A Centre for Catholic-Jewish Relations is being established at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). In addition to building relations between students from Poland and Israel, the institution will conduct academic research, issue publications, and organise international symposia, conferences, debates and cultural events.

The inauguration of the Centre, scheduled for 17 October, will be attended among others by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the President of the Polish Bishops’ Conference Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki and Professor Susannah Heschel, daughter of Abraham J. Heschel. The full honourary committee, which has been joined by Rabbi Abraham Skóra, will then be presented.

“In addition to scholarly activities and research on history, culture, common heritage and interreligious dialogue, we intend to prepare former socio-cultural projects. 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 on the Internet,” announced the rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, Rev. Prof. Mirosław Kalinowski.

The director of the Centre will be Revd Prof Mirosław Wróbel, head of the Biblical Sciences Section of the Catholic University of Lublin, translator of the Aramaic Bible and scholar of rabbinic literature, who obtained his doctorate in biblical studies at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. The following researchers have been appointed as his deputies: Dr Witold Mędykowski, a historian, political scientist and archivist specialising in the history of Polish Jews and the Holocaust, and Rev. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik, a biblical scholar and orientalist.

Work on the establishment of the unit has been ongoing for several months. The centre will function within the structure of the university, and it will be named after the Warsaw-born Jewish philosopher, theologian and poet Abraham Joshua Heszel.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński