Rabbi Dr. Burton L. Visotzky, director of the Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies at The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, will speak at 7 p.m. tonight, Sept. 10, in the ballroom of Brown-Lupton University Union. He is guest of honor for the 15th annual Gates of Chai Lectureship, sponsored by Brite Divinity School and the Jewish Studies Program at TCU.

 

Topic of his remarks will be “In Abraham’s Tent: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Relations.” Tickets are $20 for general admission with valet parking. Students are admitted free. For tickets, go to www.brite.edu or phone ext. 7575.

 

Author of 10 books, Dr. Visotzky’s most recent works include A Delightful Compendium of Consolation: A Fabulous Tale of Romance,Adventure and Faith in the Medieval Mediterranean, The Genesis of Ethics and Sage Tales: Wisdom and Wonder from the Rabbis of the Talmud.

 

Dr. Visotzky has been on the faculty of JTS since his ordination in 1977. He also holds degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Harvard University and has been visiting faculty at Oxford, Cambridge and Princeton universities. With Bill Moyers, Dr. Visotzky developed 10 hours of television for PBS in a production titled Genesis: A Living Conversation.  He also consulted with Jeffrey Katzenberg and DreamWorks for the company’s 1998 film Prince of Egypt.

 

The Gates of Chai Lectureship is designed to promote informed, dynamic public dialogue and education on issues of relevance to contemporary Judaism. The Lectureship is sponsored through the generosity of Gates of Chai, Inc., in memory of LarryKornbleet and family members of Stanley and Marcia Kornbleet Kurtz who perished in the Holocaust.

 

Previous Gates of Chai speakers include Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, legal/political activists Morris Dees and Susan Estrich, Middle Eastern policy expert Dennis Ross and authors Rabbi Harold Kushner, Thomas Cahill, Chaim Potok and Bruce Feiler.