A few months ago, after 15 years of teaching at Boston
College (BC), I decided to call it quits.
This week, I gave my final exam, corrected the papers, and posted the
grades. Finito!
My first contact with BC took place in the Fall of 1999 at
the invitation of Dr. Ruth Langer, a rabbinic colleague of mine who taught at
the College. I was then the Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA., and
planning my upcoming retirement. Having a Ph.D. from the University of
Pennsylvania in Bible and Ancient Near Eastern studies, I wanted to work in
academia for a few years. During my initial meeting with the head of the
Theology Department, I was given an opportunity to teach an elective. I chose
to deal with “God Concepts; Jewish and Christian Responses,” based on Finding
God (URJ Press), a book that I had co-authored with Rabbi D. Syme a few
years ago. The course was popular and I had a large class. Later on, I taught many
electives, including an Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Jewish Spirituality, Biblical
Theology, and the Decalogue. My classes were popular; I never had less than
35-40 students. Every year I only taught one class per semester, because of
time constraints at my synagogue. However, in 2003, at age 65, after my
retirement from the full-time rabbinate, BC asked me to teach, twice a week, a
required course on Religious Quest, concentrating on Judaism and Christianity. My
book Modern Judaism (Cognella, 2013) was written as a textbook for my
students.
When we lived in Needham, the commute to BC was easy--under
half an hour. However, in 2005 when we moved to our new condo in Ashland, about
half an hour west of Needham, the trip started to become a chore- 45 minutes to
go and an hour and a half to come back. Especially the return around 5 pm was
rough, because it coincided with the heavy traffic on the expressway. I started
to rethink about my commitment to BC. When an opportunity emerged for me to
teach a course on Ethics at Framingham State University (FSU), just 15 minutes
away from my house, I gladly accepted, and began classes in Jan. 2015, both at
FSU and BC. About a month ago, however, I told my BC chair that I would not
return to the College in the Fall.
Teaching at a Catholic University gave me an opportunity to
get to know the Catholic academic community of Boston relatively well. I found
my colleagues to be accepting and open-minded, even though my Jesuits friends always
maintained a strong devotion to the Vatican and to the basic teachings of the
Church. One year, when the administration decided to place a crucifix in every
classroom, some of the professors did not like it, but I said, “Listen, Jesus
was Jewish; he grew up as a Jew and died as a Jew.” I did not mind having him
around.
BC also has a group of colleagues who are dedicated to the
Jewish-Christian dialogue, and they sponsor regular luncheon meetings, welcoming
speakers on a variety of subjects who deal with the rapprochement between Jews
and Christians.
The quality of most of my students at BC has been
exceptional. They wanted excellence and strived to reach it through their work.
Not satisfied with an A-, they had their eyes on an A+, and demonstrated that commitment
by studying hard. In all of these 15 years, I have also had a number of Jewish
students in my classes, even though I asked myself: what is a nice Jewish boy
or girl doing at a Catholic University? BC made them feel at home, has a number
of Jewish professors and even sponsors an active Hillel.
I will miss BC: primarily my students, the excellent
computer tech department, the libraries, many faculty members, but in
particular Dr. Karen Howard, a Holocaust scholar who has been my office-mate
for many years (and who often brought me delicious homemade jams), Dr. Antonia
Atanassova, my Bulgarian neighbor, and many other members of the administration.
But everything has to come to an end. And this is the year for me. I know that
this represents a major transition in my life, but I am ready for it. What made
my departure more pleasant were the little gifts, notes and emails I received
from my students who wished me well in the next stage of my life. I was
enriched by my experience at BC and was rewarded plentiful by wonderful associations.
Thank you, Boston College.
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
May 4, 2015
