, pioneered in
the writing and publishing of a
new series of elementary and sec-
ondary textbooks that are being
widely used in Catholic parochial
and high schools throughout the
United States and overseas. The
textbooks, entitled the "Bible. Life
and Worship Series," have elimi-
nated all negative references to •
Jews and Judaism, and other re-
ligions and racial groups, and
have emphasized, through text
and dramatic illustrations, the
historic and religious bonds that
Las Vegas Rabbi to Fight
Sectarian Peace Shrine
LAS VEGAS (JTA)—Las Vegas'
tone rabbi said he planned to ask
local interfaith organizations to
Support his effort to persuade
sponsors of a proposed peace
shrine, featuring a life-size statue
al Christ, to drop the idea.
Rabbi Aaron Gold of Temple
Beth Shalom told the Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency that he had ob-
jected initially to the proposal
when he had been approached
about it last summer.
Ile said he had learned that the
Jewish owner of a major Las
Vegas hotel had been induced by
the sponsors to underwrite the
proposed memorial but that the
hotel owner withdrew his support
when he was informed by the syn-
agogue's cantor, Joseph Cohen, an
old friend, about the nature of the
memorial.
Rabbi Gold said he had as-
sumed that this was the end of
the matter until Oct. 21. when
he learned that the Las Vegas
Convention Authority, the city's
foremost tourism agency. voted
to allow a private group to build
the peace shrine on county prop-
in front of the convention
Center. A plaque would list the
names of the dead from Nevada
In all wars.
In New York, the American Jew-
erty
ish Congress told Rabbi Gold that
It would be willing to extend to
him all the necessary legal sup-
port to fight the erection of the
statue. Earlier this month, the
Supreme Court of Oregon ruled
51-foot cross on public property
VD the city of Eugene was uncon-
stitutional and had to be disman-
tled.
link Christianity and Christians to
Judaism and the Jewish people.
At the invitation of Sisters
Johnice and Elizabeth from the
inception of the textbook proj-
ect, Rabbi Marc II. Tanenbaum
of New York, national director
of AJC's interreligious affairs
department, has served as Jew-
ish consultant to the Pius XII
"Such a theology , which holds
the profoundest implications for
the future of pluralism, may be
the most important contribution
that religious people can contri-
bute to the emergence of a world
communiy based on mutual re-
spect and reciprocal understand-
ing."
Center.
The general title of the lecture
series is - The Root of the Good
Olive Tree," which is a reference
to Saint Paul's letter to the Ro-
mans, Chapter 14, verse 17, "The
root of that good olive tree (Ju-
daism) onto which have been
grafted the wild olive branches of
the Gentiles." This passage and
those verses in Romans 9 to 11
are regarded by many Christian
theologians as the New Testament
basis for a Christian theology that
acknowledges the permanent
validity of Judaism as a religion
of revealed truth and value.
Other speakers, after Dr. Green-
berg, will be: Dr. Ellis Rivkin,
Nov. 12, at the University of De-
troit; Dr. Jacob Agus, Dec. 3, at
St. Paul's Cathedral; Dr. Arthur
Hertzberg. Dec. 10, at McGregor
Center, Wayne State University;
Dr. Max Arzt, at Mercy College;
Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Jan. 28 at Cong. Shaarey Zedek;
Dr. Eugene Borowitz, Feb.- 11, at
Temple Israel; and Rabbi Tanen-
baum, Feb. 25, at the Blessed
Sacrament Cathedral.
After each s e s s i o n, _private
seminar discussion
gill' take
place the next day between *- tfil
scholars and groups of Catholic
theologians, catechists, textbook
writers and editors, and religious
teachers. The Catholic educators
who take part in the entire Jew-
ish-Christian studies program will
receive academic credit.
The latest textbooks prepared
by Sisters Johnice and Elizabeth
were published by Allyn and
Bacon of Boston. The religious
texts now include seven volumes,
with teachers' guides, covering
instruction f r o m elementary
grades through junior high
school. In addition to being used
in Catholic schools, a special
edition has been prepared by the
Confraternity of Christine Doc-
trine (CCD), which reaches some
2,500,000 Catholic children who
attend religious classes after
public-school hours.
Rabbi Tanenbaum called the
lecture series and textbook pro-
gram the '- fruits of eight years
of friendship and the growth of a
community and trust and mutual
confidence between the remark-
able Sisters Johnice and Elizabeth
and the American Jewish Commit-
tee and myself. This relationship
in itself is a model of the style of
communication between Christians
and Jews that I believe was in-
tended by the Vatican Council
fathers when they voted over-
whelmingly to adopt the Declara-
tion on Non-Christian Religions.
"The purpose of this lecture
series is identical with that of the
Jewish-Christian dialogue as we
conceive it. namely, its intention
is not to obliterate nor minimize
differences but to confirm the
other in the fullness of his dif-
ference. Enlightened Christian and
Jewish scholars are laboring to-
gether to develop a ethology of the
people of God' whose purpose is
to create authentic community
without compromise of one's prin-
ciples or integrity.
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