FBI honors local rabbi for community leadership
An Oklahoma City rabbi was recently honored by the FBI for her role as a bridge to bring diverse groups together in her community.
Rabbi Vered Harris, spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Israel, received the FBI’s Director’s Community Leadership Award at a ceremony on April 20 at the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Harris was chosen by the FBI’s Oklahoma Division because she has worked with educators, community and faith leaders and law enforcement professionals to advance cooperation between law enforcement and ethnic and minority groups in Oklahoma.
Harris said she found out that she had been selected for the award in January during an annual event hosted by her temple on the Sunday before the Martin Luther King holiday.
“I was very surprised because I think that day in and day out, I’m just trying to do my job,” she said.
“I never really know if it’s good enough or if it’s helping people so to be recognized for the way that people perceive my work is an honor. If my work is perceived as helpful in any way, that’s the most I can ask for in life.”
The rabbi was one of 57 individuals and organizations honored during the recent ceremony.
Nominated in 2017 by the each of the FBI’s 56 field offices and the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division, the recipients were formally recognized by FBI Director Christopher Wray for their extraordinary service to their communities.
Since 1990, the annual awards have been the principal means for the FBI to publicly acknowledge the achievements of those working to make a difference in their communities through the promotion of education and the prevention of crime and violence.
In his remarks to the group, Wray thanked the
honorees for their efforts to make the country safer. He said there were similarities between community leaders and the FBI’s own workforce — both are dedicated to public service and “doing the right thing in the right way.”
“We need the support, the understanding, and the trust of our community partners and the public. You’re out in your neighborhoods and your communities every day building that support and that trust and that understanding,”
Wray said.
The award recipients were honored for making a variety of meaningful contributions to their communities, including improving relationships between law enforcement and those they serve, providing housing to human trafficking survivors, combating the opioid crisis and encouraging young people to make positive choices.
Harris became spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Israel in Oklahoma City in 2012.
Among other projects and programs designed to help diverse groups connect in positive ways, she coordinated a 2016 interfaith trip to Israel in which 22 Jews, Christians and Muslims from Oklahoma traveled to the Holy Land together.
Harris said in her work, she likes to see the Jewish community intersect with other groups, including the interfaith community, gay rights advocacy organizations and minority advocacy groups.