Anti-Semitism in America: How Did We Get Here and How Can We Move Forward?
The Gerson D. Cohen Memorial Lecture
What explains the persistence of anti-Semitism through the ages—even here, today, in the United States? Our noted experts explore anti-Semitism’s historical and theological origins and trace its changing nature over time. They also discuss efforts to counter its pernicious effects and enhance intercultural and interreligious understanding.
About the Speakers
Dr. Mary C. Boys, Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Dean, and Skinner & McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology, at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is author of several books including Jewish-Christian Dialogue: One Woman’s Experience, and Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding. Dr. Boys served as co-director of the Lilly Endowment-sponsored “Religious Particularism and Pluralism” project that involved Jewish and Catholic educators and academics. She is member of the Committee on Religion, Ethics, and the Holocaust at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education at Seton Hill University. Formerly, she served on the advisory committee for the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Catholic Bishops. She has long been a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a congregation of Roman Catholic women.
Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Provost, Sala and Walter Schlesinger Dean of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, and Irving Lehrman Research Associate Professor of American Jewish History at JTS. She focuses her research, writing, and teaching on American Jewish life, history, and culture, as well as Jewish gender studies. The author of numerous articles on modern Judaism and Jewish life, her book The Rabbi’s Wife: The Rebbetzin in American Jewish Life won the National Jewish Book Award in the category of modern Jewish thought. From 1993 to 2018 Dr. Schwartz served with distinction as dean of Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies, JTS’s undergraduate school, strengthening its dual-degree programs with Columbia University and Barnard College. As dean of the Gershon Kekst Graduate School, she spearheaded the creation of a new MA program in Jewish Ethics, the first of its kind in the United States. Dr. Schwartz has served for many years on the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society.
The annual Gerson D. Cohen Memorial Lecture was established in 1993 by the Honorable Howard M. Holtzmann (z”l), who served as honorary chairman of the JTS Board of Trustees, as a tribute to Gerson D. Cohen (z”l), chancellor of JTS from 1972 to 1986.
