Nationally-known scholar Rabbi Michael Cook will speak Weds., Dec. 7, at 6:30 pm at Temple Beth-El at a program for teens and adults. His talk, "Close Encounters of the Religious Kind," will explore and offer strategies on how to respond not only to those Christians who strive to convince Jews to embrace Jesus as their personal savior but also to Christian friends who ask questions merely out of good-natured curiosity.

The program is open to the entire Birmingham community and is for anyone who wants to learn to engage respectfully in conversations about Christianity and Judaism and religious diversity.

Topics such as "Rapture," "Armageddon," "AntiChrist," "666" will be discussed along with why Jews are often targeted for conversion by religious groups. Rabbi Cook (pictured here) will share responses which can be respectfully offered and even strengthen relationships with such Christians.

Rabbi Cook is the Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati campus, and the only rabbi in America with a Full-Professorial Chair in New Testament. His latest book, Modern Jews Engage the New Testament, has become widely acclaimed by both Jewish and Christian theologians and scholars.

Rabbi Cook is a dynamic, enlightening and humorous lecturer and facilitator. He believes in the importance of interfaith discussion and the need for modern Jews to be knowledgeable about Christianity so as to enhance their sense of well-being as Jews living in a predominantly Christian environment. He travels widely, addressing Jewish and Christian audiences.

Dinner is available at Temple Beth-El for $8 per person, $20 per family. To attend, please RSVP by Tues., Dec. 6 to brothman@templebeth-el.net or call 933-2740. This program is being underwritten by The Jewish Community Relations Coalition of The Birmingham Jewish Federation, the Temple Beth-El Foundation, the Rabbi Michelle Goldsmith Discretionary Fund and the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life.

Thanks to an Israeli organization supported by a Birmingham Jewish Foundation fund, open heart surgery was performed for the first time in Mwanza,Tanzania on a very young child.

Save A Child's Heart (SACH) worked in collaboration with a hospital in Mwanza to perform the surgery on four-year-old Laurencia Simon, the daughter of two farmers, who lives in a mud hut without electricity or running water. Laurencia was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, but doctors from Tanzania were unable to perform open heart surgery on a child so young.

Save A Child's Heart provides urgently needed pediatric heart surgery and follow-up care for indigent children from developing countries. Based in Israel, its mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from countries where the heart surgery they need is unobtainable.

According to Dr. Lior Sasson, Chief Surgeon of SACH and head of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at Wolfson Medical Center, "It required incredible team work to create an operating room that could meet our needs. But we did it. We created an environment where we could carefully and conscientiously perform open heart surgery and we saved the life of little Laurencia. What can I say -- I feel incredibly proud."

During SACH's time in Mwanza about 200 sick Tanzanian children were examined. Dr. Akiva Tamir, SACH's chief cardiologist said, "We all are committed to doing whatever it takes to help them and save their lives."

SACH treats over 200 children a year from all across the globe and many of them are brought to Israel to Wolfson Medical Center. Included in this number are children from Arab countries and the Palestinian areas.

The Birmingham Jewish Foundation learned about SACH from Jewish community members Andy and Bob Bernstein who made a recommendation from the Donor Advised Fund they established in The Foundation. The Bernsteins learned about SACH from a relative and their daughter, Karyn, who now lives in Israel and who visited SACH. The Bernsteins were very impressed with SACH and recommended a grant from their Donor Advised Fund.

To learn more about The Birmingham Jewish Foundation or for information on how you can open a Donor Advised Fund contact Executive Director Sally Friedman at 205-803-1519 or sallyf@bjf.org.

Photo is of Dr. Lior Sasson and his team at work. (Sheila Shalhevet)

The entire community is invited to the Second Annual Birmingham Jewish Film Festival Dec. 3-4. The festival is an opportunity to see films from around the world with Jewish themes. Films will be shown at the Levite Jewish Community Center and The Edge 12 Theatre.

There will be films from Argentina, Israel, the US, Germany and France. On opening night at The Edge 12 Theatre, the festival will feature "Barney's Version," with Paul Giamatti, Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver, Rosamund Pike, and Dustin Hoffman.

The following sponsors are helping to underwrite this community event: The Epsman Center for Creative Expression, Ann and Garth Potts, Phyllis and Norman Berk, Birmingham Hadassah, The Jewish Community Relations Coalition of The Birmingham Jewish Federation, and The Birmingham Jewish Foundation.