AJC Conference Explores The Holocaust And Its Impact On Christian - Jewish Relations

American Jewish Committee
Tuesday, 9 February 1999

"The Holocaust and its Impact on Christian-Jewish Relations" will be the theme at a major two-day interreligious conference sponsored by the American Jewish Committee, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. A special focus of the conference will be how the Shoah is taught in the Christian community, with educational workshops presented for clergy, educators and other religious leaders.

Among the featured speakers at the event, to be held in Baltimore on February 17-18:

- His Eminence Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, President of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews;
- His Eminence William Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore;
- Rabbi A. James Rudin, Director of Interreligious Affairs, American Jewish Committee;
- Dr. Eugene Fisher, Director of Catholic-Jewish Relations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops;
- Martin S. Kaplan, Chair of AJC's Interreligious Affairs Commission;
- Dr. Steven T. Katz, Director of Judaic Studies, Boston University;
- The Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, Professor of Social Ethics, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago; and
- Rabbi Michael A. Signer, Abrams Professor of Jewish Thought and Culture, University of Notre Dame.

Session topics will include: "The Shoah in Historical Context," "Educational Implementation of the Vatican Document 'We Remember,'" "Confronting the Shoah in Education," 'We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah' -- One Year Later," "Catholic-Jewish Relations: The Unfinished Agenda," and "Prospectus for the Future."

Also at the conference, participants will examine the growing success of AJC's C/JEEP project (The Catholic/Jewish Educational Enrichment Program), which seeks to dispel myths and stereotypes among young people by sending Catholic priests or sisters to teach in private Jewish high schools and rabbis to teach in Catholic high schools. Sponsored jointly with the Catholic Archdiocese, AJC's C/JEEP program, began in Los Angeles, in 1992. Through the aid of a significant grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation, C/JEEP has expanded into schools in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

The Baltimore conference is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding, an institute of the American Jewish Committee.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org