Rabbi Michael A. Signer (1945-2009)

This week, the University of Notre Dame is mourning the loss of Rabbi Michael A. Singer, a beloved teacher, theologian, and leader in Catholic-Jewish relations. He passed away Saturday after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. From the chair of the Notre Dame theology department, John Cavadini:

There is not much I can say to mitigate this sense of loss. As I think
about the contributions Michael made to our common enterprise,
however, I was moved to reflect on the gifts he has left us and on the
way in which these will surely be enduring gifts of presence.

I know that the greatest academic contributions, in teaching and in
scholarship of various sorts, are always also spiritual contributions,
for our work as scholars and teachers extends into the realm of the
spirit when it is accomplished with true excellence.

I think this is even more true in the case of Michael’s work among us.
His dogged pursuit of Christian-Jewish dialogue, and his work in
medieval biblical exegesis, had an explicit, and not just implicit,
spiritual character and goal, and when students were included it was
more pronounced than ever. Michael created opportunities for
spiritual exchange of great depth. He allowed people to engage from
their own starting point and with their own temperament and never
expected people to enter into dialogue or scholarship from a point of
view that was not their own. He therefore gave people “space” to
think and to feel, and that is a great spiritual gift. Without
fanfare, he made it possible for a great number of people to
appropriate a way of negotiating deep religious questions, and always
in a way appropriate for a university, in fact, creating new ways that
are now at home in a university. That is his gift to us, or one of the
many, at least.