Orthodox Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen, 50, spiritual...

Orthodox Rabbi Jack Simcha Cohen, 50, spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Tefila in Los Angeles, was recently installed as president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California.

Not all Orthodox rabbis affiliate with the board, a 240-member body dominated by rabbis from the Reform and Conservative branches. Many ardently conservative Orthodox Jews stay apart from religious organizations they feel have deviated from traditional Judaism.

Nevertheless, the rabbinical board has had Orthodox presidents in the past, usually drawn from the ranks of what some call “modern Orthodoxy,” congregational-focused traditionalists who take part in broadly based Jewish community bodies despite theological differences.

Cohen was elected for the customary two-year term, succeeding Conservative Rabbi Moshe J. Rothblum. Three vice presidents elected along with Cohen indicate the likely successors in years to come. In order, they are Reform Rabbi Harvey Fields of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and Conservative Rabbi Joel Rembaum of Temple Beth Am, both Los Angeles synagogues, and Orthodox Rabbi Abner Weiss of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills.

Cohen, a Talmud scholar and prolific author, is also a member of the executive committee of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles’ board of directors--a rarity for an Orthodox rabbi, according to Rabbi Paul Dubin, executive director of the Board of Rabbis.

The rabbinical board, an agency of the council, provides chaplaincy services to the Jewish community and often deals with religious concerns that cross organizational lines, including interfaith issues.

CONFERENCES

The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, installed this year as the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church, will preach Tuesday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Los Angeles during the national meeting of the Union of Black Episcopalians. Harris, who is suffragan, or assistant, bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts, will speak during the 7:30 p.m. Eucharist. The union’s meeting, to be held at the USC Religious Conference Center Tuesday though Friday, is expected to attract about 400 participants. One will be the Rev. Canon Nan A. Peete of Atlanta, a former Los Angeles priest who gave a major speech on women’s ordination last summer at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops in London.

Divergent feelings of evangelical Christians toward public schools are reflected in three conferences upcoming in Anaheim. Representatives of Christian released-time programs in public school systems (such as Los Angeles) that allow parent-approved religious instruction away from school grounds will meet Tuesday at the Inn at the Park. At the same hotel for the four following days, about 200 members of the Pasadena-based Christian Congress for Excellence in Public Education will discuss ways to “aid, strengthen and reform our public schools” at its fifth annual meeting. But evangelicals who educate their children at home and are concerned about “protection of children’s values” will meet July 8 and 9 at the Disneyland Hotel at the sixth annual Christian Home Educators Convention. The Santa Ana-based organization says more than 3,000 people will attend.

PEOPLE

Joseph C. Hough Jr., a longtime dean at the School of Theology at Claremont, where he has been teaching social ethics for 24 years, has been named dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, effective Jan. 1. Dean of the United Methodist-related seminary from 1974 to 1987, Hough also taught at the Claremont Graduate School.

Tom Houston, who was president of the Monrovia-based World Vision International relief in the mid-1980s, will take over as international director of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization about a month after the latter holds its long-planned international congress July 11-20 in Manila. Houston, a native of Scotland, will succeed Thomas Wang, according to an announcement by the Lausanne committee’s central office in Pasadena.

SERVICES

A Mass for people with AIDS, their families and friends will be celebrated at 7:30 p.m. today at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood with Archbishop Roger M. Mahony presiding and giving the homily.

After years of study and preparation, Presbyterian officials will hold an inaugural worship service designed for the American Indian community Sunday. Henry E. Fawcett, a member of the Alaskan Tsimpsean tribe and pastor to the Native American Program at Dubuque (Iowa) Theological Seminary, will preach at the 2:30 p.m. service at Wilshire Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

Bishop George McKinney, founding pastor of St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ in San Diego, will be the featured speaker in his church 4 p.m. Sunday for the closing session of his denomination’s regional convention. McKinney was recently elected president of the National Black Evangelical Assn.