Public and open dialogue on the state of Catholic-Jewish relations in Los Angeles and abroad.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

On May 11, Pope Benedict XVI departs on a trip to the Holy Land for a five-day pastoral visit which will also include meetings with the Israeli President and the President of the Palestinian Authority. The trip marks the third time a sitting pope has visited Israel; similarly, Benedict XVI, like Pope John Paul II before him, has visited important Jewish Synagogues. He has certainly continued the new era of dialogue between Jews and Christians made possible by the Second Vatican Council’s 1965 Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra Aetate).

Today, however, there are concerns about the state of Jewish-Catholic relations: Pope Benedict XVI, even as he prepares to travel to the Holy Land, has acknowledged the failure of the Vatican to be attentive to the reports on a traditionalist bishop’s Holocaust-denying views. John Paul II spoke of Jews’ relationship to God in terms of a “Covenant never revoked,” but some ask today if that strongly supportive statement is being toned down. This public forum is supported by the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the LMU Department of Theological Studies and the Center for Religion and Spirituality.  The purpose of the forum is to encourage respect, understanding, and a practice of mutual charity among the Catholic and Jewish communities of Southern California.

You can read about the forum in the Los Angeles Times here.  View the video podast here.


WELCOME
David Burcham
Executive Vice President and Provost, Loyola Marymount University


MODERATOR
Rev. Robert W. Scholla, S.J.
Rector, LMU Jesuit Community


SPEAKERS
Rabbi Mark S. Diamond
Executive Vice President, Board of Rabbis of Southern California

Rt. Rev. Alexei Smith
Director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Archdiocese of Los Angeles


RESPONDENTS
Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer
Professor and Chair of Marketing and Business Law, Loyola Marymount University

Rev. Jeffrey Siker
Professor of and Chair of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University

Location Hilton Center for Business, 100  Loyola Marymount University (Main Campus) 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045 View Maps & Directions Parking on Campus

Registration Free and Open to the Public!

 

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Rabbi Mark S. Diamond is the Executive Vice President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. Prior to assuming this position in August 2000, Rabbi Diamond served as rabbi of congregations in metropolitan San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York. He founded and coordinated "Ask a Rabbi," an acclaimed cyberspace forum answering online questions from America Online subscribers. Rabbi Diamond has created innovative transdenominational programs for colleagues and the community, including the Los Angeles Synagogue Leadership Institute (a course for emerging congregational leaders), Lilmod Ve'la'asot (professional growth and development workshops for rabbis), Torah Lishmah seminars with master text teachers, and the Critical Issues Series featuring experts in the religious, educational and political spheres. Rabbi Diamond is a fellow of the 2007-2010 Rabbinic Leadership Initiative of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, a member of the Ethics Resource Committee of Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and the executive committee of the United Jewish Communities Rabbinic Cabinet, and an Instructor in Practical Rabbinics at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles. Rabbi Diamond received his Master of Arts degree in Jewish studies and rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. He is married and the father of three children.

Rt. Rev. Alexei Smith was born in Los Angeles. He obtained his Undergraduate studies in the field of International Relations from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He was awarded a Master of Divinity Degree with High Distinction from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline, Mass. In 1987 he was ordained as a Melkite Greek Catholic Priest and appointed Administrator of Saint Andrew Russian Greek Catholic Church and Saint Paul Melkite Greek Catholic Mission in El Segundo, Calif. In 1994 Cardinal Roger Mahony appointed Fr. Alexei Smith as his Principal Liaison and Personal Representative to the Orthodox Roman Catholic Dialogue. In 1997 he was elected to the Council of Priests of the Eparchy of Newton. In 1999 he became Vice Chairman of the Council of Priests of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and appointed Chair of the Priestly Life and Ministry Committee. That same year he was appointed Protopresbyter of the Western Region of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Newton by Bishop John Adel Elya. In 2000, Cardinal Roger Mahony appointed Rev. Alexei Smith the Director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Rabbi Arthur Gross-Schaefer, J.D. is the Chair of the Marketing and Business Law department at the College of Business Administration and has been a member of the faculty since 1978. He previously taught at Western States School of Law, Boston University, and the University of Southern California. Gross-Schaefer is a past president of the Pacific Southwest Academy of Legal Studies, representative to National Conference of the Pacific Southwest Region of Reform Rabbis, and a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He is also a member of Alpha Sigma Nu, Beta Gamma Sigma the California State Bar Association, and the California Society of Public Accountants, and has earned more than a dozen teaching awards.

Rev. Jeffrey S. Siker, Ph.D. is Professor of Theological Studies at LMU. Siker teaches in the area of New Testament theology and early Christianity, the history of biblical interpretation, and the use of the Bible in theological debate. He is the author of Disinheriting the Jews: Abraham in Early Christianity Controversy; Scripture and Ethics: 20th Century Portraits; and editor of Homosexuality in the Church: Both Sides of the Debate. Dr. Siker is an ordained Presbyterian minister in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and is a Parish Associate at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.