Academic Staff

Dr. Naim Ateek

Born in the Galilee, Naim is a former canon-pastor of the Arab Anglican community, St. George’s Cathedral (Jerusalem). He received a doctorate in ministry at San Francisco Theological Seminary. He is the author of Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation and director of Sabeel, the Palestinian Liberation Theology Center. He is a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the Middle East Council of Churches.

Rev. Dr. Frans Bouwen

Born in Belgium, Frans is a member of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) and has lived in the Old City for more than thirty years. He is editor of Prôche-Orient Chrétien. He is a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches and of the Middle East Council of Churches. He is frequently consulted on issues related to Christian-Muslim and Eastern-Western Christian dialogue.

Dr. Edward Breuer

A native of Hamilton, Canada, Eddy settled in Israel two years ago. He has taught at Hebrew University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Loyola University of Chicago. His major publication is entitled The Limits of Enlightenment: Jews, Germans and the Eighteenth-Century Study of Scripture (1996).

Ms. Cedar Duaybis

As a refugee from Haifar in 1948, Cedar's family settled in Nazareth. She is married to an Anglican priest and serves on the staff of Sabeel. She works as a Christian advocate for Palestinian rights.

Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt

Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt has lived in Jerusalem for more than twenty years. She is an ordained Lutheran pastor from Germany and has been the Executive Secretary for the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity of Israel for many years. Her doctorate is in Patristics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Michael McGarry

is the Rector of Tantur. As a Paulist priest, his ministries have included campus ministry and university New Testament teaching (University of Texas, Austin), downtown ministry (Boston), rector of St. Paul’s College (the Paulist Fathers’ seminary, Washington, DC), and, most recently, pastor of Newman Hall, the Catholic parish for the University of California, Berkeley. He has written extensively on Christian-Jewish relations (including Christology After Auschwitz) and serves on the Advisory Board for Christian-Jewish Relations for the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops.

Allan Rabinowitz

A licensed tour and educational guide in Israel for twelve years, Allan has guided for the Hebrew University, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Archaeological Seminars, the Tantur Institute, the British Council of Christians and Jews and many other organizations; he lectures widely on Israel in the U.S. He earned a BA in history from the University of California (Berkeley), an MA in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota, and studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He has published fiction and non-fiction in various magazines and writes a regular travel column, "Close Encounters," for the Jerusalem Post.

Daniel Rossing

Daniel studied comparative religion in Israel and the US. He was formerly director of the Department for Christian Communities in the Israeli Ministry of Religion (1975-88), then director of the Melitz Center for Christian Encounter with Israel (Jerusalem). He is now Director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish Christian Relations.

Thomas F. Stransky

Tom, a Paulist priest, was the rector of Tantur from 1987-99, studied Protestant mission history and theology at American, German and Roman universities. He was an original staff member of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (1960-70), and president of the Paulist Fathers (1970-78). He has been a participant in the international dialogues between the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglicans, the Methodists, the Conservative Evangelicals; and remains a member of the RCC/World Council of Churches Joint Working Group. He is a contributor and co-editor of the Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement. Tom is a member of the Latin Patriarch’s Theology Commission.

Dr. Mustafa Abu Sway

Dr. Sway is a Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Al-Quds University. Most recently, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Southern Florida University.

Bridget Tighe

Bridget, vice-rector of Tantur since May 2006, is a member of an international Franciscan Missionary congregation. Her previous ministries include medical/social work with Palestinian refugees in Jordan, nursing posts in Ireland and the UK, and consultant to an HIV/AIDS centre in Lusaka, Zambia. More recently, she was Founding Principal of the Margaret Beaufort Institute, the Catholic House of the Cambridge Theological Federation that comprises Methodist, Orthodox, United Reformed, and Anglican colleges, associated with the University of Cambridge. She was a member of the British Methodist/Roman Catholic Committee and has lectured on Saint Francis of Assisi and Islam.

Dr. Deborah Weissman

Born in New York City, Debbie settled in Israel in 1972. Her Ph.D. is from the Hebrew University on the social history of Jewish women's education. She is one of the founding members of Kehillat Yedidya, an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem's Bak'a neighborhood which integrates Halacha (Jewish religious law) with feminism, tolerance and pluralism. Debbie is involved with Jewish religious feminism, interfaith dialogue and the religious peace movement.

Dr. Paul Wright

Dr. Paul Wright is president of the Jerusalem University College, received his Ph.D. from Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati) in the area of Bible and Ancient Near East. He has taught Biblical History and Geography at Jerusalem University College for the last ten years.