Rabbi Charles Arian takes the social justice values he learned growing up in the Reform movement and applies them at his Conservative synagogue and day-to-day life.

The Montgomery Village resident is in his 15th year as rabbi at Kehilat Shalom in Gaithersburg.

Arian, 66, is an advocate for immigrant rights who has long fostered interfaith relationships in the area while leading his congregation.

He was raised Reform in Brooklyn, New York, then later New Jersey, by parents who were involved in their synagogue, but not as religiously observant in the home.

“Friday night meant wine, candles and challah, usually temple [services], but dinner could’ve been pork chops,” he recalled.

Arian was originally ordained as a Reform rabbi, then served as a rabbi at American University Hillel, and later a Connecticut synagogue.

Arian didn’t initially see himself becoming a rabbi. Studying foreign service at Georgetown University, Arian wanted to pursue journalism or law. He held various editorial positions on The Hoya, Georgetown’s school newspaper, and it wasn’t until his senior year that he applied to rabbinical school.

Notably, one of his most impactful mentors was a Jesuit priest. Rev. James Walsh, a fixture in the Georgetown community for decades, taught scripture in the theology department.

“He modeled a way of being that was deeply religious and deeply faithful, but very much deeply involved in the world,” Arian said of Walsh. “A lot of what I learned growing up Reform was the importance of social justice, but he helped me see how that was really anchored in the Hebrew scriptures, and he lived his life that way.”

Though the reverend has since died, Arian still mentions concepts he’s learned from Walsh in his sermons and writings at Kehilat Shalom.

Interfaith work and cross-cultural dialogue has long been important to Arian, who has a background in Jewish and Christian studies and served as the Jewish staff scholar at what is now the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies in Baltimore from 2001 to 2005.

He arranged a Muslim-Jewish dialogue program between Kehilat Shalom and a Germantown mosque, speaking to the value of getting to know people on a genuine level and hearing their stories.

As the presenter at the mosque spoke about immigrants or refugees who came to America with very little and built small businesses, Arian and members of Kehilat Shalom realized, “This is our grandparents’ story.”

“This is what I think is lacking in American society today: that ability to listen to each other and to see ourselves in others,” Arian said.

For this reason, the rabbi has made it a priority to help immigrants. To Arian, immigrants are more than headlines; they’re his neighbors.

“Montgomery Village is mostly Latino and Black, and Latino kids in particular I talk to, they’re scared,” he said.

He attended “a number of” demonstrations on behalf of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in early 2025.

Organizers of these protests often asked for clergy members to participate, which prompted Arian to get more involved. He drives and accompanies local immigrants to their legal appointments, using his clinical pastoral education and conversational Spanish to put them at ease.

“When I accompany people to immigration court or to their check-ins with ICE and I hear their stories, it’s my grandparents’ story,” Arian said. “People are coming here to escape violence, to escape persecution and build a better life for themselves. And it distresses me to no end that our country is turning their back on these American ideals.”

Some of Arian’s congregants have registered to do accompaniments as a result of his actions.

He has also submitted testimony to the Montgomery County Council on immigration support bills this year and attended a council hearing.

Arian connects his advocacy to the Jewish community as well. He submitted testimony to the Maryland state legislature in favor of immigration protection legislation on behalf of Jews United for Justice.

In February, he spoke at a Rabbinical Assembly webinar titled “Welcoming the Stranger: Preparing for Refugee Shabbats” in the wake of the federal crackdown on immigration.

Arian regularly channels this value of welcoming the stranger through his sermons at Kehilat Shalom, where the community is familiar with his justice efforts and beliefs.

“One of the advantages of longevity is that people very much know who I am,” Arian said. “They’re not going to come on Shabbat and be surprised that I’m speaking about some social justice issue.”

He ensures that his Divrei Torah or drasha connects to the weekly parsha.

“It’s not simply a topical thing,” he said. “People know what they’re getting at this point.”

When community members feel powerless seeing the latest injustices on the news, Arian reminds them, “You can always do something.”

“If I spend a day to accompany one immigrant, that’s one of 20 million people,” he said. “Nothing that I can do is likely to prevent them from ultimately getting deported. I’ve gone to court with people and they have lost their cases. I’ve gone to ICE check-ins and people were detained.”

Arian noted that he’s not a lawyer or legislator.

“But even so, I like to believe that I’ve contributed something to them, even if it’s only notifying their family that they were detained, so they don’t get lost in the system,” he said. “As a colleague said to me, ‘Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.’”

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com