Boston University’s Hillel and Catholic Center are encouraging students to apply to a new, ten-session learning cohort open to all students that focuses on Jewish and Catholic faith, offering free meals and a $300 stipend to enrollees.
The course, titled “A Priest and a Rabbi: Conversations on Faith, God, Holy Land, Life, and Death,” is taught by Father Kevin Staley-Joyce of the BU Catholic Center and Rabbi Jevin Eagle of BU Hillel.
“Our goal, broadly, is to help interested students pursue greater religious literacy, particularly at a time when religious topics are in great need of rigorous and informed analysis,” Staley-Joyce wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press.
The course will discuss the Jewish and Catholic faiths — how they began, what they teach and “how they can help us understand culture, society and the complexities of our contemporary moment,” Staley-Joyce wrote.
Junior Lourdes Marrero, a member of the BU Catholic Center since her freshman year, is enrolled in the learning cohort.
“The opportunity to be with a priest and a rabbi in a room was very exciting to me,” Marrero said.
Students enrolled in the cohort will receive a $300 stipend and be provided meals for attending all of the 10 sessions, which will be held once-a-week starting Feb. 20 and alternate between the BU Catholic Center and BU Hillel buildings.
Staley-Joyce wrote the money for the stipends and meals comes from the centers’ “ordinary budget.”
“Students are going out of their way to walk with us in this new venture,” Staley-Joyce wrote. “We feel it’s fair to offer a small incentive to those who wish to stick with the course in all its ten sessions.”
Isabella Diglio, a sophomore and member of BU Hillel, is enrolled in a different Jewish Learning Fellowship course titled “Sex, Love and Romance,” which also offers a $300 stipend.
“It definitely played a role in me wanting to take the class,” Diglio said.
Diglio said since the JLF programs are open to all BU students, she is interested in learning about love from different perspectives beyond Judaism.
Marrero said she was unaware of the $300 stipend for “A Priest and a Rabbi” until she reached the end of the program application. Marrero is from Puerto Rico and said while she hasn’t had much exposure to the Jewish faith, she’s curious to learn about “the rights and traditions that they have and how, somehow, we have taken them and shaped them into a Catholic faith.”
“It makes so much sense how we should understand Jewish tradition because Jesus practiced the Jewish tradition,” Marrero said. “I’m looking forward to learning about the Jewish tradition, but also seeing the Catholic perspective of things and the differences and similarities that we have.”