Academic Staff
Jerusalem and The Holy Land is an incredibly rich academic environment which allows Tantur to employ a wide range of lecturers for its programs. Below are those who regularly lecture at Tantur in addition to visiting scholars and other academics.
At Tantur we strive to bring the classroom to life with visits to all the major sites all over The Holy Land so the participant gets to visualise what they are taught about in the class room. An important part of the process of all our programs is to meet the Living Stones the people who inhabit the region from different cultures and religions. You will meet Christians, Jews, Muslims, see their places of worship and hear their stories.
Rev. 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 A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation 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. Fr. Frans Bouwen
Born in Belgium, Frans Bouwen is a member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) and has lived in the Old City of Jerusalem since 1969. He is editor of the periodical “Proche-Orient Chrétien”, specialised in the history, tradition and present life of the Churches in the Middle East, with a special emphasis on ecumenical and interreligious relations. He is a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome, and a member of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue with the Orthodox Church as well as of the International Commission for Theological Dialogue with the Oriental Orthodox Churches. He is at present also vice-moderator of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches. He is active in various ecumenical and interreligious dialogue groups in the Middle East and in Jerusalem, and for many years was the president of the local Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem.
Dr. Edward Breuer
A native of Montreal, Canada, Eddy settled in Israel in 2001 with his wife and four children. He previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Loyola University (Chicago), and he currently teaches at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His major publication is entitled The Limits of Enlightenment: Jews, Germans and the Eighteenth-Century Study of Scripture (1996).
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Ms. Cedar Duaybis
As a refugee from Haifa 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.
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.
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.
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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.
The Very Rev. Fr. Timothy Lowe
Fr. Timothy, priest of the Orthodox Church in America for 27 years, was appointed Rector of Tantur by the University of Notre Dame, effective May 1, 2010. Fr. Timothy has served as adjunct Professor at Holy Apostles Catholic Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, where he taught Old Testament and is co-founder and Director of the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies. He also taught English at the Friends School in Ramallah, an American Quaker school serving local Palestinian youth. In addition to his work in various parishes, he has studied at the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem and has lectured on modern Middle Eastern affairs through such diverse groups as Holy Apostles Seminary and the Jewish Center for Jewish-Christian Dialogue. Most recently he also worked at Yale University researching and translating Holocaust survivor testimonies from Hebrew to English for the Fortunoff Library
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Dr. Mohammed Dajani
Director, American Studies Institute, Al Quds University, Jerusalem and Founder of “Watasia a moderate way: a new Palestinian Islamic initiative that takes the middle ground.” Ph. D. University of Texas at Austin (1983); Ph. D. University of South Carolina at Columbia (1981); M. A. Eastern Michigan University at Ypsilanti; B. A. American University of Beirut (1972).
Rev. Dr. Jamal Khader
Fr. Jamal was born in the Christian Palestinian village of Zababdeh in the northern part of the West Bank. He has a Doctorate of Divinity from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he completed his thesis on the official dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. He is a member of the Theological Reflection Committee of the Latin Patriarchate and of the Committee of Dialogue with Jews. Fr. Jamal Khader has held the post of Cardinal Hume and Cardinal de Furstenberg Endowed Chair in Religious Studies in Bethlehem University since 2003. He teaches at the Latin Seminary in Beit Jala, the Emmaus Center in Beit Sahour, the Family Center in Bethlehem, and Mar Elias College in Ibillin. He also teaches Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution Strategies for the master's in International Cooperation and Development (MICAD) program at Bethlehem University.
Dr. Yusuf Natsheh
Department of Islamic Archeology, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem. Faculty Member of Al Quds University, Jerusalem.
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Hana Bendcowsky
Hana, a qualified Tour Guide, is a Jewish expert on early church history and program director of the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations.
Jonathan Kuttab
Jonathan Kuttab is a Jerusalem-based human rights lawyer and peace activist. He was born in West Jerusalem, but after the Six Day war, his family moved to the U.S. After working there for several years, he returned to his homeland and co-founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-violence, Al Haq (the Palestinian human rights organization), and the Mandela Institute for political prisoners. He is chairman of the boards at both Bethlehem Bible College and Holy Land Trust. He has taught law at several Palestinian universities, and written extensively on international human rights and humanitarian law.
Dr. Gregory Tatum OP
Professor, Biblique et Archéologique Française, Jerusalem. Ph.D. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 1997 (New Testament and Christian Origins). S.S.L. Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, Italy, 1992. Assistant Professor of New Testament, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, California, 1997-2006. School of Pastoral Leadership, Archdiocese of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 1998-2001. Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament, Dominican House of Studies, 2004-2005. Admissions Committee for the Biblical Studies Doctoral Program at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, 1998
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Ophir Yarden
Ophir Yarden earned his B.A. at Wesleyan University and his M.A. at the University of Chicago. He has studied at the Hebrew University and the Hartman Institute, and is now working towards his doctorate in Jewish History at the Schechter Institute (JTS) in Jerusalem. As Director of Education of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, Ophir founded the Israel-Palestine JCM Conference, an ongoing framework for intensive indigenous dialogue.
Rev. Dr. David Neuhaus
Rev. Dr. David Mark Neuhaus SJ is Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel, a part of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. He is a member of the Society of Jesus (Near East Province) and teaches Scripture at the Seminary of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Beit Jala and in the Religious Studies Department at Bethlehem University. He completed a BA, MA and PhD (Political Science) at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He then completed pontifical degrees in theology and Scripture in Paris (Centre Sevres) and Rome (Pontifical Biblical Institute). His publications include Justice and the Intifada: Palestinians and Israelis speak out (edited with Kathy Bergen and Ghassan Rubeiz), New York, Friendship Press, 1991 and (in collaboration with Alain Marchadour), The Land that I will show you…Land, Bible and History has been published in French (2006), English (2007) and Italian (2007).
Ghada Boulus
Ghada was born in Nazareth to a Greek Catholic family. She has a degree from Haifa University from the Departments of Biblical Archaeology and Land of Israel Studies. She completed her training as a guide at the Haifa University School of Tourism.
Jared Goldfarb
Originally from the woods of New Hampshire, USA, Jared moved to Jerusalem in 1996 not long after completing his degree in Russian Theater at Brandeis University. After then studying at Machon Pardes, the Hartman Institute, and the National Tourguide Course, he served for 8 years as the Program Director of Ta Shma: Pluralistic Jewish Learning. He now works as a freelance Jewish/Israel educator for numerous institutions around the country. Besides working as a tour guide, Jared is also a theatre addict, an avid biker, and an environmental activist.
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