Meyer lecture speaker’s topic is interfaith dialogueSFlb

The guest speaker has had several articles published.

BOARDMAN — “The Worldwide Future of Interfaith Dialogue” will be the topic of the annual Rabbi Samuel Meyer Memorial Lecture scheduled for 7 p.m. May 12 in Ohev Tzedek Synagogue, 5245 Glenwood Ave.

Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, an internationally known scholar and author from Jerusalem, will be guest speaker at the ecumenical event, which is free and open to the public.

Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein has been director of the Elijah School for Study in World Religions and lecturer and director of the Center for the Study of Rabbinic Thought, Beit Morasha College, since 1997. Both are in Jerusalem. Previously, he was a teaching assistant and lecturer in the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University from 1991-95.

Ordained in 1977, Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein holds a bachelor of arts from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he did a preparatory year for a direct doctoral program.

In 1982, he did a year of research on the New Testament and ancient religions at Harvard Divinity School. He received his doctorate from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1986, and was a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem from 1986-99.

His publications include “The Sinner and the Amnesiac: The Rabbinic Invention of Elisha ben Abuya and Eleazar ben Arach” (Stanford University Press, 2000) and “Israel in God’s Presence: An Introduction to Judaism for the Christian Student,” which is forthcoming from Henrickson Press.

His nearly three dozen articles have appeared in edited collections and in such scholarly journals as Harvard Theological Review, Journal for the Study of Judaism, Journal of Literature and Theology, Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, Ecumenism, and Studies in Interreligious Dialogue.

The Meyer lecture series honors the memory of the late Rabbi Samuel Meyer of Temple El Emeth in Liberty.

Rabbi Joel Berman of Ohev Tzedek will give the invocation and welcome.

The Rev. Nick Mager of First Presbyterian Church in Youngstown will moderate the question-and-answer session. Fay Meyer, widow of Rabbi Meyer, and Father George Balasko, co-founder of Jewish-Christian Dialogue with Rabbi Meyer, will speak on the late rabbi’s accomplishments.

The program will conclude with a threefold blessing from Father Balasko, Rev. Mr. Mager and Rabbi Joseph Schonberger of Temple El Emeth in Liberty.

A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. The evening will conclude with refreshments.