In 2008, community member Dr. Holli Levitsky created the Jewish Studies Program at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester. It's not just any Jewish Studies Program, as Dr. Levitsky, the Program's Director, explains, “It's uniqueness lies in the fact that it's a Jewish Studies Program at a Catholic Jesuit university whose values really seem to align with our Jewish values.”
In addition to offering Loyola Marymount students a minor in Jewish Studies, the program also provides a broad range of community programming, including everything from photo exhibits to special lectures to the upcoming Catholic-Jewish Women's Conference and annual Kristallnacht Commemoration.
Interfaith relations are an important component of the Jewish Studies Program at Loyola Marymount. Students enrolled in the Program are required to take a course that examines Jewish-Catholic relations. And each spring, the Jewish Studies Program sponsors an interfaith event. Dr. Levitsky explains the aim of these events, "We bring in
“I see an awful lot
of what I'll call
de-constructed Judaism...But I'm far from giving up on Judaism as practiced.”
speakers from different religious traditions, and invitetraditions, and invite them to discuss the similarities and differences in each religious tradition's approach to a specific subject or issue.”
Los Angeles is not only the second-largest Jewish city in the U.S., it is also the second-largest Catholic city in the U.S. As a consequence, Dr. Levitsky has a very specific goal for her program. “We want to connect the city, church, synagogue, and university.” An ideal example of achieving this goal of greater connectivity between city, church, synagogue and university is the Annual Catholic-Jewish Women's Conference, taking place on November 9th and 11th.