Jewish and Catholics Attend Reception for Bishop Held in Rego Park Synagogue

Some 700 Jewish and Catholic residents of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens met at the Rego Park Jewish Center today for an interfaith reception in honor of the new Bishop of Brooklyn, the Most Rev. Francis J. Mugavero. The reception, sponsored by the Catholic-Jewish Relations Committee of the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, was the first occasion in this city that a formal welcome was extended here to a Catholic Bishop in a synagogue. Rabbi Josiah Derby of the Rego Park Jewish Center and Msgr. Vincent O. Genova, pastor of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Brooklyn, are co-chairmen of the committee which was formed in 1966. It has engaged in several programs to foster cooperation between the Jewish and Catholic communities of New York’s two largest boroughs.