The Academy for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Studies was established in 1977 as a not-for-profit organization under the leadership of the Reverend Dr. George Grose who at the time served as chaplain at Whittier College. Dr. Grose believed that once Islam came onto the scene, the three monotheistic religions continually interacted with each other. Therefore, to promote dialogues between two of the three partners without the third is historically inaccurate and morally wrong.
On this basis, the Academy, with the financial support of the Lilly Endowment and the Rockefeller Foundation, created “trialogues” to explore the commonalities as well as the differences among the three traditions and promote an environment of understanding and respect for their adherents. Over time, the work of the Academy expanded to a college course taught jointly by Dr. Grose, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi and Rabbi David Gordis at CSU Fullerton, a series of trialogues at various houses of worship, and a book that they co-wrote entitled The Abraham Connection.
In 1994, at the invitation of Dr. Scott Bartchy, Director of the Center for Religion at UCLA, the Academy moved to Los Angeles and, with the support of Dr. Charles Doak and Dr. Sana Khan, became a member organization of the University Religious Conference at UCLA. Dr. Grose continued to teach a course on Judaism, Christianity and Islam as interrelated religious traditions. The course, offered by the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, included lectures by Dr. Siddiqi and Rabbi Dr. Elliot Dorff on Islam and Judaism, respectively, and a trialogue at the end of each course on a given topic. When Dr. Grose retired in 2007, Dr. Reinhard Krauss took over the course, maintaining the involvement of Dr. Siddiqi and Rabbi Dr. Dorff, and continuing the tradition of the trialogue on a given subject involving scholars and representatives of the three religions at the end of each course. Since 2008, over 40 different scholars and recognized religious leaders have participated in the course.
In addition, the Academy has presented trialogues on specific subjects at Loyola Marymount University, the VA Medical Center in Westwood, and several houses of worship. Lectures have also been given at the Vatican, the World Council of Churches, major American universities, the University of Haran in Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, and in the cities of Cairo, Egypt, Jerusalem, Israel, and Istanbul, Turkey.