The Catholic/Jewish Education Exchange Program (C/JEEP) is a unique interfaith educational program aimed to dispel misconceptions and stereotypes among young people. The program, started five years ago in the Los Angeles area, is sponsored by movie director Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation. The program has since expanded to San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and now Philadelphia.

In September 1998, C/JEEP was introduced in the Philadelphia area at Conwell-Egan Catholic High School in Fairless Hills and Akiba Hebrew Academy in Merion. The program is under the direction of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Jewish Committee. The clergymen selected to initiate the program were Rabbi Howard Cove, spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Emet in Yardley, Pa. and Reverend Paul Dougherty, director of Spiritual Formation, College Division, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, in Overbrook. Father Dougherty teaches about Catholicism at Akiba Hebrew Academy and Rabbi Cove teaches about Judaism at Conwell-Egan.

C/JEEP is designed to implement the spirit and intention of "Nostra Aetate," the 1965 landmark document of the Second Vatican Council which set the stage for improving Catholic/Jewish relations and fostering mutual respect.

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Editor's Note: If you would like to do a feature story on this program, please contact Marie Kelly.

Contact
Marie Kelly
Associate Director
215-587-3747