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:

• • 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
  • Rabbi 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