Guests joined us for the 18th Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture, an annual program that commemorates Cardinal Bernardin’s 1995 visit to Israel and continues the dialogue he advocated between Jews and Catholics.

This year's lecture — titled Jews, Catholics, and the American Idea — was presented by Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik.

Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik is director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan. He holds a doctorate in religion from Princeton University and received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), where he was a member of its prestigious Beren Institute for Advanced Talmudic Studies. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured in the United States, Europe, and Israel on topics relating to Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, and Jewish-Christian relations. His essays have appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and The Weekly Standard.