Research, publications, international symposia, conferences, debates, cultural events and relationship building between the students from Poland and Israel are the main objectives of the Abraham J. Heschel Centre for Catholic-Jewish Relations at the Catholic University in Lublin. The Centre is scheduled to be launched on October 17, said Fr. Prof. Mirosław Kalinowski, Rector of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.

University Rector indicated that work on the creation of the Centre, to be part of the Catholic University of Lublin, started a few months ago. Prof. Kalinowski also said: “In addition to academic activities and research on history, culture, common heritage, and inter-religious dialogue, we plan socio-cultural projects. Of strategic importance is the involvement of young people from Poland and Israel, mutual visits and events with their participation. We want our activities to be widespread online.”

The Centre will be headed by Fr. Prof. Mirosław Wróbel, chair of the University’s Section of Biblical Studies, a translator of the Aramaic Bible, expert on rabbinical literature, who earned his Ph.D. in Biblical Studies at the École Biblique Jerusalem.

Centre deputy directors will be Witold Mędykowski Ph.D., M.Sc. and Fr. Dr. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik. The former is a historian, political scientist and archivist, specialising in e.g. the history of Polish Jews and the Holocaust. Fr. Rytel-Andrianik, on the other hand, is a Bible and Oriental Studies scholar, who obtained his doctorate in Biblical Studies and Archaeology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem and another one, in Oriental Studies (in Judaic and Hebraic studies) from Oxford University.

The Rector of the Catholic University of Lublin announced that details of the Centre’s operation would be presented on October 17, during a conference to be held at the Catholic University of Lublin and attended by, among others, 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 composition of the honorary committee, including e.g. Rabbi Abraham Skóra, will also be announced.