Similar Goals Unite Faith-Based Agencies – event sponsored by Aga Khan Ismaili Council

At a conference held last week at Loyola Marymount University, Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith-based social service agencies were urged to better coordinate their services and to work more closely with government agencies. Titled “Government and Faith-Based Communities: Working Together to Build a Civil Society,” the event was co-sponsored by Loyola Marymount University, Claremont Graduate University and the Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for the Western United States.

Dr. Amy Gross of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and Jewish Family of the Conejo, Simi and West Valley columnist, Yasser Aman of the UMMA Community Clinic and Rita Chavez of the Dolores Mission described the services their organizations provide in their own communities. Citing the impressive response of faith-based organizations to major crises such as Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Leonard Jackson, senior adviser to the mayor of Los Angeles, asked “why does it take a disaster to pull us together?”

Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector of the University of Judaism, gave a lucid explanation of tikkun olam and the Jewish tradition that requires Jews care for all.

“Judaism is a put up or shut up religion” he said. “We are required to act, not just to pay lip service.”

Jack Miles, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “God: A Biography,” presented the Christian point of view and stressed the opportunities afforded charitable organizations by the U.S. tax code, while Dr. Azim Nanji, director of the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London explained the Muslim philosophy that says “the delivery of health care has no boundaries”.

According to Nazim Karim, editor of The Ismaili magazine, the genesis of the conference came at the time of the Northridge quake, when faith-based organizations first worked together. Now, he said, is the time “to see what can be done practically.”