from Altadena Congregations Together Serving (ACTS)
Tarek Shawky, a local attorney and Muslim layman, will be the featured speaker at a Community Thanksgiving Service hosted by Pasadena Jewish Temple on Sunday, November 24, at 7 PM. People from various faith groups in the Pasadena/Altadena area will come together around their common religious theme of thanking God for everyday blessings, such as life, health, food, shelter and love.
This event is sponsored by ACTS (Altadena Congregations Together Serving), a fellowship of clergy and other leaders from the various religious groups in Altadena. They have been meeting together monthly for the past 25 years to discuss the needs of people in the community and how they might work together to help meet them. Efforts have focused on maintaining a cooperative food pantry and supporting the area bad weather shelter for homeless people. Active participants in the group are from Congregational, Baptist, Episcopal, Lutheran and Christian Science churches, the Baha'i faith, and Pasadena Jewish Temple, as well as the local Muslim community.
Tarek Shawky graduated from UCLA and Southwestern Law School. He began his legal career by spending six years with the Public Defenders Office in Riverside and Los Angeles Counties. In 2012 he set up his own criminal defense practice in Pasadena and has been engaged in some difficult cases involving personal civil rights. His participation in local grassroots activism led to his appointment to Pasadena's Northwest Commission, of which he is currently Vice-Chair. Tarek serves on the Board of Trustees of New Horizon School, a highly-rated Pasadena private school providing preschool through eighth grade education in a “balanced Islamic environment.” He lives in the community with his wife Edina Lecovic, who is the Director of Policy and Programming for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and their two-year-old son.
Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center has been the hub of the Jewish community locally for over ninety years. Its current leader, Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater, has become a leader in the Los Angeles area in promoting creative interaction between Christians, Muslims and Jews.
