Herzstein Lecturer Speaks on Jewish Scholars and Scholarship Rabbi Jacob Neusner, one of the most distinguished scholars of Judaic studies in the world, came to the University of St. Thomas on Sept. 20, 2010, to deliver the Herzstein Lecture in Judaism. This annual lecture, sponsored by the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation, is intended to foster a deeper understanding of Judaism and to promote interfaith relations between Catholics and Jews. Rabbi Neusner and his thought took on greater prominence for Catholics when Pope Benedict XVI devoted 20 pages of his book Jesus of Nazareth to a dialogue with Rabbi Neusner’s book A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. In his lecture at UST, entitled “Fifty Years of Jewish Learning: What has Changed, and What Difference Does It Make?” Rabbi Neusner questioned whether the considerable resources given to Jewish Studies at non-Jewish institutions has left Rabbinical Schools and Jewish institutions of higher learning without the level of support they deserve.
You have noticed differences between when you started college teaching 50 years ago and now. What are those differences?
Students are much better than they were 50 years ago. They are being taught at the high school level how to read and write and think. They come to college well prepared to engage the materials that we teach in a creative way. I am constantly amazed at how well they do with the sources that we teach. Are students more interested in Judaic studies than when you started?
Yes, very much so. They come with curiosity, and they have heard things, so they want to evaluate what they have heard. They are looking in the past for guidance for problems of the present and of the future. They have a sense that the past contains wisdom and mysteries of the present; problems are solvable in the wisdom of the past.
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n a Q&A with Rabbi Jacob Neusner, pictured above with Pope Benedict XVI, the professor of history and Jewish theology at Bard College in New York looked back through his 50 years of college teaching to describe his concerns as well as the changes that have taken place on university campuses since he first entered the classroom in 1960. The conservative Jewish scholar has authored or co-edited more than 1,000 books in his career.
The Herzstein Foundation continues the work of Albert and Ethel Herzstein by providing grants to charitable efforts that offer individuals opportunities for advancement through education and enrichment of the human spirit.
You express a concern about an exodus of what you would consider top notch Jewish educators from some of the distinguished centers of Jewish learning, whether Hebrew Union College (Reform), Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) or Yeshiva University (Orthodox), to secular universities. Why is it a concern? You attract students through the appeal of your intellect. If you don’t have the best professors, you 17