The International Council of Christians and Jews serves as the umbrella organization of 38 national Jewish-Christian dialogue organizations worldwide. The North American branch of the organization is the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations, which lists more than two dozen affiliated centers and institutes around the country with access to dozens of scholars and experts.

Lawrence Hoffman is a rabbi and a professor of liturgy, worship and ritual at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, N.Y. He has written and edited The Art of Public Prayer: Not for Clergy Only (Skylight Paths, 1999), which has been used by both Christian and Jewish congregations to plan liturgy.

Vanessa Ochs is the author of The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL’s Guide to Everyday and Holiday Rituals and Blessings. She is a professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She can talk about the role of the Internet in the contemporary Jewish dating scene, life cycle rituals for […]

Rabbi A. James Rudin was the senior interreligious adviser for the American Jewish Committee and a longtime veteran of Catholic-Jewish dialogue. He met with Pope John Paul II many times and participated in high-level talks at the Vatican between Catholic and Jewish leaders. He has also consulted frequently with Christian churches and groups that want […]

Alice Laffey is an associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. She has written a history of papal statements and the evolution of papal teaching, and she can address issues regarding women and gender.

Philip A. Cunningham is a professor and director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Before that he was a theology professor at Boston College and executive director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. The center is “devoted to the multifaceted development and implementation of new relationships between Christians and Jews […]

Carmel Chiswick was a professor emerita of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago until her retirement. She focuses on the economics of religion, especially involving the American Jewish family, Jewish religious observance and American Jewish communal institutions.

Barry Chiswick is chair of the department of economics at Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, George Washington University in Washington D.C.  He specializes in the economics of religion. During his former post at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he published widely on the topic of economic issues involving Jewish people.

Barak D. Richman is a professor of law at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He has written the paper “How Community Institutions Create Economic Advantage: Jewish Diamond Merchants in New York.”