Rabbi Abraham Skorka receives honorary doctorate from Saint Joseph's University

Philadelphia, June 1, 2022

At its recent Commencement ceremonies, Saint Joseph’s University bestowed the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa on Rabbi Abraham Skorka, Ph.D.

A distinguished religious scholar, Rabbi Skorka is rector emeritus of the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano (Rabbinical Seminary of Latin America) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and former University Professor at Saint Joseph’s. Rabbi Skorka and Pope Francis - then Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio - held a series of interreligious dialogues in the 1990s, compiled in the book Sohre el Cielo y la Tierra (On Heaven and Earth).

A native of Argentina, Rabbi Skorka is currently the visiting distinguished professor of Jewish Studies at Gratz College in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano as an ordained rabbi in 1973 and earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires in 1979. In addition to his scholarship in Biblical and Talmudic studies, Rabbi Skorka has conducted research and published articles in biophysics.

Rabbi Skorka served as the Rabbi of Benei Tikva synagogue in Buenos Aires for 42 years and as the rector of the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano for 20 years. The seminary prepares rabbis, cantors and educators from throughout Latin America in the Masorti or Conservative Jewish tradition. He also taught Talmud and rabbinic literature there and was dean of its rabbinical school.

Following in the footsteps of his mentor, Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer, Rabbi Skorka has been deeply committed to interreligious dialogue for his entire career. In addition to their co-authored work, he and Pope Francis have collaborated on many projects and are longtime friends.

“We recognized in the other a partner for the enactment of our shared commitment to dialogue between and among religions. In the following years, we engaged in numerous heartfelt conversations, which we both found deeply meaningful and transformative,” Rabbi Skorka wrote in America magazine in 2019. “We understood that God has fashioned all of us in the divine image, enabling us to see God’s reflection in each other’s faces as we increasingly opened our hearts to each other.”

From 2017-2019, Rabbi Skorka was a University Professor at Saint Joseph’s, working closely with the directors of the University’s Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations to develop and expand its educational and research programs with the goal of promoting deeper understanding between Catholics and Jews. He is also an honorary professor of Hebrew law at the Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, and has been awarded honorary degrees from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Sacred Heart University, and Holy Family University. Rabbi Skorka was the 2017 recipient of the Jan Karski Eagle Award, of which past recipients include Elie Wiesel, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Abraham H. Foxman.

In addition to his co-authored work with Pope Francis, Rabbi Skorka is the author of seven books and numerous articles and papers, including an approbation in regard to the Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity in 2017.