Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.

Chapter 1: The Purpose of Interfaith Dialogue

Chapter 2: How Not to Conduct Jewish-Christian Dialogue

Chapter 3: Jews, Christians, and Israel

Chapter 4: Lowest Common Denominators

Nostra Aetate, the Catholic Church’s 1965 Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, was a watershed in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. It repudiated the slander of deicide and took a stand against anti-Semitism, and in so doing, opened the door to dialogue between Jews, Catholics, and Christians of many other denominations.

Several decades later, a group of over 170 Jewish scholars offered what some saw as a kind of Jewish response to the titanic shift brought about by Nostra Aetate. Dabru Emet, “Speak the Truth,” set out a set of principles regarding how Jews and Christians might relate to one another and build a foundation for interfaith cooperation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, not all Jewish scholars could get behind the statement. In “How Not to Conduct Jewish-Christian Dialogue,” published in Commentary, and “Judaism Addresses Christianity,” published in Jacob Neusner’s Religious Foundations of Western Civilization, Professor Jon Levenson of Harvard University raises serious concerns with the planks of Dabru Emet. If interfaith dialogue is to have real meaning, Levenson argues, it cannot paper over irreconcilable religious differences or flatten religious conviction in order to create a veneer of agreement.

In this podcast, Levenson sits down with Tikvah’s Alan Rubenstein to discuss the dangers and opportunities posed by Jewish-Christian dialogue. They explore the purpose of interfaith discourse, the importance of the theological disagreements between Jews and Christians, and the dangers of suppressing religious disagreement in the name of cooperation. Professor Levenson demonstrates how Jews can enthusiastically embrace the importance of religious dialogue with Christians while remaining true to what makes Jews different.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble as well as “Baruch Habah,” performed by the choir of Congregation Shearith Israel.

This podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at the Abigail Adams Institute at Harvard University. Jon Levenson is a member of the Tikvah Summer Institute faculty. Click here to learn more about our Institutes and other summer programs.

More podcasts:

• • Nir Barkat on a Decade of Governing the World’s Most Spiritual City
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on How Haredi Jews Think About Serving in the IDF
  • Shalom Carmy on Jewish Understanding of Human Suffering
  • Dru Johnson on Biblical Philosophy
  • David Rozenson on How His Family Escaped the Soviet Union and Why He Chose to Return
  • Matti Friedman How Americans Project Their Own Problems onto Israel
  • Benjamin Haddad on Why Europe Is Becoming More Pro-Israel
  • Seth Siegel on Israel’s Water Revolution
  • Michael Doran America’s Strategic Realignment in the Middle East
  • Sohrab Ahmari on Why Americans Must Recover the Sabbath
  • Shlomo Brody on Reclaiming Biblical Social Justice
  • Christine Rosen on the New Crime Wave and Its Consequences
  • Jonathan Schanzer on the Palestinians’ Political Mess
  • Meena Viswanath on How the Duolingo App Became an Unwitting Arbiter of Modern Jewish Identity
  • Sean Clifford on the Israeli Company Making the Internet Safe for American Families
  • Mark Gerson on How the Seder Teaches Freedom Through Food
  • Daniel Gordis on the Israeli Supreme Court’s New Conversion Ruling
  • Gil & Tevi Troy’s Non-Negotiable Judaisms
  • Richard Goldberg on How Iran Is Already Testing the Biden Administration
  • Shany Mor on What Makes America’s Peace Processors Tick
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on How the Coronavirus Prompted Him to Rethink the Relationship between Haredim and Israeli Society
  • Gerald McDermott & Derryck Green on How Biblical Ideas Can Help Bridge America’s Racial Divide
  • Emmanuel Navon on Jewish Diplomacy from Abraham to Abba Eban
  • Michael Oren on Writing Fiction and Serving Israel
  • Joel Kotkin Thinks about God and the Pandemic
  • Dore Gold on the Strategic Importance of the Nile River and the Politics of the Red Sea
  • Yuval Levin Asks How Religious Minorities Survive in America—Then and Now
  • Mark Gottlieb on Rabbi Soloveitchik’s “Everlasting Hanukkah”
  • Ambassador Ron Dermer Looks Back on His Years in Washington
  • Richard Goldberg on the Future of Israeli-Saudi Relations
  • Matti Friedman on the Russian Aliyah—30 Years Later
  • Daniel Gordis on America, Israel, and the Sources of Jewish Resilience
  • John Podhoretz on 75 Years of Commentary
  • Michael McConnell on the Free Exercise of Religion
  • Ruth Wisse on Five Books Every Jew Should Read
  • Dan Senor on the Start-Up Nation and COVID-19
  • Reflections for the Days of Awe
  • Haviv Rettig Gur on Israel’s Deep State
  • Ruth Wisse & Hillel Halkin on the Authors Who Created Modern Hebrew Literature
  • Gil Troy on Never Alone
  • Jared Kushner on His Approach to Middle East Diplomacy
  • Ambassador Ron Dermer on the Israel-U.A.E. Accord
  • Micah Goodman on Politics, Power, and Kingship in Deuteronomy
  • Michael Doran on China’s Drive for Middle Eastern Supremacy
  • Peter Berkowitz on Unalienable Rights, the American Tradition, and Foreign Policy
  • Wilfred McClay on the Historic Jewish-Christian Rapprochement
  • Amos Yadlin on the Explosions Rocking Iran
  • Jason Bedrick on School Choice, Religious Liberty, and the Jews
  • Meir Soloveichik on the Genius of Rabbi Norman Lamm
  • Tara Isabella Burton on Spirituality in a Godless Age
  • Gary Saul Morson on “Leninthink”
  • David Wolpe on The Pandemic and the Future of Liberal Judaism
  • Chaim Saiman on the “Zoom Seder” and Its Discontents
  • Leon Kass on Reading Exodus and the Formation of the People of Israel
  • Einat Wilf on the West’s Indulgence of Palestinian Delusions
  • Matti Friedman—The End of the Israeli Left?
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Society and the COVID-19 Crisis
  • Menachem Wecker on Yoga and Idolatry
  • Moshe Koppel on How Israel’s Perpetual Election Came to an End
  • Michael Doran on Coronavirus in Iran
  • Yossi Klein Halevi on the Transformation of Israeli Music
  • Richard Goldberg on the Future of Iran Policy
  • Rafael Medoff on Franklin Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen Wise, and the Holocaust
  • Eugene Kontorovich on the Trump Peace Plan
  • Mark Gottlieb on Jewish Sexual Ethics
  • Michael Avi Helfand on Religious Freedom, Education, and the Supreme Court
  • Joshua Berman on Biblical Criticism, Faith, and Integrity
  • Ruth Wisse on What Saul Bellow Saw
  • Daniel Cox on Millennials, Religion, and the Family
  • Yuval Levin on Rebuilding American Institutions
  • Neil Rogachevsky on Israeli Electoral Reform
  • Yuval Levin on the Remarkable Legacy of Gertrude Himmelfarb
  • Best of 2019 at the Tikvah Podcast
  • Arthur Herman on China and the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship”
  • Walter Russell Mead on Israel and American Foreign Policy
  • Senator Joseph Lieberman on American Jews and the Zionist Dream
  • Avital Chizik-Goldschmidt & Batya Ungar-Sargon on Why No One Cares about Attacks on the Orthodox
  • Eugene Kontorovich on America and the Settlements
  • David Makovsky: What Can We Learn from Israel’s Founders?
  • Christine Rosen on Thinking Religiously about Facebook
  • Jacob Howland: The Philosopher Who Reads the Talmud
  • Dru Johnson, Jonathan Silver, and Robert Nicholson on Reviving Hebraic Thought
  • Thomas Karako on the U.S., Israel, and Missile Defense
  • David Bashevkin on Sin and Failure in Jewish Thought
  • Matti Friedman on Israel, the Mizrahi Nation
  • Micah Goodman on Shrinking the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
  • Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part III
  • Meir Soloveichik on the Meaning of Kashrut
  • Avi Weiss on the AMIA Bombing Cover-Up
  • Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part II
  • Jack Wertheimer on the New American Judaism – Part I
  • Jeremy Rabkin on Israel and International Law
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Politics and Culture
  • Mona Charen on Sex, Love, and Where Feminism Went Wrong
  • Dara Horn on Eternal Life
  • David Evanier on the Rosenbergs, Morton Sobell, and Jewish Communism
  • Michael Doran on America’s Standoff with Iran
  • Daniel Krauthammer on His Father’s Jewish Legacy
  • Yaakov Katz on Shadow Strike
  • Annika Hernroth-Rothstein on the Miracle of Jewish Continuity
  • Menachem Wecker on What’s Wrong with the Jewish Museum
  • Francine Klagsbrun on Golda Meir—Israel’s Lioness
  • Jonathan Neumann on the Left, the Right, and the Jews
  • Matti Friedman on Israel’s First Spies
  • Dovid Margolin on the Rebbe’s Campaign for a Moment of Silence
  • Scott Shay on Idolatry, Ancient and Modern
  • Joshua Berman on Whether the Exodus Really Happened
  • Daniel Gordis on the Rift Between American and Israeli Jews
  • Nicholas Gallagher on Jewish History and America’s Immigration Crisis
  • Special Envoy Elan Carr on America’s Fight against Anti-Semitism
  • Malka Groden on the Jewish Family and America’s Adoption Crisis
  • Eugene Kontorovich Explains Congress’s Effort to Counter BDS
  • David Wolpe on the Future of Conservative Judaism
  • Michael Doran on America’s Allies and America’s Enemies
  • Jonah Goldberg on Marx’s Jew-Hating Conspiracy Theory
  • Ambassador Danny Danon Goes on Offense at the U.N.
  • A New Year at the Tikvah Podcast
  • The Best of 2018
  • Jacob J. Schacter on Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and the State of Israel
  • Chaim Saiman on the Rabbinic Idea of Law
  • Daniel Polisar on Herzl’s “The Menorah”
  • Yehoshua Pfeffer on Haredi Conservatism
  • Leon Kass on His Life and the Worthy Life
  • Clifford Librach on the Reform Movement and Jewish Peoplehood
  • Michael Doran on Theology, Zionism, and American Foreign Policy
  • Sohrab Ahmari on Sex, Desire, and the Transgender Movement
  • Yoram Hazony on the Bible’s Political Teaching
  • John Podhoretz on the Best and Worst of Jewish Cinema
  • Jamie Kirchick on Europe’s Coming Dark Age
  • Introducing Kikar – Elliott Abrams on Hamas, Gaza, and the Case for Jewish Power
  • Ruth Wisse on the Nature and Functions of Anti-Semitism
  • Jeffrey Saks on Shmuel Yosef Agnon
  • Samuel Goldman on Christian Zionism in America
  • Martin Kramer on Ben-Gurion, Borders, and the Vote That Made Israel
  • Russ Roberts on Hayek, Knowledge, and Jewish Tradition
  • Yossi Klein Halevi on Moving In and Out of Extremism
  • Charles Freilich on the U.S.-Israel “Special Relationship”
  • Jeffrey Salkin on “Judaism Beyond Slogans”
  • Erica Brown on Educating Jewish Adults
  • Mark Dubowitz on the Future of the Iran Deal
  • Greg Weiner on Moynihan, Israel, and the United Nations
  • Daniel Polisar on Nationhood, Zionism, and the Jews
  • Leora Batnitzky on the Legacy of Leo Strauss
  • Wilfred McClay on America’s Civil Religion
  • Robert Nicholson on Evangelicals, Israel, and the Jews
  • Charles Small on “The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism”
  • Daniel Mark on Judaism and Our Postmodern Age
  • Ruth Wisse on the Perversity of Brilliance
  • Daniel Troy on the “The Burial Society”
  • Matthew Continetti on William F. Buckley, the Conservative Movement, and Anti-Semitism
  • Jonathan Sacks on Creative Minorities
  • Elliott Abrams on “Dictatorships and Double Standards”
  • Jay Lefkowitz on His Life in the Arena
  • Michael Doran on America’s Middle East Strategy
  • Gabriel Scheinmann on Bombing the Syrian Reactor
  • Elliott Abrams on His Calling and Career
  • Jeffrey Bloom on Faith and America’s Addiction Crisis
  • Gil Student on the Journey into Orthodoxy
  • Meir Soloveichik on “L’Chaim and Its Limits”
  • Michael Makovsky on Churchill and the Jews
  • Neil Rogachevsky on the Story Behind Oslo
  • Mark Gottlieb on Jewish Education
  • Mitchell Rocklin on Jewish-Christian Relations
  • Liel Leibovitz on the Jewish Poetry of Leonard Cohen
  • Ruth Wisse on Tevye the Dairyman
  • Samuel Goldman on Religion, State, and the Jews
  • Leon Kass on the Ten Commandments
  • Ruth Wisse on Cynthia Ozick’s “Innovation and Redemption”
  • Yossi Klein Halevi on Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s “The Iron Wall”
  • Tevi Troy on the Politics of Tu B’Shvat
  • Jay Lefkowitz & Mitchell Rocklin on the Jewish Vote
  • Yuval Levin on the Long Way to Liberty
  • Ruth Wisse on Sartre and Anti-Semitism
  • Edward Rothstein on Jerusalem Syndrome at the Met
  • Matthew Continetti on Irving Kristol’s Theological Politics
  • Meir Soloveichik on King David
  • R.R. Reno on “Faith in the Flesh”
  • Arthur Herman on Why Everybody Loves Israel
  • Peter Berkowitz on a Liberal Education and Its Betrayal
  • Meir Soloveichik on Rembrandt, Tolkien, and the Jews
  • Yoram Hazony on Nationalism and the Future of Western Freedom
  • Jason Bedrick on Jewish Day Schools and School Choice
  • Allan Arkush on Ahad Ha’am and “The Jewish State and Jewish Problem”
  • Bret Stephens on the Legacy of 1967 and the U.S.-Israel Relationship
  • Jay Lefkowitz on Social Orthodoxy
  • Norman Podhoretz on Jerusalem and Jewish Particularity
  • Michael Doran on Western Elites and the Middle East
  • Ruth Wisse on Campus Anti-Semitism
  • Meir Soloveichik on “Confrontation”
  • Yuval Levin on Religious Liberty
  • Elliott Abrams on American Jews and Israel