"The Tragic Couple"

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) has become a leader in the dialogue between Jews and Catholics as was manifested in the role that the Jesuit Cardinal Augustin Bea played in the adoption by the Second Vatican Council of Nostra Aetate, the charter for that new relationship. Still the encounters between Jesuits and Jews were often characterized by animosity and this historical record made them a tragic couple, related but estranged. This volume is the first examination of the complex interactions between Jesuits and Jews from the early modern period in Europe and Asia through the twentieth century where special attention is focused on the historical context of the Holocaust.

"The book is fascinating and generally well edited; the reality it describes is indeed largely tragic." – Matt Goldish, The Ohio State University, in: Renaissance Quarterly 67/4 (Winter 2014), pp. 1395-1396 "This volume is of the highest order. It contains an all-star cast, bringing together prize-winning scholars like David Kertzer and Charles Gallagher, S.J. Remarkable is its nearly total absence of second-rate chapters; all eighteen essays engage with historiographical questions and shed new light onto the often painful relationships between Jews and Jesuits. For specialists, this volume will be a tremendous asset. It is a window into the historiography and a fount for reflection." – Mark Edward Ruff, St. Louis University, in: Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 11/1 (2016)

James W. Bernauer, Ph.D. (1981) in Philosophy , S.U.N.Y., Stony Brook is the Kraft Family Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Boston College where he is also Director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. He has published extensively on the philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, including Amor mundi: explorations in the faith and thought of Hannah Arendt (Martinus Nijhoff, 1987) and Michel Foucault's force of flight: toward an ethics for thought (HPI, 1990).Robert A. Maryks, Ph.D. (2006) in History, Fordham University, is Associate Professor at CUNY and Visiting Scholar at the Jesuit Institute of Boston College. He has published on various aspects of the history of the Jesuits, including Saint Cicero and the Jesuits (Ashgate, 2008), The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews (Brill, 2009), and Pouring Jewish Water into Fascist Wine (Brill, 2011). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Jesuit Studies and Brill's book series of Jesuit Studies.