Alarcon to Be Among Award Winners Today

Clergy Network’s founder and director said he expects a tremendous turnout for today’s fifth annual Clergy Network Awards at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills.

“Each year the award banquets have been home runs,” said Rabbi Bernard M. Cohen, who created the interdenominational organization 10 years ago to provide fellowship and continuing education to clerics, as well as to build bridges between service-oriented religious organizations and the public.

Cohen expects at least 300 people to show up for the luncheon and awards ceremony, which will be hosted by Mayor Richard Riordan and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

The Clergy Network has selected Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the northeast Valley, as the winner of the 1996 Humanitarian Award. The organization will cite his work “as an unsung hero who has for the past decade been immersed in the activity of being a brother’s keeper as well as a brother’s brother,” according to a statement.

The Valley Interfaith Council will receive the 1996 Outstanding Service Award, to be accepted by the Rev. Allyn Axelton, a former council president. The council is involved in a range of community services that benefit senior citizens, homeless people, abused children and others.

Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a Jewish legal aid society, will receive the 1996 Caring Award. Bet Tzedek, which means “House of Justice” in Hebrew, provides free legal representation to nursing-home residents, low-income housing tenants, the disabled and Holocaust survivors, among others.

The 1996 Service to the Community Award goes to SOVA, an outreach organization that distributes food through senior centers, synagogues and storefronts throughout Los Angeles. Sova is a Hebrew word that means “to eat and be satisfied.”

For information about the luncheon, call (800) 707-2224.