PROVIDENCE — Catholic universities are beacons of truth and centers for the thoughtful and fruitful exchange of ideas. This is especially the case at Providence College, whose school motto is “veritas” or “truth.”
Catholic universities have long been long known for being both beacons of Christian truth and places where individuals of diverse ideological backgrounds can exchange ideas in a mutually enriching manner. This especially is on display at Providence College.
Providence College is host to the Jewish Catholic Theological Exchange (JCTE), established in 2007 to foster theological and academic dialogue between scholars of the Jewish and Catholic traditions. On August 18, Providence College and the JCTE were awarded the Judge George Alexander Teitz Award. Named after the Rhode Island lawyer and judge George Alexander Teitz, a prominent community leader among Rhode Islanders of Jewish descent, the award is given by the Touro Synagogue Foundation to various individuals or institutions known for promoting interreligious dialogue.
“It’s a tremendous honor!” said Dr. Arthur Urbano, a professor in the theology department and the chairman of the JCTE, describing the surreal[1] nature of being honored with one of the Touro Synagogue Foundation’s most prestigious awards.
“I was absolutely stunned. I had to read the email…twice,” noting that previous award recipients include the Rhode Island-born American senator Claiborne Pell, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Harvard-based World Peace Foundation Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution.
The JCTE reflects certain deeply rooted elements of Providence College’s history. Providence College’s commitment to interreligious dialogue might originate from the medieval dictum, often taught in the College’s philosophy classes, that faith seeks understanding. One of the College’s favorite patrons, Saint Thomas Aquinas, taught that grace perfects nature — it does not destroy it. Thus, rational persons can engage dialectically in their mutual search for truth, which begins and ends in God Himself.
Many Jewish students have called Providence College home since the first Jewish student attended in 1922.
Throughout the 1930s, there was a drastic increase in the number of Jewish students. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, scholars associated with Providence College frequently attended meetings of the National Association of Christians and Jews, an organization dedicated to promoting dialogue between Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism.
Between the 1960s and 1980s, the college hired a series of rabbis to teach courses on Jewish theology, philosophy and literature. The JCTE as it exists today came into being when Dr. Urbano was invited by a local rabbi to attend a conference in Rome discussing issues connected with dialogue between Catholicism and Judaism. Organized by the USCCB in conjunction with several Jewish groups, the meeting sought to create the framework for grassroots movements that would promote Catholic-Jewish dialogue. This inspired Dr. Urbano to propose the creation of a program to foster Jewish-Catholic dialogue at P.C.
Recently, the JCTE invited Dr. Benjamin Bar-Lavi to serve as scholar-in-residence at Providence College for both the 2023-2024 and the 2024-2025 academic year. Born in Mexico City, and spending most of his youth between Mexico and Israel, he received his bachelor’s degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His primary area of expertise is the intellectual history of early modern Europe, with a particular emphasis on the impact of certain theological and philosophical trends on Jewish-Catholic relations. Bar-Lavi co-taught two classes with Dr. Urbano, “Jews and Christians in Dialogue” and “Judaism as an Idea in Western Civilization.” These courses reflect Dr. Bar-Lavi’s main academic interest, namely the conceptual role played by Judaism and Islam in political and theological discourse in Western thought.
For Dr. Bar-Lavi, one of the biggest lessons he has learned from teaching courses on the history of Jewish-Catholic relations at P.C. is how dialogue serves both as a way to counteract groundless suspicions of people against other faiths as well as something mutually beneficial for the spiritual journey of all involved. “Dialogue is not a zero-sum game,” Bar-Lavi told the Rhode Island Catholic. “Grappling with the history of Jewish-Christian relations…would actually, in many, many cases, in most cases, produce a very profound and positive understanding of Christianity for many of our students who are Christian believers.”
“Interreligious dialogue has experienced some rocky and difficult moments here locally, as in many other places,” Dr. Ubrano noted. “I think the award is an expression of appreciation and a recognition of the ways in which at Providence College we have offered and responded to a genuine desire to dialogue and build fruitful relationships between Jews and Catholics, in particular, but among all people of good will.”
“As the largest religious denomination in the State, Catholic individuals and institutions have a responsibility to reach out and listen to our non-Catholic neighbors,” Dr. Urbano went on to say.