Dr Edward Kessler MBE (born 1963) is the co-founder and current executive director of The Woolf Institute. He is a thinker in interfaith relations, primarily contemporary Judaism, Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim Relations, and is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.[1]
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Born in 1963, Kessler was educated at City of London School and graduated with a First-Class Joint Honours Degree in Hebrew and Religious Studies from the University of Leeds in 1985, a Master of theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 1987, and Master of business Studies from the University of Stirling in 1989. He went on to work in a family business for 7 years[2] before returning to his academic studies, completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1998.
Kessler, with Martin Forward, founded the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations (CJCR) in 1998[3] and The Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations (CMJR) in 2006[4] and is presently executive director of The Woolf Institute, the umbrella body over the two centres. In 2006, he was awarded the Sternberg Interfaith Award from philanthropist Sir Sigmund Sternberg "in recognition of outstanding services in furthering relations between faiths".[5] In June 2007 The Times Higher Education newspaper described him as "probably the most prolific interfaith figure in British academia".[6] In 2011 he was awarded an MBE awarded for services to interfaith relations [7]
For further details and a full bibliography for Edward Kessler MBE, see:
1989 - An English Jew: The Life and Writings of Claude Montefiore, London: Vallentine Mitchell, (2nd Edition, 2002)
2002 - Jews and Christians in Conversation: crossing cultures and generations, eds., E. Kessler, JT Pawlikowski & J Banki, Cambridge: Orchard Academic
2004 - A Reader of Liberal Judaism: Israel Abrahams, Claude Montefiore, Israel Mattuck and Lily Montagu, London: Vallentine Mitchell
2004 - Aspects of Liberal Judaism: Essays in Honour of John D Rayner on the occasion of his 80th Birthday, eds., E. Kessler and D.J.Goldberg, London: Vallentine Mitchell
2004 - Bound by the Bible: Jews, Christians and the Sacrifice of Isaac, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2004 - Themes in Jewish-Christian Relations, eds., E. Kessler & M.J. Wright, Cambridge: Orchard Academic
2005 - A Dictionary of Jewish-Christian Relations, eds., E, Kessler & N. Wenborn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2006 - Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations, eds., J. Aitken & E. Kessler, New York: Paulist Press
2006 - What do Jews Believe? London and New York: Granta Publications
2010 - Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Kessler writes for the printed media and broadcasts on radio, predominantly BBC Radio 4 - Today programme and Beyond Belief. For examples see external links.
He has expressed opposition about any imminent beatification/canonisation of Pope Pius XII.[8]
Kessler has delivered a number of public lectures including: The 1st Hugo Gryn Memorial lecture, London (1998); The 30th Cardinal Bea Memorial Lecture, London (2000); The Shapiro Lecture, Chicago (2003); The Martin Buber Lecture, East Anglia University (2004); The Bishop Grossteste Lecture, Lincoln Cathedral (2005); The Kennedy lecture, North Carolina (2008);[9] Ely Cathedral Lectures: 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible.[10]