As part of the opening event of the ICCJ international conference in Salzburg on Sunday, June 23, Professor Dr Edward Kessler MBE will be awarded the 2024 SEELISBERG PRIZE
The SEELISBERG PRIZE is named in memory of the ground-breaking gathering that occurred in the small Swiss village of Seelisberg from 30 July to 5 August 1947 to address perennial Christian teachings of contempt for Jews and Judaism. It issued the very influential "A Call to the Churches: The Ten Points of Seelisberg" which is widely recognized as inaugurating the transformation in relations between Jews and Christians that has unfolded over the past seventy years
The SEELISBERG PRIZE is awarded annually (since 2022) by the International Council of Christians and Jews (which originated out of the Seelisberg conference) and the Center for Intercultural Theology and Religions at the University of Salzburg.
It honours individuals who have played major roles through their scholarship and teaching in advancing the rapprochement between Jews and Christians.
The 2004 Seelisberg Prize awardee Professor Dr Edward Kessler, MBE is Founder President of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge and a leading thinker in interfaith relations, primarily, Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations.
He founded the Woolf Institute, originally called the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations, 1998 and in 2010 its focus was extended to the study of relationship between religion and society, with a focus on relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In 2011 Kessler was awarded a MBE for services to interfaith relations; at the end of 2022 he launched an independent UK commission on the integration of refugees and was in 2023 appointed Chair of the Advisory Board overseeing the unification of Reform and Liberal Judaism.
Edward Kessler regularly appears in the media commenting on religion and belief issues of the day, is a regular contributor to the Woolf Institute blog and hosts the weekly podcast Naked Reflections. He wrote and presented two A-Z podcasts (2018-20), An A-Z of Believing: From Atheism to Zealotry and An A-Z of the Holy Land: From Arab to Zion.
Professor Kessler has written or edited 12 books, including Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations (eds. J. Aitken & E. Kessler, New York 2006), An Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations (Cambridge 2010), Jews, Christians and Muslims in Encounter (London 2013) and Jesus (Stroud 2016).
His 13th book A Documentary History of Jewish-Christian Relations: From Ancient Times to the Present Day(eds. E. Kessler & N. Wenborn) is due to be published by Cambridge University Press in August 2024.
