Rabbi James RosenbergLast month I had the privilege of taking part in a deeply moving series of discussions focusing upon the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I was one of eight individuals – four men and four women – invited to participate in this highly structured dialogue, which took place at Temple Emanu-El on three consecutive Thursday evenings.

Rabbi James RosenbergIn general, within a day or two after I submit my biweekly column to Nancy Kirsch, executive editor of this paper, she will send me an email pointing out my obvious errors and suggesting a few more subtle changes.  On occasion, the emails will go back and forth for a couple of rounds until we arrive at an agreement as to the final copy; of course, as executive editor, Kirsch has the final say.

Rabbi James Rosenberg

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, author of  “The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus” (HarperCollins, 2006) and co-editor of the recently published “Jewish Annotated New Testament” (Oxford University Press, 2011) is a world-class scholar. In the June 25, 2010 issue of this paper, I devoted a column to a lecture she delivered at New Bedford’s Tifereth Israel Congregation on “What Was Jewish About Jesus.”