Presentations were heard by Father Dennis McManus and Rabbi Or Rose. Father McManus, in addition to his work at Saint John’s Seminary, is a Faculty member of the Program for Jewish Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at georgetown University, where he offers courses in the history of Christian-Jewish conflict, autobiography in the Holocaust, and the theory and practice of inter-religious dialogue. He is also Consultant for Jewish Affairs to the United States Conference of catholic bishops and a priest of the Archdiocese of Mobile in Alabama.
Rabbi Or Rose is the founding Director of the Center for Global Judaism at Hebrew College and co-director of the Center for Inter-religious and Community Leadership Education, a joint venture of Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School.
Rabbi Rose is also one of the co-editors of the book My Neighbor's Faith: Stories of Inter-religious Encounter, Growth and Transformation, from whose introduction comes the following passage:
We live in the most religiously diverse nation in the history of humankind. Every day, across the country, people of different religious beliefs and practices encounter one another in supermarkets, hospitals, schools, chat rooms and family gatherings. How has this new situation of religious diversity affected the way we understand the religious “other,” ourselves or ultimate reality? Will it lead us to overcome the long history of religious intolerance, bigotry and violence that has plagued humanity for centuries? Can we learn to live together with mutual respect, acknowledging commonalities and differences, working together to create a more just and compassionate world?
