Summer Institute 2025 Faculty
Partial list
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib leads Realign For Palestine, a groundbreaking new project at the Atlantic Council. This project challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel-Palestine discourse and develops a new policy framework for rejuvenated pro-Palestine advocacy. Realign For Palestine aims to cultivate a new generation of Palestinian voices committed to a two-nation solution, nonviolence, and radical pragmatism.Alkhatib serves as a resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs, where he writes extensively on Gaza’s political and humanitarian affairs, is an outspoken critic of Hamas, and a promoter of a radically pragmatic approach to peace and Palestinian statehood as the only path forward between Palestinians and Israelis. His writing and opinions have been published and featured across the US, Israeli, and international press, and his views are prominently featured across social media platforms, with his accounts that have tens of thousands of engaged followers.
Alkhatib holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in intelligence and national security studies. He grew up in Gaza City and left Gaza in 2005 to attend college in the United States as an exchange student. Much of Ahmed’s experience is influenced by having grown up in Gaza during the Oslo peace process, and the difficulties resulting from Oslo's failure, and the rise of Hamas and Islamism in Gaza.
Following the deadly October 7 massacre, Alkhatib’s life was deeply impacted when three different airstrikes killed 33 of his immediate and extended family members. Still, he has made a deliberate choice to be part of breaking the cycle of dehumanization and defying the cycle of hatred, incitement, violence, and revenge. In his presentations to students, policymakers, and thought leaders, Alkhatib exemplifies how others can exercise individual responsibility, spread empathy, and engage peacefully in the often-divisive Israel and Palestine discourse.
For more information, check out realignforpalestine.org. You can also read more about Ahmed in The Atlantic and Foreign Policy and follow him on X and IG at @afalkhatib.
Dr. Rosann M Catalano holds a Doctorate in Philosophy in Systematic Theology from the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto, where she did her major work on the theology of God and the poetry of suffering in the Book of Psalms. She also holds a Master of Arts in Theology and Biblical Studies from the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto, and a Baccalaureate in Theology and Philosophy from Loyola University, Baltimore, MD.
Since 2009, Dr. Catalano has functioned as an independent scholar and educator, teaching Hebrew Bible and New Testament at Beth El and Chizuk Amuno Congregations, both in Baltimore.
From 1994 to 2017, Dr. Catalano was a pivotal figure at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore, serving as a scholar of Roman Catholic Christianity, Associate Director, and Director of Programs. Her association with the ICJS continues to this day, as she remains an active independent scholar and educator.
Dr. Catalano also served as an Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at St. Mary's Seminary & University, Baltimore, MD, between 1980 and 1991 and as an Adjunct Professor of Theology at Notre Dame University of Maryland and at The Ecumenical Institute, St. Mary’s Seminary & University.
Dr. Catalano’s ongoing research focuses on the complex relationship between prayer and suffering and the dynamic interplay of emerging Christianity and rabbinic Judaism in the first centuries of the Common Era.
Dr. Catalano is the author of several publications and is a sought-after lecturer for Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic audiences on a variety of biblical, theological, and interfaith topics. Her areas of expertise include the dynamic relationship between suffering and prayer, the origins of rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, and the partings of their ways. She is a frequent Weekend Scholar-in-Residence and retreat director.
Rabbi Ron Fish is a graduate of Brandeis University and The Jewish Theological Seminary. He has served as a congregational rabbi in 3 communities in the Northeast for 25 years. Most recently, Ron was the Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel in Sharon, MA. He is the president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis and has worked through the years as a committed and enthusiastic partner for interfaith dialogue. In the run up to vote on the affordable care act, Ron organized 400 colleagues across the state of Connecticut to advocate for universal healthcare.
Ron currently serves as the East Division Director of Engagement and Partnerships for the Anti-Defamation League, serving from Maine to Delaware. His role supports ADL’s work in building partnerships with Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, especially focused on college campuses in addressing antisemitism. His work is directed toward helping Directors of Equity and Inclusion (DEIs), Provosts and University Presidents to understand the experience of Jewish students on campus and their unique and diverse needs. In partnership with ADL’s national leadership and regional offices, he also oversees volunteer engagement and coordination. Ron has served previously as the Interim Regional Director of ADL’s New England office, and as the inaugural Director of Antisemitism Advocacy and Education for the East.
He is the proud father of four and the husband to Leah Bieler, a writer and fellow Jewish educator.
Christopher M. Leighton is the founding director of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies (Baltimore, Maryland) where he served for thirty-three years. Over the course of his tenure, the ICJS provided an educational forum where scholars, clergy, and lay leaders explored the complex interplay of Christians, Jews and Muslims, with particular attention to dialogical inquiries that confront the differences and distortions that have pitted our religious communities against one another. He co-edited Talking About Genesis, the study guide for Bill Moyers’ Genesis series. He worked closely with the Jewish scholars who crafted Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity, and the companion works Christianity in Jewish Terms and Irreconcilable Differences. During 2010-2012, he worked with the Institute for Theological Inquiry on a project examining the relationship between religion and violence, and his essay on Cain and Abel is published in Plowshares into Swords? He is the author of the recent book, A Sacred Argument: Dispatches from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim Encounter published by Wipf & Stock in 2024.
He is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and did his doctoral work in Philosophy and Education at Columbia University—Teachers College. He was awarded a Klingenstein Fellowship at Columbia. He is the recipient of Loyola College’s the Andrew White Award, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by St. Mary’s Seminary and University.
Mark Rotenberg serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Hillel International and oversees Hillel's Campus Climate Initiative, a program that engages thousands of university leaders to ensure a campus environment for Jewish students free from discrimination and harassment. Mark has spent most of his professional career on university campuses, serving for many years as the general counsel at the University of Minnesota and at Johns Hopkins University. A seasoned university educator, Mark currently is an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University in Washington, has taught at the University of Minnesota for over 20 years, and was a visiting professor of law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Mark was a partner at the Dorsey & Whitney law firm in Minneapolis and special counsel at WilmerHale in Washington. He has argued and won cases in the US Supreme Court and many other judicial forums. Mark received his B.A. from Brandeis University, and M.A., M.Phil., and J.D. from Columbia Law School and Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. 
Izabella Tabarovsky is a scholar of Soviet antizionism and contemporary antisemitism. She is a Senior Fellow with the Z3 Institute for Jewish Priorities, a fellow with the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism; a fellow with the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism; and a contributing writer to Tablet. Her writings have appeared in Tablet, Fathom, Sapir, Quillet