The Hayyim and Esther Kieval Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies at Siena College will hold its 40th annual colloquium on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 3 p.m., in Key Auditorium/Roger Bacon 202, according to Institute director Professor Peter Zaas and chairwoman Rabbi Rena Kieval.

Prof. ZASS

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine and Sr. Barbara Reid will hold an interfaith conversation titled, The Parables of Jesus.

Dr. LEVINE

Dr. Levine is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace; and University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, at Vanderbilt University.

Sr. REID

Sr. Reid is President, Chicago Theological Union, and Carroll Stuhlmueller CP Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies.

History of Rabbi Herman Kieval

Founding Director of the Institute Herman Hayyim Kieval was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1920 to Sarah and Isadore Kieval. He attended both public school and Hebrew school in Baltimore. Kieval received a BA from Johns Hopkins University in 1939, was ordained and received a master’s degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1942, and earned a doctorate in Hebrew literature at the Seminary in 1977. After Rabbi Kieval’s ordination he went into the pulpit at Congregation Beth Judah in Ventnor, NJ, where he remained from 1942 to 1944.

In 1944, Kieval enlisted in the United States Army as a chaplain. After a year of training and serving in Hawaii and Okinawa, Kieval became the first Jewish chaplain of the Army of Occupation in Korea. He served in Korea from 1945 to 1946, attaining the rank of captain. One of his duties was to edit Kol Korea (voice of Korea).

After his army service, Kieval returned to the United States and to the pulpit, serving in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Congregation Ahavas Israel from 1946 to 1950. In 1950, he moved into a pulpit in Pittsburgh, Congregation Beth Shalom, where he served until 1954. In 1955, he went to Temple Israel in Albany, New York where he served as rabbi for thirty-one years until his retirement in 1986. He was rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel until his death in 1991.

From 1958 to 1980, Kieval taught Jewish liturgy at the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1959, the United Synagogue of America published the first volume of his major study The High Holy Days, which deals with the prayerbook for Rosh Hashanah. Kieval started a second volume, on Yom Kippur. He also wrote articles on the liturgy for the Encyclopedia Judaica, and helped edit several prayer books.

Kieval also taught at the State University of New York at Albany; St. Michael’s College, Winooski, Vermont; Notre Dame University; and Princeton Theological Seminary.

In 1983, Kieval established the Jewish-Christian Institute of Siena College  He ran colloquia there on interfaith issues and was a guest lecturer in many organizations on this topic.

Rabbi Kieval received honorary doctorates from Baltimore Hebrew College, 1969; Jewish Theological Seminary, 1971; and Siena College, 1974. Siena College, additionally, held a colloquium in Kieval’s honor following his death.

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Peter S. Zaas, Ph.D., was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and educated at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, Oberlin College, The University of Chicago, and Duke University. At the University of Chicago he earned an M.A. and Ph.D.in the Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature, writing his doctoral dissertation on the communication of moral language in the letters of Paul. After teaching for three years at Hamilton College, he joined the Religious Studies faculty at Siena in 1982. He has traveled the world with Siena students.