Woodland Hills Rabbi Wins Cronkite Award

Steven B. Jacobs, a Woodland Hills rabbi who has championed social justice issues and traveled to Kosovo on a 1999 peace mission with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, will receive the third annual Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award, the New York-based Interfaith Alliance Foundation announced this week.

Jacobs, a rabbi at Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills, has been outspoken nationally and locally on labor and race issues. He was the chief author of a document endorsed earlier this year by various religious leaders seeking to promote standards of pay and treatment for much of Los Angeles’ low-income work force.

“Rabbi Jacobs in the last several years has really embodied the spirit of this award,” said Amber Khan, a spokeswoman for the foundation. “He addresses issues with civility and integrity in a manner that respects the points of view he may disagree with.”

Jacobs, 61, mobilized Jewish and African American voters in Florida during the height of last fall’s presidential election confusion, saying the voting system was unjust to minorities.

“It wasn’t about Bush or Gore,” he said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “It was about people who really believe in America being taken out of the system.”

Jacobs also has been at the forefront of ongoing dialogue between the city’s Muslim and Jewish communities, and despite the current turmoil in the Middle East, Jacobs said there is hope for people of both faiths to come together.

“We’re both sons of Abraham,” he said. “The Arab and Jewish communities have so much in common.”

Dr. Nazir Khaja, chairman of the board of the Islamic Information Center in Pasadena, met Jacobs during the 1999 trip to Kosovo. The two have been involved in the year-old Muslim/Jewish Dialogue that is taking place in Southern California.

“We may disagree with each other, but in the end we always come out caring and respecting each other more,” Khaja said. “That’s his charm.”

The Interfaith Alliance Foundation, at a ceremony May 3 in New York, will also honor U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) for his work to “defend the institutional separation of religion and government on Capitol Hill,” a statement said.

A previous recipient of the award was NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw, for his book “The Greatest Generation,” which documents the generation of Americans who lived through World War II.

Khan said Walter Cronkite is the award’s namesake and was the first winner because he staunchly opposed “right-wing religious rhetoric” in government.