Luce
Foundation Awards Hartford Seminary Grant to Support Jewish
Professorship
Hartford
Seminary has received a $180,000 three-year grant from the Henry
Luce Foundation to support a professorship in Jewish studies that
will augment the Seminary’s program in Abrahamic religions.
The Seminary
intends to use the money to appoint Yehezkel Landau as faculty
associate in interfaith relations. Landau has been teaching at the
Seminary and participating in dialogue with Christian and Muslim
colleagues at public events.
Heidi Hadsell,
president of the Seminary, said, “Hartford Seminary is deeply
appreciative of this grant. It is essential at this stage in world
history that dialogue be encouraged. Yehezkel Landau brings a new
perspective to the Seminary, adding depth to our Abrahamic program,
and we are pleased that he will continue to work here and in the
greater Hartford community.”
Among the
courses Landau has taught in the 2002-2003 academic year are “A
Jewish Approach to Spirituality” and “Religion, Conflict and
Peacemaking.”
Landau, who is
administrative director of Open House in Israel, a center for
Jewish-Arab co-existence, came to Hartford Seminary in September
2002. He has taught courses, spoken numerous times in the community
and worked with religious leaders seeking to improve the interfaith
climate.
From 1979 to
2002, Landau lived in Israel, promoting the cause of peace. He
founded Open House in 1991, to further peace and coexistence among
Israeli Arabs and Jews in Ramle, a city of 65,000 outside Jerusalem.
Open
House has two inter-related goals: to provide educational and social
opportunities to Arab children and their families through its Center for the Development of the Arab
Child and to be a place of encounter and cooperation
between Jews and Arabs through its Center
for Jewish-Arab Coexistence.
The
appointment of Landau comes at a time when the Seminary has revised
its mission statement to emphasize dialogue as central to its
mission.
