Bearing Witness™ Program Unites Catholics and Jews in Los Angeles

Date: November 18, 2009

Catholic school educators from throughout California came together November 16-18 for the Bearing Witness™ program, a partnership between ADL and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  The three-day conference provided Catholic school educators with training on the theological and political roots of anti-Semitism as well as resources on how to teach their students about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the history of Catholic-Jewish relations. 

Speakers included Father Dennis McManus, Associate Professor of Theology at Georgetown University; Rabbi Elliot Dorff, Rector and Sol & Anne Dorff Distinguished Service Professor In Philosophy at American Jewish University; and Kenneth Jacobson, ADL's Deputy National Director.  The program included a model Shabbat Dinner, with program alumni and ADL lay leaders.

Now in its seventh year, this national program has reached more than 1,400 Catholic school teachers across the country and over 250 in the Pacific Southwest Region alone.  Bearing Witness has been cited by the Holy See as among the most important initiatives designed to improve Catholic-Jewish relations. It has also been recognized by the National Catholic Educational Association as a Selected Programs for Improving Catholic Education, a designation conferred upon only a handful of exemplary programs each year. 

Bearing Witness in Los Angeles is made possible largely by the generosity of the Freshman Family Foundation and Friends of the Freshman Family.

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