Rabbi Skorka, who has had a deep friendship with Pope Francis for many years, will discuss the importance of interfaith dialogue for Jews and other religious communities. His lecture, titled “Interfaith Dialogue: The Way Forward,” is free and open to the public.
 
Born in Buenos Aires in 1950, Skorka was ordained as a rabbi in 1973 and earned a doctorate degree in chemistry in 1979. Now rabbi of the Jewish Community Benei Tikva, he has published in the fields of biophysics and Biblical and Talmudic research. He is currently serving as a visiting professor at the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
 
Nearly 20 years ago, Rabbi Skorka met Jorge Mario Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) when the latter was the archbishop of Buenos Aires. The two recognized a shared commitment to interfaith dialogue and embarked on a series of discussions held alternately at the seat of the bishop and Benei Tikva. These discussions were published in the 2010 book Sobre el Cielo y la Tierra, or On Heaven and Earth.
 
“This friendship began because he opened the door for interfaith dialogue,” Rabbi Skorka said of the Pope. “He was archbishop of one of the most important Catholic cities in the world and I was a rabbi. He approached me first by making jokes about football, and what came out of that was a real and sincere friendship built on this commitment to interfaith dialogue.”
 
After his papacy began in 2013, Pope Francis sought Rabbi Skorka’s companionship during public dialogues about interfaith relationships. In September 2015, Pope Francis and Rabbi Skorka visited Saint Joseph’s University for the 50^th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s document calling for a transformed relationship between the Catholic and Jewish faiths. There, the Pope blessed “Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time,” a bronze sculpture that uses female figures to represent the Synagogue and the Church. He and Rabbi Skorka both spoke to an audience that topped 400 people.
 
In February 2019, Pope Francis and Rabbi Skorka again made headlines when they visited the United Arab Emirates. There, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar signed a Document on Human Fraternity, calling on people around the globe to unite to bring about interfaith harmony and spread a vital message of peace.
 
“In interfaith relationships, the emphasis is on relationships,” Rabbi Skorka said. “A relationship is much more than mere words. It’s an attitude of understanding the other, of forming situations in which you are putting yourself in the place of the other and coming to a deep understanding of the sentiments of the other.”
 
Rabbi Skorka also accompanied Pope Francis to the Holy Land in May 2014 and to Auschwitz-Birkenau in July 2016. In Auschwitz, Rabbi Skorka fielded questions from Polish journalists who asked him about his friendship with the Pope.
 
“They asked what I ate and drank with the Pope,” he said, “but they also asked serious questions about why it’s important to have interfaith dialogue. I told them that people lived in the barracks, in miserable conditions, before facing death. I told them that the barracks would not exist if, 80 years ago, a reality of dialogue existed.”
 
“Dialogue means putting yourself in the place of the other,” Rabbi Skorka said. “It means being empathic with the other, to understand the other, to see in the other your brother. The Holocaust occurred because faith became a barrier that divided one person from the other, but even after so many bad things have happened, it’s possible to sit around the table and discover the brotherhood that connects one to the other.”
 
Rabbi Skorka’s lecture promises to entertain and inform, said Dr. Ruth Sandberg, the Leonard and Ethel Landau Professor of Rabbinics at Gratz and director of the Interfaith Leadership program. Skorka will define interfaith dialogue and discuss ways to put it into action.
 
“Rabbi Skorka has really become a Jewish partner who accompanies the Pope on these important trips,” Sandberg said. “This relationship really epitomizes interfaith dialogue and serves as an example for why all faiths need to be involved in these conversations. Everyone needs a voice, but they also need to hear the other voices.”
 
The Shusterman Distinguished Scholar Lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 27, at Gratz College, 7605 Old York Road, Melrose Park, Pa. Admission is free, but pre-registration is recommended. Click here to register or for more information.

Supported by a major endowment, the Shusterman series is dedicated to bringing outstanding programs to Gratz College. Gratz College is grateful for the generosity and foresight of Judith (z”l) and Murray (z”l) Shusterman.