INTERFAITH PANEL: In an effort to encourage...

INTERFAITH PANEL: In an effort to encourage interfaith understanding, representatives of four religious traditions will discuss “What My Faith Means to Me” in a public forum Sunday in Northridge.

Mormonism, Islam, Reform Judaism and Catholicism will have representatives at the panel discussion, which begins at 3 p.m. at Northridge United Methodist Church, 9650 Reseda Blvd.

The sponsoring Valley Interfaith Council had announced that a speaker from the Buddhist community would join the panel, but arrangements fell through, Barry Smedberg, the council’s executive director, said Friday.

The speakers at the free event will be William Vincent, president of the Mormon Church’s Ventura Mission and a member of the physical education faculty at Cal State Northridge; Hassan Hathout, director of outreach at the Islamic Center of Southern California; Rabbi John Sherwood of Temple Emet of Woodland Hills and Catholic laywoman Lucky Altman, director of interreligious programs for the National Conference of Christians and Jews in Los Angeles.

Moderating the program will be Elizabeth Say, an assistant professor in the Cal State Northridge religious studies department.

After short talks and discussion by the panelists, questions will be taken from the audience, said Smedberg.

“This is the first of a series,” he said. “We hope to have the next one in September and eventually organize home discussion groups.”

SYNAGOGUE DONATION: Items collected since January for a planned rummage sale will be donated instead by Adat Ari El, a North Hollywood synagogue, to Concerned Citizens, a nonprofit organization that is aiding residents in riot-damaged South Los Angeles.

Used items worth an estimated $8,000 will be loaded onto trucks Sunday morning at the synagogue, which is affiliated with the Conservative branch of Judaism.

Money raised from the scheduled rummage sale was to have gone toward scholarships at the synagogue’s Early Childhood Center.

“We wanted to do something to help rebuild Los Angeles,” said a spokeswoman for the school.

CROATIA VISIT: Rabbi Bernard M. Cohen, the soon-to-retire senior rabbi of Temple Solael in West Hills, will visit battle-scarred Croatia next week at the invitation of the new state’s ministry of exterior affairs.

Cohen, director of the LifePLUS Clergy Network in the San Fernando Valley, said the purpose of the visit is to learn of the religious and humanitarian needs of the Jewish community there.

On Thursday in Zagreb, he will be a participant in a service commemorating the 500th anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Many Spanish Jews settled in other lands bordering the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas.

ALLEN BENEFIT: Entertainer-author-pianist Steve Allen will perform with a jazz trio and talk with the audience in a fund-raising event at 8 p.m. Friday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City.

Tickets, priced at $20 to $50, can be obtained by calling the church, 12355 Moorpark St., at (818) 769-5911.

News and announcements for this column can be sent to Religion Desk, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311.