Rabbi Steve GutowPROVIDENCE – This year’s annual poverty conference, sponsored by the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty (of which the Alliance Community Relations Council is a founding member), will feature nationally-recognized faith-based leaders, including Rabbi Steve Gutow, president and chief executive officer of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA); Imam Mohamed Hagagid Ali, president of the Islamic Society of North America; and Reverend Peg Chemberlin, immediate past president of the National Council of Churches.

Torat Yisrael President Susan Smoller, Rabbi Amy Levin and Marc Davis, chair of Torat Yisrael's Capital Campaign, carry Torahs.

CRANSTON – Sunday, April 22 – a gray and rainy day – was the “end of an era,” said Trude Antin.  A member of Torat Yisrael for half a century, Cranston resident Antin was among the group of nearly 100 congregants who gathered to bid farewell to the building as they prepared to move to their East Greenwich locale. “It’s sad,” said Antin, “but it’s also a new beginning.”

Vincent MorOn Monday, April 23, the Alliance’s board of directors unanimously approved funding recommendations that total $2,597,483 for fiscal year 2013 (July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013). Of that amount, $178,117 is for local commitments and dues to national organizations.

Rabbi Elie KaunferPROVIDENCE – Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, co-founder, Rosh Yeshiva  and executive director of Mechon Hadar – and named one of America’s top 50 rabbis by Newsweek in 2009 – will be the guest speaker at the Alliance’s inaugural annual meeting.

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israelis went to sleep Monday night expecting early elections in September for the 19th Knesset. They woke up to the news that elections would take place as planned in October 2013.

PROVIDENCE – According to Marty Cooper, Alliance Community Relations Council director, the Alliance and the Providence Hebrew Day School (PHDS) benefited from a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to add security measures at both locales.

The entire group gathers after a hike through the desert.The Feb. 3 issue of The Jewish Voice & Herald included a story (“Marrying music with mitzvot”) that described plans for Barrington youth – from Temple Habonim and Barrington Congregational Church UCC (United Church of Christ), colloquially known in Barrington as “the white church” – to visit Arizona on an interfaith youth service/study trip.