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The Many Faces of Judaic Studies in Rome
Joseph Sievers
Introduction
It is no overstatement to say that Judaic Studies in Rome are in a unique situation. Rome's Jewish community has been in continuous existence for over 2000 years. It is the oldest such community in the Diaspora. Today it is relatively small but very active, with about 15.000 members. Rome also has the oldest rabbinical seminary that now offers academically accredited courses. The "Collegio Rabbinico Italiano" started out as the "Istituto Convitto Rabbinico" in Padua on November 10 1829, long before the seminaries of Breslau, Berlin or New York.
Perhaps not very surprisingly, Rome has about the highest density of Catholic seminaries and universities of any city. There are about twenty such theological institutions, and their number is growing. There is one Protestant seminary, the Valdensian Theological Faculty, which does not have any regular courses in Judaic Studies but is very active in Jewish-Christian relations, regularly hosting the major events of the local Council of Christians and Jews ("Amicizia ebraicocristiana") and other public lectures in the field. Rome also has three public universities, the largest of which, "La Sapienza", has an enrolment of over 150.000 students.
I would first like to describe Judaic Studies in Rome in its various institutional contexts, based on a survey I took between May '93 and June '94. I should immediately note that the appended list of courses is by no means complete. Language courses in Hebrew and Aramaic are not included.
Also missing are other courses of which I am aware, but for which I was unable to get first-hand information.
Secondly, I would like to offer an analysis of these data and note weaknesses and strengths of the current situation. Evidently the situation with regard to Judaic Studies is quite complex and varies from institution to institution. The Collegio Rabbinico Italiano is perhaps the smallest of these. In spite of all odds it has survived, in different locations and with various interruptions, of which the one during the final years of the Shoah was of course the most dramatic. As recently as 1988 it had only one student enrolled in its advanced rabbinic program, but since then it has had five new graduates and currently enrols five students in that program. It provides over two thirds of the congregational rabbis for Italy. Its degrees have recently been recognized by the Italian government as equivalent with university degrees. The program is small, with one (almost) full-time faculty member and four part-timers, including the chief rabbi. It places a high emphasis on practical rabbinics. The responsa literature has a prominent place in the curriculum. Admission requirements include not only knowledge of Hebrew but also membership in a Jewish community, although in the past there has been some exception to this rule. Several of the faculty members teach or have taught also in Christian institutions, one also teaches physics at the main public university of Rome.
Judaic Studies in State Universities
Outside the rabbinical seminary. Italy has practically no full-fledged program in Judaic Studies. In a recent publication on Jewish Studies in Europe it was asserted that in Italy there are ten chairs of Jewish Studies. I do not know the basis for reaching such a figure. Certainly there are more than ten people teaching different areas of Jewish Studies. In Rome alone I have found well over twenty. But the only university chair in Jewish Studies is at Udine in Northern Italy. Besides that there is a position for a "professore associato" (a rank not open to promotion to full professor) for Hellenistic Jewish Literature in the Department of Greek and Latin in the above-mentioned university of Rome. The current holder of this position is retiring this year and it is not yet clear if the line will be continued. Judaic Studies in other parts of that enormous university are also still in a precarious position. In the Philosophy Department there is a group of younger scholars, none of professorial rank, who deal with various aspects of Jewish thought from Rashi to Hannah Arendt. They have drawn crowds of students. The frame of reference in which these courses and seminars are offered, however, is the philosophy of history or theoretical philosophy, not Judaic Studies.
In early modern and modern Jewish history, the situation is somewhat similar. Although this past year a professor gave a course in this area, especially one person is teaching in this field at "La Sapienza" University. However, since she does not hold a professorial position, for now she teaches mostly seminars, connected to courses taught by a professor outside the area of Judaic Studies. As far as I am aware there is no cross-listing between the Departments of Greek and Latin where Philo is caught and any of the chairs of philosophy, or between modern Jewish history and, e.g. l9th and 20th century Jewish philosophy. Thus it is rare that a student is exposed to more than one of these aspects of Jewish civilization.
At the second public university of Rome, the professor who holds the chair for The history of Christianity is also a past president of the Italian Association for Jewish Studies.
Occasionally he teaches a course on Judaea in the first century CE. At the same university a philosopher is working on Heschel, Buber, and Rosenzweig, but obviously in a completely separate department. It is hard to sum up the situation in the public university system, but perhaps one does not go completely wrong in speaking of fragmentation and lack of recognition of Judaic Studies as a discipline of its own.
Judaic Studies in Ecclesiastical Institutions
In ecclesiastical institutions the situation is somewhat different, but here also, at least in Rome and I believe in all of Italy, there is not one full-time position in Judaic Studies as such, although this will need some qualification further on. One important difference is of course in the student body. Most theological schools in Rome are very international in character. To a greater or lesser degree they train future church leaders not only for Italy, but for countries all over the globe, now including Eastern Europe. In a recent semester I taught a course for 45 students from 24 different countries, most of whom will return to their home countries to teach Biblical Studies after completing their degree. They easily understood something of what cultural differences and language difficulties meant in Roman Palestine.
Many of the ecclesiastical institutions have started out as seminaries of particular religious orders, with a basic three-year program in theology (plus two years philosophy). On a more advanced level, however, each of these institutions specializes in one or more areas of theology The faculty of these institutions consists mostly members of the particular order, plus "visiting" professors, or adjunct faculty, from other institutions. For example, the Augustinianum, a patristic institute run by the Augustinian Order, regularly offers a course on Hellenistic Jewish literature which is given by the same professor who teaches that subject at the public university. The Institute does not have regular courses on rabbinics, but includes lectures by Israeli or foreign specialists in rabbinics in its annual patristic convention.
The Teresianum
The Teresianum is run by the Discalced Carmelites and named after St. Therese of Avila, the great reformer of their Order and one of the most important teachers of Christian spiritual life. The main specialization in its graduate program is in spirituality. Hence an optional course on Jewish spirituality has recently been added to the program. In that course a sense of the spiritual vitality of Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Judaism is conveyed to the students, but they also learn about different examples of 20th century spirituality, such as Habad and Heschel, Etty Hillesum and the Havurah Movement. Unfortunately not much time remains for the centuries in between. A visit to the main synagogue of Rome is also an important feature of the course. Students from Latin America said that through this course they received a totally new perception of Judaism as a living and vibrant reality.
Sant'Anselmo
Saint'Anselmo is a Benedictine institution. As is well known, the Benedictines have always put a strong emphasis on liturgy and have been in the forefront of liturgical renewal in the Catholic Church since long before Vatican II. Hence they offer advanced degrees in the study of liturgy and have recently added a series of courses on Jewish Liturgy. While many students come expecting to find out mostly about the antecedents of early Christian liturgy, they learn about a different liturgical tradition altogether, ancient and modern, which does share important elements with Christian liturgy, but has to be understood first and foremost on its own terms.
The Pontifical Urbaniana University
At the Pontifical Urbaniana University, which is geared primarily towards the formation of future church leaders for Third World countries, courses on the Jewish roots of Christianity are a regular feature. These include courses on "Targumim and New Testament", "Passover Haggadah and Eucharistic Meal", "Jesus and the early Christians in Talmud and Midrash" and reading courses on various Pseudepigrapha.
The Salesianum
The Salesians, a congregation founded in the l9th century with a special concern for abandoned youth and their education, have a university with a particular strength in the field of education. Biblical education is of course part of their program, and they have recently added a segment on Jewish exegesis to a course on "Old Testament" interpretation.
Thus whereas fragmentation and scattering of resources may be a characteristic of the State university system, concentration on a single aspect of Jewish civilization, where it intersects with the particular specialization of the institution is characteristic of these small Church institutions.
The Gregorian University
The situation is somewhat different at the Gregorian University, a better known institution that is owned and run by the Jesuits. It enrols over 3.000 students in various fields of theology and related disciplines, from many different countries. It has an interfaculty program in Judaic studies, which embraces many aspects of Jewish civilization. Unfortunately this program has no full-time faculty. Thus it relies in part on visiting professors from Israel (or America), who teach in their specialty for a semester, in part on people available in Rome. A few years ago a course, which resulted in a book, was given by an Israeli of Italian origin on the history of modern antisemitism. Another Italian-born Israeli gave a course on Jewish history in the aftermath of 1492, for which he got something like a "Teacher-of-the-year" award. Recently a faculty member from Bar-Ilan University, who is also the son of Rome's chief rabbi, gave a course on Italian Jewish history. Almost every year a course is held on the Catholic Church and Judaism, with an introduction to the developments since Vatican II and lectures on a variety of different aspects of Judaism and the history of Catholic-Jewish relations. This course is taught jointly by specialists in various fields who cover between two and ten hours of the course and draw fairly large numbers of students (100 is not unusual). Besides this course, a professor who specializes in 20th century philosophy regularly includes discussion of Rosenzweig, Buber and Levinas in his lectures and seminars. Recently the Gregorian University has instituted a program of scholarships to enable students of the Faculty of Theology to take part in the Summer School in Biblical Hebrew at the Martin Buber Institute of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Thus the Gregorian University seems to offer great potential for an actual course of studies in Jewish civilization, especially if one takes into consideration cross-listings from the Pontifical Biblical Institute across the street.
The Pontifical Biblical Institute
This Institute was founded in 1909 by Pope Pius himself and has been entrusted to the Jesuits from the very beginning. Since 1928 it is associated with the Gregorian University, but has its own independent administration. Its library is among the best for Biblical studies in Europe and certainly the best in Italy in many areas of Jewish Studies as well. Since 1927 the Biblical Institute has a Jerusalem branch where students and faculty can come either for short stays or for a fully accredited semester in cooperation with either the Hebrew University (a program now in its 20th year) or with the Ecole Biblique. The focus of the Institute has been and remains strictly Biblical. Thus, even though there is an entire department devoted to teaching pre-and extra-Biblical civilizations ("La Facolta degli Studi dell'Oriente Antico"), it is seen as ancillary to Biblical Studies in the widest sense (language courses are offered in Hittite, Akkadian, Arabic, besides Coptic, Georgian and Armenian). Similarly, post-biblical Jewish Studies are treated as background to the study of Old and New Testament. Thus, a specialist in rabbinic literature teaches a course on Mishnah under the heading "The historical and religious background of the New Testament" or on rabbinic interpretations of the Akedah in the category "Introduction to the Old Testament". Within these courses he certainly does point out the value of these texts for their own sake and does put them into their own context, i.e., rabbinic Judaism. The situation in teaching the literature and history of the Second Temple period is similar. Courses receive credit as introduction to the "Old" or New Testament or as history of the New Testament period (in Italian "Antico Testamento" does not seem to have the negative connotation that "Old" vs. "New" has in English). In these courses, while the students acquire a better background in Biblical studies, they also discover lines of continuity as well as differences between various Jewish and Christian groups.
The Pontifical Lateran University
If the Gregorian University seems to have the largest potential, it is also worth mentioning that the "oldest" program and one that does try to present Jewish civilization by itself and not only in its relation to Christianity is to be found at the Pontifical Lateran University. As far as I know, this program was started shortly after Vatican II through the initiative of the late Monsignor Rossano, one of the people who worked on drafting Nostra Aetate, the Council's declaration on the relationship of the Catholic Church with non-Christian religions. An introduction to rabbinic Judaism is being taught at the Lateran by a rabbi, who is the second holder of that position. At the same university, another person teaches in the Faculty of Law a regular course on Jewish Biblical and post-Biblical law.
Summing Up
This is not in any way a complete presentation of the courses in Jewish Studies. Perhaps the examples cited give at least a first impression of the variety of offerings and their limitations.
On the one hand one might note that there is a surprising richness of offerings. No one, least of all myself, would have anticipated that I would find forty courses of Judaic Studies in the city of Rome. This is a significant increase over what was available thirty years ago or only ten years ago. In the large majority of cases, the current teacher is the first holder of that position. It is true that a fairly large number of these courses deal with Second Temple Judaism in the context of Christian origins, but many other areas are covered as well.
Aside from the Collegio Rabbinico, rabbinic literature is being taught, in introductory courses at the Lateran, at the Urbaniana, and at "La Sapienza" Universities. Classes are at a somewhat more specialized level (with a good background at least in Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic) at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, focusing on a specific theme or group of texts for a whole semester.
From the gaonic period to the early modern era there are few courses or segments of courses, mainly a segment on Rashi at a public university. Yet recently I have been asked if I knew anyone who could teach a course at a Church institution on the history of medieval Jewish exegesis.
The modern period is covered by a lone history and by at least four philosophy teachers. I have not been able to find any current courses dealing directly with the Shoah although the above mentioned course on modern antisemitism at the Gregorian University obviously included it. As far as I know there are no courses on modern Israel (this applies to the rabbinical school as well as to State- and Church-sponsored institutions), even though Israeli law is covered in some courses on Jewish law.
Certainly since the sixties much progress has been made. It is hard for me to gauge this progress in the State Universities since I know them only as an outsider. If at least some of the young researchers will get full teaching appointments, at least the areas of philosophy and perhaps history will be covered much better than in the past. One problem that is rather general is the question of training future scholars in Judaic Studies. Outside of the rabbinical school with its primarily practical and not academic purpose, there is no institution or department in Italy that trains scholars directly in Judaic Studies, although departments of Semitic languages or Ancient Near Eastern Studies indirectly fulfill part of this function.
As regards Catholic institutions, there is a general openness on the part of administrators and of many professors who recognize the importance of various aspects of Judaic Studies for a Christian theological curriculum. The richness of the offerings and some problems arise out of the specialization of most institutions, so that they approach Judaic Studies only from one particular angle (liturgy, spirituality, Bible, education, Hellenistic thought, history of exegesis). The challenge and the opportunity for the teacher is to give the students an undistorted glimpse of Judaism, even when dealing with it from a very limited vantage point. The opportunities to reach students from every corner of the globe are enormous. Considering that many will tomorrow be seminary teachers in countries where negative images of Jews and Judaism are still widespread, a grave responsibility rests on the teacher who has just one course to help change that situation. After discussing this question with a rabbi from the rabbinical college we left each other with the words attributed to R. Tarfon: Lo alecha hammelachah ligmor, welo attah ben-chorin lehibbattel mimenah, freely translated: It is not up to you to finish the work, but you are not free to desist from it (m. Abot 2:16).
*Dr. Joseph Sievers teaches at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and at the International Federation of Catholic Universities.
1. I would like to thank the staff at SIDIC for much encouragement and logistical support for this project. I would also like to thank the many scholars who answered my queries and/or suggested corrections and improvements. All remaining deficiencies are of course solely my own responsibility
Professor Joseph Sievers agreed, in September 1994 to be the principal adviser for the SIDIC periodical, replacing Professor Reverend Roger Le Déaut. We thank Professor Sievers for taking on this essential task.
Sidic wishes to express its profound gratitude to Père Le Déaut for the long years of devoted service to Sidic which has safeguarded its quality and its orientation.
