The Rabbi Albert Lewis Memorial Lecture with Father Greg Boyle - March 24, 2027
Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times
A Conversation with Father Greg Boyle
What would change if we truly believed that we belong to one another?
For more than three decades, Father Greg Boyle has transformed lives through Homeboy Industries, accompanying people leaving gangs and incarceration as they build new lives rooted in dignity, purpose, and hope. Along the way, he has developed a radical vision of kinship: a way of seeing one another that refuses to divide the world into the deserving and the undeserving, the worthy and the disposable, the “us” and the “them.”
The bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, Barking to the Choir, The Whole Language, and Cherished Belonging, Father Boyle brings stories, humor, wisdom, and an unwavering belief in the transformative power of compassion. His work challenges us to ask what justice looks like when it begins not with fixing or saving others, but with recognizing our fundamental belonging to one another.
Join us for an evening of conversation about compassion, courage, forgiveness, and the possibility of building a world in which everyone knows: You belong here.
Presented as part of the Rabbi Albert Lewis Lectureship, celebrating Temple Isaiah's 80th anniversary.
About Father Greg Boyle
Father Gregory Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest
gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. Born and raised in Los Angeles and Jesuit priest, from 1986 to 1992 Fr. Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights. Dolores Mission was the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city.
Fr. Boyle witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in the late 1980s and peaked at 1,000 gang-related killings in 1992. In the face of law enforcement tactics and criminal justice policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he and parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings.
In 1988 they started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to thousands of individuals who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.
Fr. Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. His second book, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship, was published in 2017. And his new and third book is The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness that recently debuted in Fall of 2021. He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, President Obama named Fr. Boyle a Champion of Change. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics. Homeboy Industries was the recipient of the 2020 Hilton Humanitarian Prize validating 32 years of Fr. Greg Boyle’s vision and work by the organization for over three decades.
About the Rabbi Albert Lewis Lectureship Series
The Rabbi Albert Lewis (z'l) Lectureship was established to honor Temple Isaiah's founding Rabbi, who led our congregation to become active in the Civil Rights Movement, in efforts to end the Vietnam War, and many other causes. Through the Rabbi Albert Lewis Memorial Lectureship, Temple Isaiah welcomes distinguished leaders whose lives and work advance justice, strengthen democracy, and inspire us to repair the world.
Please use the Rancho Park Golf Course and surrounding streets and read the posted street signs regarding parking. If you need a handicapped parking spot you will need to reserve ahead of time with Deborah Moses.
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2027
Event Type: Film, lecture and dinner
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Sanctuary and Social Hall