Welcome to the third edition of Interfaith Reflections. As you are reading this, our world has changed once again. America has gone to war, our global community is experiencing a shift in understanding and self-awareness that fills our days with questions, emotions and much prayer. Life at the BuntingMeyerhoff Interfaith and Community Service Center has continued to center around gentle support for people of varying backgrounds and perspectives as well as constant prayers for an end to violence toward all of creation. This semester has been fruitful, albeit tense at times. At the heart of this issue of Interfaith Reflections are unique expressions of the virtues wisdom and wit. There were points this spring when we sought answers contained in the wisdom of our faiths, times when we looked to our spiritual guides and many moments when we simply relied on our wits. This has been a season of transition, of moral discernment and compelling human connectedness. As you peruse this issue it will become obvious what an extraordinary array of people and religious activities have pulsed through the life of this campus community. It is my sincere wish that it enlivens your soul.

At the end of this academic year Campus Ministries is saying goodbye to a very special member of our team. After seventeen years of service to the Johns Hopkins campus community Rabbi Joseph Katz is retiring. I first met Rabbi Katz in 1988, a full five years before I came to Hopkins as chaplain. Our initial meeting was the beginning of a very unlikely and unconventional friendship and that has since intersected both our professional and personal worlds in remarkable ways. Imagine a Roman Catholic laywoman and an Orthodox Rabbi as true friends and colleagues and you have pictured Rabbi Katz and me. Over the years I have come to rely on the Rabbi for advice, guidance, support, gentle teasing, holy challenge, wisdom and wit. He has been and will continue to be a central spiritual guide in my life and in the lives of so many other fortunate people. Rabbi Katz has not only been essential to the lifeblood and nurture of the Jewish community at Hopkins, he is well known and loved by a variety of other groups as well. It is not uncommon to see him in a light-hearted discussion with a Muslim student, cheering on the Women’s Basketball team in the gym or applauding the gifted JHU Gospel Choir.

There is a line from the Talmud (Berachot 17a) which I will paraphrase here: May your eyes sparkle with the light of Torah-and-Mitzvahs, and your face be as radiant as the radiance of the Heavens. Gentle reader, there is no better way to describe Rabbi Katz. He embodies Mitzvah and Torah. He has led a life filled with loving kindness to others, fueled through continual passionate study of Torah and he has always radiated the light of heaven here on earth. Whether he is engaged in an intellectual discussion with a colleague, teaching Torah to a student or listening to someone’s story of victory or heartbreak, he is fully present in the moment and his face is radiant with the divine knowledge of human connectedness. He blesses all who know him.

Of course it must be said that Rabbi Katz will not truly disappear from this campus community. He has been named Campus Rabbi Emeritus by Johns Hopkins University and Hillel of Greater Baltimore and will enjoy all the privileges of his new title. He will likely be spotted around campus and in the grandstands on more than one occasion especially during the JHU Women’s Basketball season next year. Here is hoping that all of us in the Hopkins community can enjoy many Rabbi Katz sightings in the future and that we will continue to benefit from his radiant face in our midst. Ð