Building a Bridge for the Next 1,000 Years

IN the mostly Italian-American and Jewish neighborhood of Pelham Parkway in the Bronx where he grew up, Dr. Anthony J. Cernera said that strained relations between Christians and Jews was never an issue. Mutual respect and a celebration of religious differences were commonplace, he said.

''I went to 14 bar mitzvahs by the time of 13,'' recalled Dr. Cernera, the president of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.

But in high school, at Mount St. Michael's Academy in the Bronx, Dr. Cernera said, a book opened his eyes to the fact that the history of Christian and Jewish interaction could be far different. The book was Viktor E. Frankl's ''Man's Search for Meaning,'' which related the horrors of the concentration camp at Auschwitz, ''and what human beings were capable of doing to each other.''

''I made a promise to myself that someday,'' he said, ''that if I were in a position to, I would do something to try to change that.''

In 1992, six years after he became the head of Sacred Heart University, the opportunity arose with a call from Rabbi Joseph H. Ehrenkranz, who had just retired after 45 years as the spiritual leader at Congregation Agudath Shalom in Stamford.

Rabbi Ehrenkranz, who had worked from time to time as an adviser at the Catholic institution, said, ''After going into retirement, I felt I was not one to play cards, golf or watch television, and I wanted to do something where I could continue the talents God endowed to me.''