Villa Maria Education & Spirituality Center 10th Annual Nostra Aetate 

The 10th Annual Nostra Aetate

• Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at 2:00 pm & 7:00 pm with Dr. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal 

Nostra aetate (from Latin: “In our time”) is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated on 28 October 1965 by Pope Paul VI. It is the shortest of the 16 final documents of the Council and “the first in Catholic history to focus on the relationship that Catholics have with Jews.” It “reveres the work of God in all the major faith traditions.” It begins by stating its purpose of reflecting on what humankind has in common in these times when people are being drawn closer together.

Dr. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal  will present two lectures:

• The Rabbi who was a Monk: On Christians Monasticism and the Babylonian Talmud at 2:00 pm
• When a Heretic and a Rabbi Meet: On Jewish-Christian Dialogues over Scripture at 7:00 pm.

This event is free. An optional dinner is being offered for $10 per person at 5:25 pm.

Event is co-sponsored by Rev. George Balasko and Rabbi Joseph P. Schonberger.

Michal Bar-Asher Siegal is a scholar of rabbinic Judaism. Her work focuses on aspects of Jewish-Christian interactions in the ancient world and compares between Early Christian and rabbinic sources. She is a faculty member at The Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and was an elected member of the Israel Young Academy of Sciences. She is the Horace Goldsmith Visiting Professor in Judaic Studies, Yale University Associate Professor.  Her first book is Early Christian Monastic Literature and the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2013, winner of the 2014 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award). Her second book is Jewish – Christian Dialogues on Scripture in Late Antiquity: Heretic Narratives of the Babylonian Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2019, a finalist, National Jewish Book Award , 2019).

Registration is preferred.

Lecture Cost: Free to the public – Optional Dinner Cost: $10

For more information: vmesc.org or call 724-964-8886.

VMESC is in Villa Maria, PA, approximately one mile from the Pennsylvania/Ohio state line. From Ohio, travel 422 East, turn right onto Evergreen Road.  From Pennsylvania, travel 422 West, turn left onto Evergreen Road, travel one mile and turn right onto Villa Marie Road and follow the signage for 225 Villa Marie Road. It’s about an hour from Pittsburgh.