wfn.org | Local priest and rabbi to receive 1999 Preus Leadership Award

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

Working together to promote Jewish Christian understanding

MINNESOTA, United States of America/GENEVA, 25 August 1999 (lwi) - Two
Minneapolis religious leaders, Roman Catholic Father Michael O'Connell
of the Basilica of Saint Mary and Rabbi Joseph Edelheit of Temple
Israel, will receive the 1999 David W. Preus Leadership Award.

According to a press release from Luther Seminary, the presentation will
take place on 23 September 1999 at Luther Seminary in St. Paul,
Minnesota, USA.

The David W. Preus Leadership Council gives the award each year to
individuals "who have demonstrated exemplary servant leadership in
community and religious life." Sister Coleman O'Connell, who chairs the
council, said, "Edelheit and O'Connell were selected based on their
outstanding contribution to Jewish-Christian relations".

O'Connell and Edelheit have a long history of working together to
promote Jewish-Christian understanding, using inter-faith forums and
trips to Israel and the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Currently, the 1999 Preus Leadership Award winners are leading their
congregations in raising USD 75,000 for the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
This effort marks the first time a Jewish and Christian congregation
have worked as partners to raise funds for the museum. "Together they
are funding and creating a memorial for a town in Eastern Europe -Tabor
in the Czech Republic-- that lost every single Jew during the
Holocaust," said Coleman O'Connell. Next year, the priest and rabbi will
host congregation members on a tour of concentration camps in Europe.

The Leadership Award was established in 1988 to recognize the
contributions to civic and religious life made by the Rev. David W.
Preus, bishop emeritus of the former American Lutheran Church. The Preus
Council is made up of professionals from religious, civic and
educational fields and is supported by Luther Seminary.

Michael O'Connell's ministry experience spans more than 30 years.
Edelheit, who has published many books and essays on Jewish-Christian
dialogue, conversion and interfaith marriage, Holocaust theology and
AIDS has served as senior rabbi at Temple Israel since 1992. Both men
are active in many community groups.

Luther Seminary is one of eight seminaries of the the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which is one of the 128 member
churches of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).

(The LWF is a global communion of 128 member churches in 70 countries
representing 58 million of the world's 61.5 million Lutherans. Its
highest decision making body is the Assembly, held every six or seven
years. Between Assemblies, the LWF is governed by a 49-member Council
which meets annually, and its Executive Committee. The LWF secretariat
is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information is the information service of the Lutheran
World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted, material presented
does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (lwi), the
material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]

*       *       *
Lutheran World Information
Assistant Editor, English: Pauline Mumia
E-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
http://www.lutheranworld.org/