Religion, peacemaking in Middle East subject of BYU lecture Jan. 13

Rabbi David Rosen, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department for Interreligious Affairs, will be speaking Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center Assembly Hall at Brigham Young University. His subject will be “Religion and Peacemaking in the Middle East.”

The lecture is sponsored by BYU’s Wheatley Institution.

Earlier this year Rosen received the status of Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to interfaith relations in the Middle East and between Israel and the U.K.

For the past four years Rosen has served as the chair of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, a group that represents Judaism to other cultures and religions. He serves on the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's Commission for Interreligious Dialogue and represents the Chief Rabbinate on the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land.

Rosen is the son of the renowned Rabbi Kopul Rosen, founding principal of Carmel College in England. He was educated in England and Jerusalem. He served in the Israel Defense Force and served as a chaplain in West Sinai. He has also served as Senior Rabbi of the largest Jewish congregation in South Africa.

After his service there, Rosen was appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland. During that time he also served on the Academic Council of the Irish School of Ecumenics. He returned to Israel in 1985 to take up the appointment of Dean at the Sapir Center for Jewish Education and Culture in Jerusalem and subsequently became Professor of Jewish Studies at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. At that time he served as the Anti-Defamation League's Director of Interfaith Relations in Israel and co-liaison to the Vatican. He assumed responsibility for the interfaith activities of the American Jewish Committee in the spring of 2001.

Rosen received a papal knighthood in November 2005 for his contributions to promoting Catholic-Jewish understanding.

For more information regarding the lecture, contact Richard Williams at (801) 422-5883.

Writer: Brandon Garrett

Photo by Julie Hillebrent