about judith banki

Judith Banki is a writer, lecturer and world-renowned expert in interreligious affairs.  She has served as Director of Exploring the Religious Roots of Prejudice (Special Programs) at Tanenbaum since its inception in 1992, which confronts religious bias by convening scholars and publishing writings on religious texts and teachings. 

In 1961, Ms. Banki authored The Image of the Jews in Catholic Teaching, a memor- andum which helped pave the way for the historic declaration Nostra Aetate, adopted
at the Second Vatican Council.  She condensed and interpreted major religious textbook self-studies carried out at Yale Divinity School, St. Louis University and Dropsie College in the United States, and in Europe at the Pro Deo University in Rome, Louvain University in Belgium and the universities of Duisberg and Freiburg in Germany. 

An early proponent of women’s interreligious dialogue, she was a founding member
of the Women of Faith Task Force, a dialogue involving Jewish, Christian and Muslim women.  She was the only woman to give a paper at the Vatican-Jewish conference
in Baltimore, 1993.

Her writings have appeared in a variety of publications, including Commonweal, Religious Education, the National Catholic Register and the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.  For two consecutive years, her coverage of the Second Vatican Council was featured as “The Year in Religion” articles of the American Jewish Year Book (1965-66).  Her article "Baltimore and Eisenach:  Reflections on Two Dialogues" was awarded the Graymoor Ecumenical Prize in 1993.

Ms. Banki has served as the Associate National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee and as editor of the Interreligious Newsletter.  In 2001, she received an honorary doctorate from Seton Hall University in recognition of her work in the area of Jewish-Christian Relations.

In 1992, the National Conference on Christian-Jewish Relations honored Ms. Banki for her groundbreaking work.  "No one has done more to shape the nature and meaning of interreligious relations as we have developed them, perhaps uniquely, in this country than Judith Banki," they declared. 
 

back to top 

back to special programs home.