Visiting professorship for Amy-Jill Levine
During the 2026 autumn semester, Professor Amy-Jill Levine will be a visiting scholar at the Institute for Jewish-Christian Research (IJCF). In her lecture "Parables of Jesus", the renowned Jewish New Testament scholar will examine Jesus' parables from a Jewish perspective.
Amy-Jill Levine is one of the best-known Jewish voices in New Testament scholarship. She taught for decades at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA, and is now an associate professor at the Woolf Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK. In her work, she brings together Jewish and Christian perspectives on the Bible and has long championed Jewish-Christian dialogue – not least by challenging antisemitic, sexist and homophobic interpretations of the Bible. She was awarded the Seelisberg Prize in 2022 in recognition of this commitment. In 2026, she became the first Jewish person to be elected President of the Catholic Biblical Association of America.
Public lecture
The public is invited to the opening lecture in the series. On Monday, 5 October 2026, from 6.15 pm to 8.00 pm (University of Lucerne, Lecture Hall 7), Amy-Jill Levine will launch her visiting professorship with a public lecture on the parables of Jesus from a Jewish perspective. The remaining sessions are reserved for students and auditors. The course will explore the nature and form of the parables and their various interpretations, ranging from historical and literary-critical approaches to autobiographical, liberation-theological, postcolonial and ideology-critical perspectives. The original Greek text will also be examined.
Panel discussion in Zurich
On Monday, 19 October 2026, from 6.15 pm to 8.00 pm, a public panel discussion will take place at the Musée Visionnaire (Predigerplatz 10, 8001 Zurich), both in person and as a podcast. Amy-Jill Levine will speak alongside her husband, Professor Jay Geller, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish Culture at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Levine will focus on the Jewish Jesus, while Geller will discuss Sigmund Freud and his Jewish identity. Their talks will be followed by a joint panel discussion.
Seminar with Jay Geller
As part of his visiting professorship, Jay Geller is also offering a seminar entitled "Meanings and Implications of the Holocaust: Names, Dates, Numbers". He explores the question of what common understanding underlies the various terms used to describe the attempted extermination of European Jewry, commonly referred to as "the Holocaust". The seminar is open exclusively to students and auditors.
Visiting professorship supported by the Daniel Gablinger Foundation
The IJCF has a long tradition of visiting professorships. Since 1974, almost every year during the autumn semester, a visiting professor from Israel, the United States or Europe has delivered a lecture in the field of Jewish Studies. The visiting professorship provides opportunities for ongoing international and interfaith exchange and for joint research projects. Since the 2003 autumn semester, it has been funded by the Zurich-based Daniel Gablinger Foundation.
Flyer on the visiting professorship
Further information on the lecture (in English)
Interview with Amy-Jill Levine
To mark her visiting professorship, Dr Martin Steiner, senior lecturer at the Chair of Jewish Studies & Theology, interviewed Amy-Jill Levine. In the interview, she talks about how she was shaped by the Jewish-Catholic environment of her childhood, her approach to the New Testament, and Jewish-Christian relations following 7 October 2023.
