Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue

The Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue (MCID), established in 2011, locates now at one address at JTS the various interreligious activities that have been part of this institution's public profile for decades. In particular, the MCID focuses on Jewish-Christian and on Jewish-Muslim engagements of both communal and academic nature. Programs have been as varied as Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue around the 10th anniversary of 9/11, welcoming the cardinal from the Vatican tasked with Catholic relations with the Jews, or an academic conference on Oral Transmission of Sacred Literature in Judaism and Islam. In addition to interreligious programming, the MCID supports student-driven interreligious activities, and serves as the clearinghouse for a broad range of dialogue beyond JTS in places such as Rome, Madrid, Doha, Qatar, and Muskat, Oman.

THE RESIGNATION OF POPE BENEDICT XVI

Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing his resignation as head of the Roman Catholic Church and leader of more than one billion Roman Catholics around the globe. As reaction pours in, and in anticipation of the coming papal conclave, Odyssey Networks is featuring insightful commentary by prominent religious leaders including Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue.


WATCH  

The Third Annual Workshop on "JUDAISM AND ISLAM IN AMERICA," titled "From Classroom to Congregation," a joint project of JTS, the Hartford Seminary, and the Islamic Society of North America, was held in northern Virginia and Washington DC in October 2012.



View more images from the workshop.

Watch Mordechay Lewy, immediate past ambassador of the State of Israel to the Holy See, deliver a lecture, "50 Years of Jewish-Catholic Dialogue," at JTS. The event, held in October 2012, marked the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, and was jointly sponsored by the Milstein Center of JTS and the John Paul II Center, a partnership between the Russell Berrie Foundation and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum University) in Rome. Rabbi Jack Bemporad, director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding, served as moderator.

Chancellor Arnold Eisen, Rabbi Burton Visotzky, and His Eminence Kurt Cardinal Koch

View a photo gallery of interreligious dialogue with world leaders.

Explore other public programs at JTS.


LEADERSHIP

Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky is the director of the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue. He also serves at JTS as the Louis Stein Director of the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies and the Appleman Professor of Midrash and Interreligious Studies; he joined the faculty of JTS upon his ordination as rabbi in 1977. Rabbi Visotzky is active as a lecturer and scholar-in-residence throughout North America, Europe, and Israel.

Listen to an interview with Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky on international interreligious engagement from the show Building Bridges.

 

For questions about the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue, please email Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky or call (212) 678-8989.