JCRC 10 DAYS OF CONNECTION BIOS

Rabbi Steve Gutow

Rabbi Steve Gutow is a Scholar at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He brings a powerful depth and richness of expertise in organizing, advocacy and reaching across the divisions that have undermined the sense of shared obligation and fate in America and beyond. Part of Rabbi Gutow’s role as co-Director of the Wagner School’s Religious Leadership and Civic Engagement Project is to bring an important new program to the venerable Multi-Faith Dialogue of Miami’s MCCJ.

He served as President and CEO of the Jewish Council of Public Affairs (JCPA) from 2005 until 2015. Rabbi Gutow initiated a campaign to address poverty in the US that implemented several efforts that have led to an increased national commitment to reduce poverty, efforts such as the “food stamp challenge” and Fighting Poverty with Faith.

In 2015, Rabbi Gutow was appointed to the President’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and was accepted as a New York member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, he serves as chair of the board of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. Newsweek rated American rabbis and Gutow was repeatedly recognized as one of the nation’s most influential rabbis in 2009, 2010, and 2012. He has also been recognized as one of the nation’s top Jewish leaders by The Forward.

Rabbi Gutow is a Texas native and has served in many leadership roles in Texas including the state board of the Texas Civil Liberties Union, as well as many other roles in local and state organizations. He attended the University of Texas at Austin where he earned an undergraduate degree in History in 1970 and his Juris Doctorate in 1977. He received his rabbinical degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2003.

Pastor Theo Johnson

Theo Johnson, Th.M., is the Pastor of Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church in Miami, Florida. He is a native of Dallas, Texas, and has served in ministry since June of 1999. He passionately pursues preaching and teaching the uncompromised Word of G-d in a relevant and practical way, in order to develop and train disciples.

Pastor Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication from Prairie View A&M University and a Master of Theology in Pastoral Leadership from Dallas Theological Seminary. His interests include reading and traveling and he is married to his high-school sweetheart, Alicia Johnson. Together they have four children, Tamieyah, Taimera, Tiara and Justus.

Rabbi Frederick L. Klein

Rabbi Frederick ‘Fred’ Klein, a board certified chaplain, is Director of Mishkan Miami: The Jewish Connection for Spiritual Support, a program of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation and serves as Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami. In this capacity, he overseas Jewish pastoral care support for Miami’s Jewish Community, trains volunteers in friendly visiting and bikkur cholim, consults with area synagogues in creating caring community and organizes conferences on spirituality, illness and aging. As Director of the interdenominational Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, he provides local spiritual leadership with a voice in communal affairs. Rabbi Klein also is engaged in teaching Torah to Jews of all backgrounds. He serves as the in-house rabbi for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

Rabbi Klein is a Miami native and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies. While in rabbinical school at Yeshiva University, he received an MA in Bible at Revel, and later earned an MPhil in Jewish history from Columbia University. During rabbinical school, Rabbi Klein was awarded the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and has received numerous awards for his work with aging populations and community work.

Dr. Abdul Hamid Samra

Dr. Abdul Hamid Samra is the Imam and Director of Religious Services at Islamic Center of Greater Miami (ICGM) in Miami Gardens, Florida. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Miami.

In July of 2012, Dr. Samra returned to join Muslim Communities Association of South Florida (MCA) as a principal resident scholar, a position he previously held between 2000 and 2006.

Dr. Samra received his Islamic education and memorized the Glorious Quran at the age of 16 in Damascus, Syria. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University in 1991 and has taught at a number of national and international universities.

Dr. Samra enjoys working with people. He strongly believes that we should not only be religiously knowledgeable but also pursue professional education in business, science and technology. He regularly participates in multi-faith forums, not just to raise awareness about Islam to other faiths, but also to build bridges among the clergies and social organizations in the community.

Dr. Samra is married and a father of four.

Reverend Priscilla Felisky Whitehead

The Reverend Priscilla Felisky Whitehead is a United Church of Christ minister who came to Miami from the Boston area in 1989 to serve on the pastoral staff of The Church by the Sea (UCC) in Bal Harbour, which named her Associate Minister Emerita following her retirement well over two decades later.

She earned her Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University, where she was named a Hopkins scholar for academic achievement and received the Billings prize for preaching. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the conservatory at Wheaton College in Illinois, and she was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree (honoris causa) by Johnson & Wales University in recognition of her commitment to be a bridge-builder in greater Miami as well as the wider world.

Engaging with others in light of community needs led to her involvement in organizations such as Americans for Immigrant Justice, Switchboard of Miami, the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, PACT (People Acting for Community Together), the Russian Farm Community Project and Soli Deo Gloria. She has also chaired the former Greater Miami Religious Leaders Coalition, as well as the interfaith clergy dialogue of MCCJ (on which board she serves currently as Vice President for Public Policy).