A total of 16 students from the Pontifical Biblical Institution in Rome recently received their certificates–in Latin and Hebrew–from the Hebrew University at the completion of a special seven-month study program at the University’s School for Overseas Students.
They are all ordained priests and come from Canada, Haiti, India, Italy, Yugoslavia, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Uganda and the United States. Dr. Zev Klein, Provost of the School for Overseas Students, presented the students with their certificates, and the valedictorian, Gianantonio Borgonovo of Italy, who spoke in Hebrew, said that he and his fellow students had learned much about Jewish customs during their half year in Jerusalem.
Over the past six years 120 Vatican Institute students from 33 countries have taken the course at the Hebrew University, studying modern and Biblical Hebrew, archaeology, historical geography, readings in Bible, Jewish sects and ideologies in the intertestamental period. The Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome prepares priests from all over the world to teach the Scripture at colleges, seminaries and universities and for other scholarly pursuits.
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