Rabbi to speak at Saint John’s about everyday peacemaking
January 11, 2013
Rabbi Amy Eilberg will present the lecture "From Enemy to Friend: Jewish Reflections on Everyday Peacemaking" at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4, in Quad 264 at Saint John's University.
The lecture is sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning in collaboration with the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University departments of peace studies and theology. It is free and open to the public.
Drawing on Judaism's rich body of sacred texts about peace and peacemaking, Eilberg will explore why conflict arises among individuals and groups, what contributes to the resolution of conflict and how each of us can serve the cause of peace.
Eilberg will be rabbi-in-residence with the Jay Phillips Center, a joint enterprise of Saint John's University and the University of St. Thomas, from Feb. 4-15.
In 1985, Eilberg became the first women ordained as a rabbi in Judaism's Conservative Movement. A co-founder of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, where she directed the Jewish Hospice Care Program, and a founding co-director of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction, she is nationally known as a leader of the Jewish healing movement and in the field of Jewish spiritual direction.
From 2007-11, Eilberg served as coordinator of the Jay Phillips Center's Interfaith Conversations Project, fostering interfaith learning and friendship among Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Twin Cities area. Currently, she is the center's special consultant for interfaith conversation. She also works with Jewish Council on Public Affairs on its Civility Campaign and serves on the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.
Eilberg is also deeply engaged in the work of peace and reconciliation, particularly in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, lecturing and writing on this topic as well as on the art of compassionate listening, healing, and spiritual direction. She is at work on a book titled From Enemy to Friend: The Sacred Practice of Jewish Peacemaking.