“Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time” by Joshua Koffman, on the campus of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia

Last week, Rabbi Or Rose, Director of the Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership, participated in two special programs commemorating the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate—the landmark Vatican II declaration that transformed Catholic relations with people of other faiths.

At Boston College, Rabbi Rose joined longtime Miller Center collaborator Dr. Celene Ibrahim for the Brien O’Brien and Mary Hasten Lecture in Interreligious Dialogue, "Spiritual Resilience in Times of Disillusionment: A Jewish-Muslim Dialogue", exploring the enduring impact of Nostra Aetate on the Abrahamic faith traditions and the current state of interreligious engagement. Later in the week, he traveled to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, home to the historic Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations (founded in 1967 in the wake of Nostra Aetate), where he led an interreligious interactive workshop with Dr. Homayra Ziad.

These gatherings reflect the ongoing spirit of Nostra Aetate—fostering deeper understanding, collaboration, and solidarity among people of diverse faiths in our increasingly interconnected yet divided world.

Janis Ian: Breaking Silence, December 3rd, 6:30 pm, Coolidge Corner Theater

Hebrew College and shared campus partners Jewish Women's Archive and Keshet invite you to a special screening of "Breaking Silence", a documentary about the life and career of singer-songwriter Janis Ian, December 3 at Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, followed by a conversation with filmmaker Pierre Hauser.

Explore the life, music, and times of the maverick singer-songwriter, who as a young artist shattered taboos with hits like “Society's Child” and “At Seventeen”, cementing her place as a voice for outsiders everywhere. Over six decades, Ian has overcome controversy, misogyny, and homophobia to create an indelible body of work.

Janis Ian: Breaking Silence features interviews with Ian's extraordinary community of friends and collaborators, including folk luminaries Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, and Tom Paxton, as well as Hollywood greats Lily Tomlin, Jean Smart, and Laurie Metcalf. 

*please note: tickets available by advance purchase only

Step inside any sukkah (harvest booth) during the fall Jewish festival of Sukkot—“The Season of Our Joy”—and you immediately sense the paradox: flimsy walls, a roof of branches, a vulnerable structure open to rain and wind. Yet, for a full week the sukkah becomes a place for meals, conversation, and connection. We are called not only to build sukkot, but to welcome guests (heavenly and human) to sit inside them; to make room for others and treat them with dignity and care. What does this have to do with talking about Israel? Everything.

Two years since the atrocities of October 7th, and in the early days of a fragile ceasefire following two years of war, conversations within the Jewish community have become increasingly tense and often unmanageable. On college campuses, in synagogues, and around family tables, sharp rifts cut across generations and ideologies. Many people retreat into silence or ideological echo chambers when grappling with Israel, Palestine, Zionism, anti-Zionism, and other fraught terms entangled in a mess that feels too hard to navigate.

But as we know from history and our present moment, silence and separation do not serve us. If there was ever a time to construct sukkah-like spaces where Jewish interlocutors can be honest and curious, listening for what the spiritual polymath Howard Thurman called “the sound of the genuine,” that time is now.

The Miller Center recently welcomed a new addition to our team! Miriam Cohen joins us as an administrative assistant with a background in interfaith organizing. We asked her five icebreaker style questions, check out her answers below!

Where did you grow up and when did you move to the Boston area?

I grew up in Farmington, Maine, and moved to Cambridge in 2021, drawn by the vibrant Jewish community here.

What drew you to the Miller Center?

I love the inner workings of getting complex projects done, from meetings to calendars to spreadsheets, and am happy to be doing that work to help the Miller Center's important mission of interfaith connection.

Tell us about a life/education/work experience that intersects with the Miller Center's scope of work.

I moved to Boston as an interfaith climate organizer for Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light. I loved bringing people together around a shared commitment to community and tradition, particularly at a time when organized religion can be an alienating or radicalizing force in people's lives.

What is something "extracurricular"/mostly-just-for-fun you are passionate about?

I recently became a committed NFL fan (Eagles, for my dad's hometown) and am slowly growing to understand the jargon of nerdy football podcasts.

Dignity Project fellows sitting with change-agents at their October meeting.

Last month, three inspiring changemakers spoke with the Dignity Project Fellows about using their voices to make change. Hannah Hafter of Episcopal City Mission, Elijah Cook from Bikes Not Bombs, and Dua Zahra of Harvard Divinity School, shared different strategies of changemaking, and spoke about how their religious, spiritual, and ethical commitments shape their work. "People often ask me, 'What can I do?' said Hafter, as she spoke about her experience organizing for reparations and immigrant solidarity. "But what can we do is always more powerful than all of the individual "I's" put together." We are excited to see how the Dignity Fellows answer that question as they continue their fellowship year together.

When: November 22, 6-7:30pm
Where: Old South Church, 645 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116

Award-winning American composer Delvyn Case, a long-time supporter of the Miller Center’s work, will conduct the Deus Ex Musica Ensemble in a live performance of his dramatic new solo cantata based on Genesis 22. This 25-minute piece explores the complex theological, narrative, and interpretive challenges of the infamous passage by highlighting how the thread of sacrificial violence binds together Elohim, Abraham, and Isaac–and, through its historical legacy, all of us. Presented as part of the national conference of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature and sponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College. This event is free and open to the public.

Instructor: Rabbi Or Rose
Dates: 3 Thursdays: 12/4, 12/11 & 12/18
Time:  7:30-9:00 pm Eastern
Location: In-person (Hebrew College)

During the medieval period, our Jewish mystical (Kabbalistic) forebears developed a complex and highly original symbol system known as the 10 Sefirot (numbers, orbs, traits) as a way of mapping reality. Building on an array of earlier sources, they sought to help seekers orient themselves in the cosmos, developing a heightened consciousness of the unity and interconnection of all life. The Kabbalists viewed this mapping as a guide to theology, ethics, text study and more. Join us as we explore this rich symbol system, asking how this medieval innovation might be meaningful to us in our contemporary journey.

"Hidden Figures: The Sefirot Series by Harel Kedem" is on exhibit on Hebrew College's Newton Campus, Sept 11-December 19 2025 

Instructor: Rabbi Leonard Gordon, DMin
Dates: 3 Thursdays: 11/6, 11/13, 11/20 
Time:  7-9 pm Eastern
Location: Online (Zoom)

Jews, Christians and Muslims share stories of a common ancestor, Abraham. But the stories we tell are very different. Our sessions will read passages from Rabbinic Midrash, the letters of St . Paul and the Quran to explore how stories unite and divide us. Who was Abraham’s favorite son (Isaac or Ishmael)? Was Sarah or Hagar the mother bearing the promise? Did Abraham establish the Temple Mount altar in Jerusalem or the Kabah in Mecca? Is God one or three? No previous background assumed.