Press

Woolf Institute in the press

'Jews reclaim Jesus as one of their own'

April 2012

_{^{By Richard Allen Greene, CNN}}

Mural painting from the catacomb of Commodilla. This is one of first bearded images of Christ. During the 4th century Jesus was beginning to be depicted as a man of identifiably Jewish appearance, with a full beard and long hair, a style not usually worn by Romans. The symbols on either side are Alpha and Omega signifying "I am the beginning and the end". In the past year, a spate of Jewish authors, from the popular to the rabbinic to the scholarly, have wrestled with what Jews should think about Jesus. And overwhelmingly, they are coming up with positive answers, urging their fellow Jews to learn about Jesus, understand him and claim him as one of their own.