In the wake of the Holocaust, a religious phenomenon arose in Israel fueled by Holocaust survivors who had converted to Catholicism as well as by Catholics determined to address the anti-Judaism inherent in their religious tradition. This talk examines this “Judeocentric Catholicism” as a case study in Catholic perceptions of Jews, Judaism, and the state of Israel.

Dr. Emma Polyakov conducts research on interreligious and intercultural relations, and is Assistant Professor of the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion at Merrimack College. She is the author of three books—The Nun in the Synagogue: Judeocentric Catholicism in Israel (Penn State University Press, 2020); Remembering the Future: The Experience of Time in Jewish and Christian Liturgy (Liturgical Press, 2015); and Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Interreligious Hermeneutics: Ways of Seeing the Religious Other (Brill-Rodopi, 2018)—and is currently working on two more books exploring religious perspectives on Jerusalem. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston College, an M.T.S from Boston University, and a B.A. from Bard College.