Inauguration of the Heschel Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations - October 17

Academic research, publications, international symposia, conferences, debates, as well as cultural events and building relations between students from Poland and Israel - these are the main tasks of the Abraham J. Heschel Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). The inauguration will take place on October 17, announced the rector of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Fr. Prof. Miroslaw Kalinowski,.

The rector of the KUL noted that work on the establishment of the Center has been going on for several months, and it will be a unit functioning within the structure of the university. - We plan that in addition to scientific activities and research on history, culture, common heritage and interreligious dialogue, socio-cultural projects will also be organized. A strategic issue is the involvement of young people from Poland and Israel, mutual visits and events with their participation. We want this activity to be widely present in the modern media," said Rev. Prof. Kalinowski.

He also informed that the director of the Center will be Rev. Prof. Miroslaw Wróbel, head of the Biblical Sciences Section of the Catholic University of Lublin.  Prof M. Wróbel, among other things, is a translator of the Aramaic Bible and a scholar of rabbinic literature, having earned a doctorate in biblical studies at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. Dr. Witold Mędykowski and Rev. Dr. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik will serve as deputy directors. The former is a historian, political scientist and archivist, specializing in, among other things, the history of Polish Jews and the Holocaust. In turn, Rev. Rytel-Andrianik, a biblical scholar and orientalist, earned a doctorate in biblical studies and archaeology at Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem and a doctorate in oriental studies (in Judaic and Hebraic studies) at Oxford University.

The rector of the Catholic University of Lublin announced that details of the Center's operation will be presented on October 17, during a conference at the Catholic University of Lublin, which will be attended by, among others, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Chairman of the Polish Bishops' Conference Archbishop Stanislaw Gądecki and Prof. Susannah Heschel, daughter of Abraham J. Heschel. The composition of the honorary committee, which included Rabbi Abraham Skórka, will be announced as well.