Report on the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting

The CCJR's Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting Was Hosted by  The Driscoll Professorship in Jewish-Catholic Studies, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
Sunday, November 9, 2025
12:00-1:30 pm	Arrival and lunch
1:45-2:00 pm	Welcome
	Greetings from Iona University Adam Gregerman, Saint Joseph's University (CCJR chair)
2:00-3:30 pm	Session 1: Evangelical-Jewish Relations
	Moderator: Nick Scott-Blakely, Fuller Theological Seminary Motti Inbari, University of North Carolina, Pembroke and Kirill  Bumin, Boston University,  "The American Religious Landscape and October 7th Events: A Study of Public Opinion" Amy Weiss, University of Hartford, "Evangelical-Jewish Relations: What Role Does Israel Play in Interfaith Dialogue?"
4:00-5:30 pm	KEYNOTE ADDRESS
	Peter Ochs, Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia "God's Words in Dialogue, Dabru Emet, Dei Verbum, Nostra Aetate"
6:00-8:00 pm	CCJR Dinner and Presentation of the Shevet Achim Award to Peter Ochs
	Memorial Remembrance for Lawrence Frizzell, Seton Hall University Blessings and Dinner Shevet Achim Award (Laudations by Daniel Joslyn Siemiatkoski, Boston College and Victoria Barnett, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, emerita
Monday, November 10, 2025
9:00-10:15 am	Session 2: The Past and Future of Nostra Aetate
	Moderator: Elena Procario Foley, Iona University Rev. Russell McDougall, C.S.C., Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
10:30 am-12:00 pm	Session 3: Opening the Archives: The Vatican and Holocaust Research
	Moderator: Philip A. Cunningham, Saint Joseph's University Anatol Steck, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Zachary Levine, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Rebecca Carter-Chand, US Holocaust Memorial Museum
12:00-1:00 pm	Lunch
1:00-2:15 pm	CCJR Business Meeting (See the minutes below)
2:30-4:00 pm	Session 4: Innovations in Jewish-Christian Relations Inside and Outside the University
	Moderator: Bonnie Shafrin, CCJR Secretary-Treasurer Rachel Slutsky, Seton Hall University Benjamin Kamine, Jewish Theological Seminary Aubrey McClain, Greenville University
4:00 pm	Closing / Departure

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Business Meeting Minutes 

The business meeting began with a short memorial for Fr. Lawrence Frizzell prepared by Rachel Slutsky. 

1. Roll Call of voting (regular) members (a quorum was achieved):

• Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT
• Center for Jewish-Christian Learning, Boston College
• Christian Jewish Relation and Encounter of the Sisters of Sion, Toronto, Canada
• Driscoll Professorship in Jewish-Catholic Studies, Iona university, New Rochelle, CT
• Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations, Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia
• Jewish-Christian Studies Program, Greenville University, IL
• Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL
• Lux Center
• Milstein Center, Jewish Theological Seminary
• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

2. Election of at-large Board of Directors seat. Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkowski (Boston College) was elected unanimously.  
3. Treasurer's Report: Secretary-Treasurer Bonnie Shafrin reported that only a handful of annual dues were outstanding. She thanked those members who paid more than the minimum dues and then made some specific observations: 

The total dues received in the 204-25 fiscal year was $20,760. 

Annual meeting 2024: income from registrations was $4,047.82. 

Bonnie thanked meeting host Iona University and Elena Procario Foley for her amazing attention to detail and for covering the meeting costs of the 2025 meeting. 

In terms of expenses, the largest expense was the $11,000 allocated for the CCJR website upgrade. The other half of the cost had been paid earlier by the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph's University. The meeting costs for the 2024 meeting were covered by the host, Catholic Theological Union. Other expenses were Signer scholarships, ICCJ dues, two members sent to the ICCJ gathering in Warsaw, and stipends for editors of the CCJR journal, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations. Overall, the expenses surpassed the income, but reserves compensated for that. 

The Treasurer's Report was unanimously accepted by the voting members. 

The Budget for 2025-2026 was presented. Although some expenses will increase, they will be offset by having the website upgrade completely paid. The voting members unanimously approved the projected budget. 

The chair, Adam Gregerman, thanked Phil Cunningham for working with GoDaddy resources, the website company in making the transition to the new site and for continuing to fix glitches as they turn up. Members should contact him when they find problems in the site. Adam also expressed thanks to Bonnie for her work and conscientious attention to details as the CCJR Secretary-Treasurer. 

4. Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations report – Rachel Slutsky: Book review updates are in process: 5 actively in process, 2 about to be published, seeking reviewers for 9 books, looking for book and for reviewer ideas. Her report was unanimously accepted.
5. Applications for new membership: One application had been received from the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, directed by Alison Vick. After a brief discussion, the application was unanimously accepted.
6. International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) report - Phil Cunningham:  

The ICCJ, of which the CJR is the U.S. national member organization, reconfigured its conference structure two years ago. Full conferences occur full conferences every other year, alternating with smaller gatherings of two representatives from national member organizations. Elena Procario-Foley and Rebecca Carter-Chand represented the CCJR at the gathering in Warsaw last June. The smaller number of participants enabled Created safe space for discussions in this smaller group. Here are the upcoming conferences and gatherings:  ICCJ International Conference 2026: Hanover, Germany, July 12-16, 2026 (note later dates than usual); Members’ Gathering 2027: Luzern, Switzerland, June 27-30, 2027, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Seelisberg conference. 

ICCJ's International Abrahamic Forum has been reconstituted with Benjamin Kamine (JTS) as its Jewish Co-Chair and liaison to the ICCJ Executive Board. The IAF Steering Committee consists of the Jewish Co-Chair, the Muslim Co-Chair, Melody Amal Khalil Kabalan of Argentina, and the Christian member, Hussam Elias of the Holy Land.

Phil also noted that the ICCJ website is not up to date due to delays in project approval from the German government.

7. Locations for 2026 meeting [after this business meeting the 2026 CCJR conference will be held at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City on October 25-26.]
8. Additional Business: 

A discussion about how to encourage more member organizations to attend the annual CCJR conferences ensued. It was noted that the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate and the conflict with Kristallnacht were deterrents to attendance. Suggestions that were expressed to improve participation included: invite members to be speakers, have Zoom meetings for the directors of centers, publicize better individual center's activities, and draw upon less active centers to fill Board vacancies. The chair noted that there were two categories of topics here: getting current member centers to participate more and soliciting new member centers to join. He also mentioned having virtual discussions to maintain energy and contact. 

There was also a discussion about the listserv. Given the tensions in the world, in the past year the list had gotten heated, off-topic, and occasionally ad hominem. The discourse improved after the Board drafted new guidelines for postings that were added to the signature lines for each posting. 

9. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 2:07 p.m.