Rabbi A. James Rudin, the longtime interreligious affairs director of the American Jewish Committee, will be conferred the prestigious Papal Knight of St. Gregory for his work in support of Catholic-Jewish relations. Only eight other Jews have been knighted by the order, established in 1831, that recognizes personal service or unusual labor in support of the Catholic Church. Among them are three other rabbis: David Rosen and the late Mordecai Waxman and Leon Klenicki.

A Reform rabbi and also a writer who has contributed hundreds of columns over the years to Religion News Service, Rabbi Rudin has traveled widely to meet with popes, presidents, Protestant denominational leaders, and world-famous evangelists in his efforts to improve Jewish-Christian relations in the aftermath of WWII and the Holocaust.

This year, he published a memoir, The People in the Room: Rabbis, Nuns, Pastors, Popes and Presidents, detailing his 42 trips across the Atlantic on behalf of the AJC.