Templeton Prize Awarded to Briton

The 1998 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion — worth $1.23-million — has been awarded to Sigmund Sternberg, a champion of improved interfaith relations, especially between Christians and Jews.

Mr. Sternberg, a Hungarian-born British citizen, was recognized for his efforts to help relocate a Roman Catholic convent from land near the site of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, in Poland. Some Jewish groups protested that placing a religious institution at the infamous death camp was offensive to the memory of Holocaust victims. Mr. Sternberg was also acknowledged for his role in urging the Vatican to establish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, among other things.

Mr. Sternberg is the second Jew to be selected for the prestigious annual award, which was established in 1972 by John Templeton, the international financier.

Mr. Templeton created the prize as a way to honor achievements in the field of religion, a category that is not included among Nobel Prizes. Each year the value of the prize is calculated to exceed the value of the Nobel award.