Thoughts on Interfaith Relations in Practice

In my role as program chair and, later, as one of the organizers of the Greater Carolinas Association of Rabbis’ Wildacres Interfaith Institute for many years, it was my pleasure and privilege to meet and host Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, then professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, as one of our guest speakers. A-J, as she prefers to be called, was initially contacted as a recommendation by another Jewish New Testament scholar who had a prior commitment when we attempted to bring her to our annual meeting in North Carolina. Once we got to know A-J and hear her speak, we knew we had made an excellent choice and were anxious to bring her back. She is a wonderful, warm, knowledgeable and often, funny speaker. I have heard her speak at other conferences and on YouTube as well. I’ve added about a dozen of her books to my personal library and have even read most of them. Most significantly, her mission in her talks and her books has not been to convince Jews to adopt Christianity, nor has she, as she puts it, as “a non-Orthodox Orthodox Jew,” attempted to proselytize her Christian audiences. Rather, through her many books for both adults and children and her talks on video, on television, and in person, she tries to help Jews understand where Christians are coming from in their understanding of biblical texts and at the same time explain to Christians the Jewish background and setting of the New Testament stories about this first-century Jewish teacher whom they view as so much more than merely a teacher in their faith.

Recently, the Catholic Biblical Association surprised many Christians by electing A-J as their president. She writes that she also was surprised by their choice. The CBA has been in existence for some 80 years and publishes scholarly papers on biblical studies in its journals. Its website states that it “has promoted, within a context of faith, scholarly study in Scripture and related fields through meetings of the association, publications, and support to those engaged in such studies.” I join with many others, Jews, Christians, and people of other faiths, as a rabbi, a student of religion and an active participant in interfaith meetings and activities for some sixty years, in offering my sincere and heartfelt congratulations to A-J on this significant honor.

Unfortunately, if one turns to her Facebook page, one finds many hateful, vitriolic statements by some right-wing Christians attacking her and the organization for their choice of her as their president. It is understandable perhaps that some Catholics may object to this organization choosing a Jew as its president, particularly one who has been clear not only on her non-acceptance of Jesus as anointed savior, part of a trinity, the son of God, and on other points of Catholic doctrine. Some of these Catholics have made these objections known for the most part in reasoned tones. Others, though, have seen this appointment as a sin, a shame, or even a sign of satanic control. These attacks are relatively mild compared to other comments by people calling themselves Christians which have truly been vicious, obscene, and patently antisemitic in nature and do not at all reflect the teachings of Christianity. They go against the statements attributed to both Jesus and Paul in the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and Judaism, let alone the teachings that came out about Judaism from the Vatican’s Second Ecumenical Council in the ‘60s. To say that “Christian charity” has been lacking among these folks is a gross understatement and to be roundly condemned by all.

A-J herself notes that “in over 50 years of teaching and writing, I have worked to combat hatred of Catholicism , whether expressed by Protestants who think of the Pope as the antichrist or find Mariology offensive, liberals who denounce a tradition that does not ordain women or that would restrict access to abortion in any circumstances including rape or catastrophic fetal anomalies, people who call themselves “recovering Catholics” because they see themselves as having been harmed by the Church or by its representatives, Jews and Protestants who see Catholics as epitomizing antisemitism, or people who see the Church as responsible for pedophilia. None of it is helpful and all of it is hateful. All of this is based on a combination of ignorance, stereotyping, self-defensiveness, and a tendency to demonize rather than see people in the Catholic Church as individuals, all in the Divine image and likeness.”

Over thirty years ago I recall a visit from a young man who had encountered Christian missionaries and who, at the insistence of his parents, had come to me with a long list of Scriptural passages that for Christians validate their belief in Jesus. Patiently, I went over as much of the list as time would permit and noted that indeed, if one looks through a Christian lens one could see a reference to Jesus in the most unusual places in the Bible. However, if one takes those same passages in their original context and looks through a Jewish lens, they read very differently. I was careful to point out to this young man that in Judaism not only are a variety of interpretations of any given verse possible, but they are encouraged. If one approaches the Bible with a prior conviction of the truth of Christian doctrine or, for that matter, almost any other belief one can find verses that seem to support those teachings. Rabbinic Midrash revels in the diversity of Jewish interpretations of the Bible given by different rabbis. However, for those of us who do not accept Jesus in whatever role Christians see him, Christian interpretations are not included in our collections. Nonetheless, we encourage people to recognize that there are many paths to the one God we believe in and from those who find divinity in other places, we also have much to learn.

A-J’s academic colleague and collaborator for close to 20 years, Professor Marc Brettler of Duke, writes that “few have done so much for Jewish-Christian relations, specifically for offering Jews a sympathetic and historically accurate (and honest!} description of Christianity, or have combatted anti-Judaism so extensively [as she].”

Many of her non-Jewish colleagues in biblical studies offer similar encomia. In spite of, or perhaps because of her Jewish background she has contributed much to both Jewish and Christian understanding of scripture, but beyond that she has worked tirelessly to foster understanding and cooperation among people of diverse faiths and battled antisemitism and other forms of prejudice throughout our society.

The attacks that A-J is enduring now remind me of an old Jewish joke about a synagogue president, exhausted and battered after years of complaints, criticism, and abuse from congregants, who is asked: “Nu, if everyone yells at you, second‑guesses you, and blames you for everything… why on earth did you take the job?” He sighs and answers: “Because of the kavod (the honor).” The vicious attacks on A-J are no honor to her and less to their benighted authors.

It is indeed an honor that she has been chosen for this position, but I must say that it is equally an honor for the Catholic Biblical Association that such a gifted scholar and teacher has accepted. We wish her much success in this new position.