For the first time, Hartford Seminary has a Jewish core faculty member. Yehezkel Landau, who has been a full-time faculty associate since 2002, was added to core faculty in July as an Associate Professor of Interfaith Relations and now occupies the new Abrahamic Partnerships Chair. Several donors, especially Neil and Trudie Prior, funded the endowed chair.

“For me, this is a tremendous honor and opportunity,” Prof. Landau said. “In personal terms it affirms the institution’s confidence in my abilities as a scholar, teacher and interreligious peacebuilder. The creation of an endowed chair in Abrahamic Partnerships transcends the appointment of any individual to the core faculty.”

Prof. Landau, who directs the Building Abrahamic Partnerships program at the seminary in addition to his teaching duties, said the message is clear.

“It shows how seriously Hartford Seminary takes its mission as an interfaith community of learning and practice,” he said. “It also sends a message to our students, as well as to the wider community, underscoring how important it is for religious leaders in our time to develop capacities for interfaith engagement and facilitation.”

Prof. Landau has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and a Doctor of Ministry from Hartford Seminary. His courses cover Jewish tradition and spirituality, interfaith dialogue and leadership, and religion and peacemaking. As a core faculty member, he said, has been in discussions with President Heidi Hadsell and Academic Dean Uriah Kim about broadening the scope of interfaith opportunities for seminary students.

“Yehezkel is a highly valued colleague of all of ours at Hartford Seminary,” Dr. Hadsell said. “It is a delight to all of us that he now joins the core faculty. Yehezkel will continue to direct his long-standing and much-loved program ?Building Abrahamic Partnerships,? will continue to teach other courses and to engage as a leader in interfaith relations on campus and well beyond.”