Jewish Perspectives on Jesus in the 21st Century

Jewish Perspectives on Jesus in the 21st Century

Presented by Rabbi Norman M. Cohen

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

7:30 PM CST

In Person Only

Whitley Event Center | Oblate School of Theology

DESCRIPTION

What was the Jewish world like at the time of Jesus, and who was Jesus as a Jew? Now, two thousand years later, how do Jews in the 21st century view him? Rabbi Cohen will explore these questions and invite participants into deeper reflection on how this conversation advances interfaith dialogue and understanding, sixty years after Vatican II.

SPEAKER

Norman M. Cohen is the Founding Rabbi Emeritus of Bet Shalom Congregation in Minnetonka, Minnesota. He has taught at both of his alma maters Holy Cross College and Hebrew Union College and has served on the faculties of several other universities. Presently, he is Rabbi in Residence at the University of St. Thomas and teaches annually at Mary Mother of the Church in Burnsville, where he is warmly known as the “Rabbi of Mary Mother.”

Rabbi Cohen is the author of Jewish Bible Personages in the New Testament and Sacred Architecture: The Building of Bet Shalom, along with numerous articles and sermons. He is past president of the Midwest Association of Reform Rabbis and the Minnesota Rabbinical Association. Each summer, he spends time at the Reform movement’s camp OSRUI in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

He and his wife Andrea live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Scottsdale, Arizona. Their children, TJ and Carley, and their grandchildren Wyatt, Maeve, and Jacob live in Chicago.