AJC Interreligious Affairs Director Honored For His Contributions To Global Interfaith Understanding

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 12 April 1999

Rabbi A. James Rudin, AJC's Director of Interreligious Affairs, has been awarded the Interfaith Gold Medallion by the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) for his "outstanding contributions to interfaith understanding throughout the world." Rabbi Rudin is also director of AJC's recently created Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding.

The presentation, made by Sir Sigmund Sternberg, Patron of the ICCJ, took place today at a special luncheon held at AJC national headquarters. The ICCJ is an umbrella organization of 30 national Jewish and Christian dialogue groups worldwide which seek to promote understanding and cooperation between Christians and Jews, and through its Abrahamic Forum, furthers trilateral dialogue among Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Former recipients of the Interfaith Gold Medallion have included: Cardinal Franz Konig of Vienna, Austria; Cardinal John O'Connor of New York City; Cardinal Basil Hume of Great Britain; Cardinal Carlo Martini of Milan, Italy; Archbishop Gregorius of Athens, Greece; Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem; Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain; Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum of the American Jewish Committee; Cardinal Edward Cassidy of the Vatican; and Queen Sofia of Spain.

Rabbi Rudin, who joined AJC in 1968, has served as the leader of many interreligious conferences both in the U.S. and overseas. He is a past chairman of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, and has participated in numerous meetings with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and in the U.S. He has also participated in conferences with the World Council of Churches in Geneva and with Eastern Orthodox leaders in Greece.

In 1974, Rabbi Rudin was a co-leader of the first interreligious study mission to both Arab countries (Lebanon and Jordan) and Israel. In 1977 and 1980 he led interreligious delegations to the Belgrade and Madrid Conferences on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) where he pressed for human rights and religious liberty for Soviet Jews and other oppressed peoples.

Rabbi Rudin is a founder of the National Interreligious Task Force on Black-Jewish Relations, and was a member of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. In 1991, he led a delegation of black Christian leaders to Israel, and in 1996-97, he played an active role in the interreligious effort to rebuild burned churches in the United States. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Museum of the American Indian.

In 1997, Rabbi Rudin was awarded the "Person of Reconciliation" Award from the Polish Council of Christians and Jews in Warsaw. In the same year he received the first Joseph Award given by the Villa Nazareth, a Pontifical institution. The Rabbi serves on the Auschwitz Interreligious Center Executive Committee.

A prolific writer, Rabbi Rudin is the author of several books including "Israel for Christians: Understanding Modern Israel," and is the co-editor of "Evangelicals and Jews in Conversation," "Evangelicals and Jews in an Age of Pluralism," "Twenty Years of Catholic-Jewish Relations," and "A Time to Speak: The Evangelical-Jewish Encounter."

In presenting the award to Rabbi Rudin, Sir Sigmund Sternberg said: "I am most happy to perform a long overdue duty -- the presentation of the Interfaith Gold Medallion to someone who has more than earned it and who certainly deserves his place among the monarchs, presidents and prime ministers who have already received it. His contributions to the improvement of Catholic-Jewish relations have no parallel and the good he has wrought in the name of the Jewish people is legendary."

In accepting the honor, Rabbi Rudin commented: "I am deeply grateful to receive this international award, especially from an individual who has himself made such a major contribution to improving relations between peoples of all faiths.

"It is a profound honor to join the list of previous illustrious honorees. Thanks to the commitment of the American Jewish Committee, I have had the opportunity over more than three decades to be part of an extraordinary process, the remarkable and positive encounter between Christians and Jews, that has changed history.

"Indeed, this encounter is one of the few human success stories of this bloody and frightening century during which so many people were killed so often and in so many places for simply being 'the other,' for being 'different.' To have been and still be a part of the ongoing effort to reverse the past and build a better today and an even brighter future is an honor in itself. This award will serve as a reminder of how fortunate I have been."

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