A Jewish look at Christianity | The Jewish Standard

When he was in rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary in the late 1990s, Rabbi David J. Fine developed a particular interest in Christianity.

“The development of the synagogue occurred at the same time as that of the church,” he said, noting that his interest in Christianity dates back to his studies of ancient Judaism, “particularly the influences that go back and forth between the rabbis and the early church fathers. A lot of newer scholarship points more to mutual cross-fertilization between the two.

“We need to understand Christianity as an outgrowth of Judaism, and rabbinic Judaism as an outgrowth of the same core culture,” he said. In addition, “I don’t think you can understand the origins of Christianity without understanding Judaism — though sometimes the Jewish origins of Christianity are not as well known to the Christian population.”

To spread that understanding, beginning on October 19 Rabbi Fine — who is the religious leader of Ridgewood’s Temple Israel and Jewish Community Center — will offer a series of six lectures on “Judaism and Christianity: The History of a Challenging Relationship” for the CSI Scholar Fund of the JCC of Fort Lee. (See box.)

This is not the first time that Rabbi Fine, who holds a doctorate in modern European history, has brought his interest in religious interchange into the public arena. In 2010, he attended the Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany as part of an American Jewish Committee effort to engage in interreligious dialogue. (Passion plays show the last

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