AJC Interreligious Affairs Mission Statement

AJC/LA works to overcome prejudice by building bridges through dialogue and activities with diverse communities. We seek to nurture respect and understanding through interfaith education and to create partners in Tikkun Olam – the healing, mending, and repairing of the world.

The InterReligious Committee success depends on mutual understanding, respect, and promoting shared religious values that foster enduring relationships.

AJC accomplishes this Interreligious Mission through these unique programs:

AJC-Hartman Lay Leadership Institute
'Sacred Spaces' Tour
Latino Outreach
Muslim Outreach
Catholic Outreach

Lori Rousso & Daniel Inlender
Co-Chairs of the Interreligious Affairs Committee

Meet Interreligious Affairs Director Randy Brown

Randy Brown joined AJC/LA on January 16th 2007 as Director of Interreligious Affairs. Randy has completed his Bachelor's of Arts at the University of Florida in Business Administration and Jewish Studies. While living in Israel, Randy completed his MBA in International Finance at Bar-Ilan University and served as a Foreign Relations Correspondent for the Honorable Shimon Peres. After a successful career in commercial real estate and telecommunications, Randy attained his MA in Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary to sharpen his Judaic knowledge and pedagogical skills. Randy is married to Cantor Arianne Brown who is proud to serve the Sinai Temple community. Randy is currently a fourth year Rabbinical student at the Academy for Jewish Religion, CA.
Randy works to further AJC's dynamic vision, to cultivate lasting relationships and promote greater understanding between the Jewish community and its neighbors!

Get Involved

Contact Randy Brown at brownr@ajc.org to participate in these interfaith programs:

AJC/Hartman Lay Leadership Institute

This annual program unites our most active and successful leaders with a select group of younger men and women who have the abilities and resources to be key players in the AJC’s continued success. It meets monthly for a live, interactive broadcast directly from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. Master teachers and world-renowned scholars Rabbis David and Donniel Hartman, and Professor Moshe Halbertal, use classic texts to teach Jewish tradition, history and values. AJC's National Director of Interreligious Affairs Rabbi Gary Greenebaum and Randy Brown lead discussions that relate those lessons to the AJC mission, its history, methods and goals. The Institute concludes with a week long study at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.

AJC-Hartman Institute Program 2007

The group included Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, US Director of Interreligious Affairs; Seth Brysk, AJC LA Executive Director; Saundra Mandel, LA Associate Director; Randy Brown, LA Director of Interreligious Affairs (delegation organizer); and AJC Board of Governors Member David Rousso.

 

The delegation visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A delegation of fifteen AJC lay leaders and professional staff participated in the 27th Annual Lay Leadership Study Retreat at the Shalom Hartman Institute from June 27th – July 4th, 2007. The study sessions focused on Tikun Olam: Judaism & the Global Reality and was the culmination of a year long course that consisted of monthly lectures on dilemmas of faith via satellite from Jerusalem.

Some conference highlights included Former Chief Rabbi of Denmark and current Knesset Member MK Rabbi Michael Melchior speaking about the major educational challenges of Israeli society. Dr. David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) led a spirited discussion on Tikkun Olam in Modern Jewish Thought.  

AJC’s delegation served as ambassadors by visiting some unique people and locations. We continued to cultivate AJC’s ongoing relationship with the Al Qasemi Academic College of Education. Dalia Fadila and President Mohammad Essawi eloquently presented Al Qasemi’s dynamic vision as the first institute of Islamic higher education in Israel which is trying to export revolutionary openness and liberalism to the wider Islamic world. In addition, we were treated to a spectacular musical presentation at the newly reopened Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. After a six year hiatus due to the recent intifada,  students from the Utah campus have once again  begun to study in Jerusalem.   

Citizens' Empowerment Center in Israel (CECI), hosted our delegation to discuss their mission to empower citizens through civic education initiatives and examine Israel's structure of governance.  Among the speakers and the participants were: Former Mossad Director MK Dani Yatom, Parviz Nazarian, founder of CECI and Professor Gideon Doron, President of the Israeli Association of Political Science.

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'Sacred Spaces' Tours

AJC visits different religious communities and participate in their worship service. This invaluable experience enables us to better understand different faith's history, culture and customs.

Tour of the Getty Exhibit 'Icons of Sinai' with Guest Tour Guide Father Bakas

Father John Bakas talks about the history of the Greek Orthodox Church as Joey Klein, co-chair of the Interreligious Affairs Committee listens.

Father John Bakas, Dean of Saint Sophia's Greek Orthodox Church of Los Angeles led a group of 40 AJC members on a tour of the Icons of Sinai exhibit at the Getty Musuem on February 27th. The exhibit included fascinating icons from Saint Catherine's of Sinai, a church built at the foot of what is believed to be Mount Sinai.

The Icons of Sinai represent the largest collection of icons in the world; most are hundreds of years old and some dated to the 6th Century CE. As Father Bakas and the Getty tour guide Zhenya Gershman explained, icons are spiritual objects that are not just paintings but actual scriptures themselves. Father Bakas described the connection between the Jewish and Christian faiths, commenting that "we are brothers and sisters" with much in common for Christianity would not exist if it were not for Judaism.

 

 

 

AJC Tours St. Andrew's Church

Father Alexei Smith, Director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the LA Catholic Archdiocese, Randy Brown, AJC Director of Interreligious Affairs, and a group of AJC leaders attended an intimate service at Saint Andrew's Russian-Greek Catholic Church in El Segundo. The 'Sacred Spaces' Tour, part of an ongoing AJC series, included an insightful dialogue regarding Catholic Jewish relations and the striking similarities from ancient Jewish tradition of the liturgy and rituals used during the service.

Sacred Spaces Tour of St. John's Episcopal Church

On Sunday, April 8, 2007 fifteen AJC leaders attended Easter Sunday Mass at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Rev. Dr. Gwynne Guibord, Chief Ecumenical Officer of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches graciously hosted our delegation and gave us a unique tour of the beautiful facility and led an interactive discussion about the history of the Episcopal Church.  Our group was fascinated with the interesting liturgy, inspirational music and diverse congregation. We thought it was most fortuitous and appropriate that Passover and Easter fell on the same day and we were able to continue bridges and share in each other’s customs and traditions.

Sacred Spaces Tour of Ba'hai Center

On Sunday, March 18, Randy Brown led a group of fifteen AJC leaders to visit the Los Angeles Bahai Center. Although the Bahai Faith does not have official clergy, one of their community volunteers, Nick Simple, gave the group an insightful and comprehensive tour of the facility. Nick was born in Israel where his parents worked at the Bahai International Headquarters in Haifa, Israel. The Bahai faith is established in more than 190 countries and has some five million members who come from virtually every nationality, religious background, ethnic group and social class. After the orientation tour, the AJC group joined their Sunday prayer service which featured spiritual readings from almost every religious tradition. In addition, two talented musicians chanted a beautiful hymn depicting the words of the religion’s founder, Baha u llah, “The earth is one country and mankind its citizens”. The AJC members who attended truly enjoyed this unique opportunity and look forward to a continued relationship with the Bahai community.

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Muslim-Jewish Relations

AJC continues to seek, identify and work with Muslim religious leaders who promote peaceful and productive relations with Judaism and Israel.

UCLA Senior Fellows Share Best Practices on Muslim-Jewish Relations

On May 21^st AJC President Sherry Weinman and her husband Michael Umansky hosted a private reception for UCLA Senior Fellows Steve Goodman and Tufail Ahmad. Twenty prominent members of the Muslim community and twenty active AJC leaders gathered to listen to the success of the Muslim/Jewish dialogue launched by the fellows in the Metropolitan DC area. This historic meeting provided valuable lessons and will serve as a springboard to further our local Muslim/Jewish dialogue.

Catholic Jewish Relations

 Catholic Jewish Women's Conference- for more information, please contact Saundra Mandel at mandels@ajc.org or 310-282-8080 or click here

CJEEP − The Catholic-Jewish Educational Enrichment Program − Currently taught in 15 of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s high schools, CJEEP educates approximately 7,500 Catholic students per year on the basics of Judaism and its foundational role in Christianity. For more information, please contact Randy Brown at brownr@ajc.org.

40th Anniversary Celebration of Nostra Aetate
The Los Angeles Chapter and the Catholic Archdiocese hosted more than 400 Jews and Christians at a special interfaith program at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles and at the Skirball Cultural Center to celebrate the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions. Speakers included Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Diocese, Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, and other religious leaders from across the country. Please go to AJC Archive to access documents on the AJC's involvement in Nostra Aetate.

Latino Outreach

AJC Hosts Latino Jewish Seder

On April 14th 2008, Rabbi Mario Rojzman and Randy Brown led 40 pastors and their families for their first ever Passover seder in Spanish. After the Seder, the fifth session of Essencia de Judaismo included a discussion on lifecycle events and customs in the Jewish tradition. LA OPINION.

Latino Pastors Receive Israeli Flag & Learn About the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot

On September 24, 2007, AJC hosted a unique 'flag ceremony' with the Israeli Consul General during the festival of Sukkot with over 50 Latino Pastors READ NEWS RELEASE. READ STORY. The event was a kick off for a program series with Randy Brown, Director of Interreligious Affairs, teaching 40-50 leading Latino pastors about ancient Judaism, modern Jewish philosophy and Zionism. After completing the course, the pastors will be able to speak knowledgeably about the Jewish community and Israel to their Pentecostal congregations. The program will lead to an AJC Project Interchange mission to Israel on May 26th through June 4th 2008 with leading pastors from major cities around the United States. CONTACT FOR INFORMATION.