Rabbi, priest to offer views in Meyer lecture on June 14

YOUNGSTOWN – The 15th annual Rabbi Samuel Meyer Memorial Lecture will feature a rabbi and a priest speaking on “Finding New Meaning in Old Texts: A Jewish and Christian Perspective.”

Rabbi Roger C. Klein and the Rev. George Smiga will address the topic at 7 p.m. June 14 in the Society of St. Paul Chapel, 9531 W. Akron-Canfield Road, Canfield. The evening is free of charge.

The ecumenical lecture series is named in honor of the late leader of Temple El Emeth in Liberty, who co-founded the Jewish/Christian Dialogue series with the Rev. George Balasko.

Rabbi Klein is the associate rabbi at The Temple Tifereth Israel in Beechwood, Ohio, and an assistant clinical professor of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

He also serves as an adjunct professor or Jewish Studies at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies in Beechwood. Rabbi Klein has a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He was ordained in 1971 by the Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He has written numerous books, articles and reviews and is a well-known lecturer on Judaism.

Since 1991, Father Smiga has been pastor of St. Noel Parish in Willoughby Hills, Ohio.

A native of Cleveland, he was ordained in the Diocese of Cleveland in 1975 and serves on the scripture and homiletic faculty of St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe, Ohio.

An active member of the Catholic Biblical Association and the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society, he is a board member and teacher at Cleveland Ecumenical Institute for Religious Studies.

He has a doctorate in sacred theology with a specialization in biblical theology, and has written numerous books and articles.

He will hold the Walter and Mary Tuohy Chair of Interreligious Studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland for the fall term in 2009.