Rabbi Jack Moline, left, receives the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award from Interfaith Alliance chair Jacob Worenklein and president Paul Raushenbush Oct. 18 at the Immigrant Food Planet Word Museum. Janet Barnett
Jack Moline, Rabbi Emeritus of Agudas Achim Congregation, was honored with the Interfaith Alliance Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award Oct. 18 at the Immigrant Food Planet Word Museum in Washington, DC.
Named for the veteran broadcast journalist, the honor recognizes “individuals of faith and goodwill who stand up for true religious freedom and demonstrate the constructive force of religion in American public life.”
“Jack Moline, who in his role as CEO and president of Interfaith Alliance, showed us all how to treat Americans of all faiths and all backgrounds with what he calls ‘radical empathy,’” said Interfaith Alliance chair Jacob Worenklein. “That is about treating people with the love, kindness and openness that will allow everyone to achieve their potential, not to feel threatened and to be able to move forward with their lives in the most productive way possible.”
Moline served as president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, a First Amendment advocacy organization, from 2015-2022 and was a longtime member of the board of directors, including as chair from 2006-2008. In a career spanning four decades, Moline was known as a powerful voice fighting for religious freedom for all Americans, regardless of their faith or belief system.
“I am honored to receive this award that bears the name of the great Walter Cronkite, who recognized Interfaith Alliance as the essential organization for our democracy and for people of all beliefs,” Moline said. “Radical empathy is what our Constitution demands and what my faith teaches. It was cultivated in my heart by my service to this organization.”
Moline served for nearly 27 years as Rabbi of Agudas Achim Congregation before his retirement in 2014.
“All of us at Interfaith Alliance are privileged to honor Rabbi Moline for his innumerable contributions to faith and freedom in America, which certainly include but are in no way limited to his service to our organization for close to 20 years,” said Rev. Paul Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance. “Jack’s fierce dedication to our Constitution and to the rights of all people have inspired so many of us who are committed to building a country where all belong – and our nation is better for it.”
Cronkite was the honorary chair of Interfaith Alliance from 1997 until his death in 2009. He remained a committed supporter of the organization for many years, saying, “nothing less is at stake in the work of the Interfaith Alliance than the existence of democracy as we know it.”
Past recipients of the Cronkite Award include actor and activist George Clooney, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, the Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, and veteran broadcast journalist and Interfaith Alliance board member Peter Maer.
A native of Chicago, Moline is a graduate of Northwestern University and studied to become a rabbi at the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University) in Los Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Jerusalem and New York campuses. In addition to his role at Agudas Achim Congregation, he served as chair of the Interfaith Relations Committee of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and vice president of the Washington-Baltimore Rabbinical Assembly.
Founded in 1994, Interfaith Alliance brings together members from 75 faith traditions as well as those without a faith tradition to protect faith and freedom. For more information visit interfaithalliance.org.