Rabbi Sarah Bassin serves as the Rabbi in Residence for HIAS where she helps connect clergy and communities to the work of aiding and advocating for refugees and asylum seekers. Prior to this role, she was the associate rabbi at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills where she drove congregation-based justice work.
She began her rabbinate as the founding executive director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change where she built minority-based coalitions. Under her leadership, NewGround was named one of the 50 most innovative Jewish organizations in the United States by Slingshot Guide and was recognized by Governor Jerry Brown of California as the state’s faith-based organization of the year in 2013.
Rabbi Bassin has built an expertise in interfaith civilian diplomacy, traveling with elite delegations of faith and political leaders to England, France, Germany, Qatar, Azerbaijan, and Iran. For her work, she was named a fellow of Security and Religious Freedom at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. NPR’s On Being featured Rabbi Bassin for her organizational innovation and interfaith work.
Rev. Julio Hernandez, Executive Director of CAN, is a dedicated Baptist pastor with a deep passion for justice and a firm belief in the inherent dignity of all people as bearers of God’s image. The Congregation Action Network (CAN) is a grassroots coalition of faith communities committed to defending the rights and dignity of immigrants and refugees. Through collective action, we work to ensure access to housing, healthcare, education, food, and legal protections.
Originally from Utah, Diana Brown lives and works in Washington DC as Associate Director for a media non-profit called Faith Matters, where she co-hosts The Soloists podcast–which addresses the rise of singleness and changing family patterns from a pastoral, spiritual angle. She also directs a depolarization initiative that seeks to support bipartisan bridge-building among Latter-day Saints. Before joining Faith Matters, she worked at Georgetown University in their multi-faith Campus Ministry for many years.