33. Dr. Petra Heldt

Dr. Petra Heldt, of German origin, has resided in Israel since 1979, together with her Welsh scholar husband Malcolm F. Lowe. She is a director of the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel (ETRFI). Founded in 1966, the Fraternity studies and teaches Judaism and Christianity in Israel; developing mutual understanding between Jews and Christians, locally and internationally. Since 2004, ETRFI facilitates understanding of Christianity amongst Members of Knesset and The Liaison Committee (LC). In 2010, ETRFI and B’nai B’rith Wold Center jointly reinstated the LC of 1986 to foster dialogue, understanding and relations between the Jewish and Christian communities in Israel. Amongst several awards she has received the Sir Sigmund Sternberg Award for Interfaith Understanding from the Hebrew University Jerusalem, a gold medal of the German Protestant Order of St. John and The Knesset Christian Allies Caucus Award to Honor Christian Allies.

Since 1989, Dr. Heldt has also been a professor for history and Jewish and Christian relations in the Middle East at the Jerusalem University College. She is a retired senior lecturer of the Hebrew University Rothberg School Jerusalem. Dr. Heldt is a Board Member of the Jerusalemite Initiative. She is a survivor of a double suicide terrorist bomb attack which took place at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem 1997 when 19 people were killed.