Rabbi talks Judaism

CSB+SJU hosted Rabbi Ryan Dulkin, a theology professor from St. Thomas University, for his talk, “What Christians get wrong about Judaism and Why it Matters.”

The event, which occurred last Thursday, was put together by a collaboration between CSB+SJU and St. Thomas University through the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning.

Dulkin covered three main points throughout his lecture – who he referred to as Christians, the misperceptions of the Jewish people and the misperceptions of Judaism.

A significant number of students, faculty and locals from the community attended the presentation in Quad 264.

“As a Christian theologian, I think it’s essential for us to understand our relationship to Judaism better,” theology professor Michael Rubbelke said. “There are 2,000 years of misunderstanding, of persecution and often of hatred on the part of Christians because we do not understand where we come from and how we are related to the people of Israel.”

The presentation unintentionally came at a time of conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has caused a rise in tensions and antisemitic hate crimes globally.

Dulkin stressed the importance of relationships with the Jewish people, especially with the recent tensions amongst the Jewish people in our nation.

“I’m really glad he prefaced at the beginning that this is not a talk speaking about every Christian ever. He did a good job at not doing the same thing that I think the Jewish faith has gotten a lot of,” CSB first-year Tess Cavanaugh said.

CSB first-year Bailey Link, another attendee, noted her appreciation for the informative lecture.

“Something I really appreciated about the speaker was that he described what he meant by Christians, and he was explicit about explaining that he was not referencing all Christians,” Link said. “I really appreciate that he did not stigmatize Christians in general.”

Cavanaugh attended to further understand Judaism since she knows people who follow the religion.

“I want to keep learning about where Judaism stems from and what their practices are,” Cavanaugh said.

Dulkin primarily focused on the major misunderstandings about the Jewish faith.

“One of the intriguing things that Rabbi Dulkin pointed out for me was how so many attitudes towards others who are different can be bound together in ways that we often don’t notice,” Rubbelke said.